Hi all,

I have a two part question. I've been working as an engineer for 5 years now. I'm and EE by degree.
My first job right out of school was to completely design a building automation system for a small manufacturing company.
I started as an intern for this consulting firm, got put on this project and then that company went on to hire me and my co-intern
as their lead engineers. because we were so fresh out of school and there was no one above us to learn from at our company we both left after only a year.
(The gig sounds a lot better than it actually was - pay and resources were trash)

That said, I ended up working as an application engineer and have been doing that for the past 4 years.
I really want to get back into hardware design and manufacturing, Ultimately, I would love to work in quantum computing design. I recognize I'm many steps away from that leap, but i'm reaching out to other EE/RF design engineers to see what certifications/resources I should consider to get back into those fields? I'm now 4 years removed from what I would consider legitimate electronic design work so although I have a year experience (2 with my internship) it feels irrelevant now.

The second question is and this is likely connected with the first, what would be the most important skills to freshen up on to make myself more marketble to these companies?

I sincerely appreciate your help

 

make myself more marketble to these companies?

In my case I joined IEEE and added subcategories like RF. Then read the papers and monthly magazines.
I get "Microwave & RF" magazine. Free and not part of IEEE. That leads to getting advertisements but they can be informative. There are application notes from all major vendors. Read them!
There are websights that teach.
Mentor
Microwave Journal
A degree is just the beginning of learning.

 

Thank you, mentor looks like an awesome resource. I'm already a member of IEEE so it should be easy to add that subcategory. Thanks!

 

In my case I joined IEEE and added subcategories like RF. Then read the papers and monthly magazines.
I get "Microwave & RF" magazine. Free and not part of IEEE. That leads to getting advertisements but they can be informative. There are application notes from all major vendors. Read them!
There are websights that teach.
Mentor
Microwave Journal
A degree is just the beginning of learning.

A follow up question to you, if you work in RF/Electronic design, what software/tools do you use regularly that you would say are essential to know?
thanks again

 

I do not work in RF at this time. I did work in broadcast radio transmitters for four years. I keep up with RF because I work on power supplies that make RF noise. I need to not make RF noise. lol.
There are tools for building antennas.
Tools for RCL frequency. rcl graph I made this years ago. If you have a C it can be represented by a line high on the left and low in the right side. A L is a line low on the left and high on the right. A LC is those two lines and resonant frequency is where the two lines cross. This graph is good for making filters and any circuit where Rs, Cs and Ls are involved.

 

This is really cool. Thanks for sharing

 

Yes. Yes.

Perhaps the most common certifications that can be obtained in the RF field in the USA are from Besser Associates.

There's a whole list, from beginners to advanced. Most of them are on site, in person.

There's an online certification that I did.