20 years working in the electronics industry in various roles, from starting out as a production op, running a test department, customer returns, repair fault finding & rework, quality engineering, manufacturing engineering, setup and running SMT machines, prototyping, design, component spec verification for some of the worlds biggest automotive manufacturers, the list goes on and i'm not even counting my mechanical engineering experiences.

I'm looking for work right now, i'm having no problem getting interviews, but the interviews are screwing me up..... What has happened to the electronics industry?

Why am either being interviewed by:

Non-techs who ask me stupid questions like "what are your advantages over other candidates this role?" when anything I say there is a lie because I can't possibly know anything about the other candidates and of course how can my list of positive qualities really be positive when past colleagues have typically seen them as a threat to their own career progression and have then found every way possible to screw me over.
Oh and how about "what type of fruit would you be?" A ****ing kiwi fruit because i'm green and hairy with a bitter after taste.

OR

Some graduate type manager who presents you with a circuit diagram with a 50ohm, a 100ohm resistor and a 12v supply, he asks for the voltages across them and the current through each, you do it from experience and you say "ok so the total for those two resistors is 150ohms, 50 is one third of the total, therefore the voltage across the 100ohm is two 3rds, which is 8 volts and the current through each is 80mA".

But this isn't good enough, he wants me to write out formulas and do it the hardest way possible, i've never needed to sit down and do that during my entire career and if I needed to work something out I'd do it properly with a calculator to mitigate human error......... What the hell does this have to do with my knowledge of electronic components, manufacturers and suppliers?



I'm not a salesman, I don't do fiction, i'm an engineer, I deal in cold hard fact AND I'm not some kid that just left uni, i've been doing this 20 years.

I'm seriously considering a career change because it seems everyone either wants someone whose skills don't match their talent for BS, or they want someone who is obsessed with theoretical electronics and has no practical experience.
I've worked with design engineers who have never picked up a soldering iron, they were great at designing stuff that didn't work in real life, dropping it on someone else's plate and then washing their hands of it. "Oh ok that PCB is 3mm thick, did you check the lead length on your connectors? no? so how does anyone actually solder them?"

I love engineering, but it's getting to a point where i'm nearly 40 years old and I need to think about a long term career that provides financial stability.

 

Trust me, you really don't want to work at a company that would interview like that. Why don't you just toss their bullsh** questions back at them? When some idiot asks, "What kind of fruit would you be?", respond by asking them, "Why would you ask such a stupid question like that? What could that possibly tell you about a job candidate?" If they toss you out for that, walk out with a smile, realizing that you dodged a bullet with that company.

 

Trust me, you really don't want to work at a company that would interview like that. Why don't you just toss their bullsh** questions back at them? When some idiot asks, "What kind of fruit would you be?", respond by asking them, "Why would you ask such a stupid question like that? What could that possibly tell you about a job candidate?" If they toss you out for that, walk out with a smile, realizing that you dodged a bullet with that company.

Actually that has always been my plan if/when I get into an interview like that one, but on this occasion I was being interviewed for the lead technical role in a brand new UK service centre for a US company selling devices into the UK and Europe. So I had to accept that I was being interviewed by a BS monkey, otherwise known as a sales manager. I really wanted to up and walk out, but I know the company over in the US is run from the ground up by engineering professionals and it could have been a great opportunity if I could get a foot in the door.

 

You can thank modern academics for this kindergarten environment.

Modern devolution. Educated ignorance. America's most expensive and lethal parasites.

 

I don't know your industry, but in many of the industries I do have experience in, it helps tremendously to know people. An insider can help you bypass the "official" hiring process run by Human Resources. The only people you really want to talk to in an interview are your prospective supervisors and their teams.

Call people that used to be your suppliers. Call your former customers. Find people you used to work with that may have moved on to other companies. See if they know who in the industry might be looking for your skills.

Consider a headhunter. I hate to say that, because most are useless, but some specialize in a certain industry and can be very knowledgeable about what's going on.

Keep a positive attitude about the process you're in. There are hoops to jump through and that includes talking to idiots before you can get to the real interview. Some of these challenges reflect your ability to deal with BS on the job – there's never a shortage of that – and are merely a screening process to rule out the losers. Just play along until you know what the job is really about. Don't make a decision based on interaction with people you'll never see again once you're on the job.

 

A good candidate company will have trained interviewers who will not waste your time, or theirs, asking nonsensical questions. They will also have pres-screened you via a phone interview to avoid wasting a plant interview on clearly unqualified candidates.

If the question seems strange, they may be trying to get a clues regarding your problem solving skills. The company I worked for always asked a behavioral question.

Most companies I interviewed at had a team of interviewers with each covering a specific topic in which they had expertise; interviews lasted most of the day. If there's only one interviewer, they should be competent in all topics and shouldn't ask irrelevant questions.

If you really want a job with a particular company, you have to put up with their interviewing process.

 

20 years working in the electronics industry in various roles, from starting out as a production op, running a test department, customer returns, repair fault finding & rework, quality engineering, manufacturing engineering, setup and running SMT machines, prototyping, design, component spec verification for some of the worlds biggest automotive manufacturers, the list goes on and i'm not even counting my mechanical engineering experiences.

I'm looking for work right now, i'm having no problem getting interviews, but the interviews are screwing me up..... What has happened to the electronics industry?

Why am either being interviewed by:

Non-techs who ask me stupid questions like "what are your advantages over other candidates this role?" when anything I say there is a lie because I can't possibly know anything about the other candidates and of course how can my list of positive qualities really be positive when past colleagues have typically seen them as a threat to their own career progression and have then found every way possible to screw me over.
Oh and how about "what type of fruit would you be?" A ****ing kiwi fruit because i'm green and hairy with a bitter after taste.

OR

Some graduate type manager who presents you with a circuit diagram with a 50ohm, a 100ohm resistor and a 12v supply, he asks for the voltages across them and the current through each, you do it from experience and you say "ok so the total for those two resistors is 150ohms, 50 is one third of the total, therefore the voltage across the 100ohm is two 3rds, which is 8 volts and the current through each is 80mA".

But this isn't good enough, he wants me to write out formulas and do it the hardest way possible, i've never needed to sit down and do that during my entire career and if I needed to work something out I'd do it properly with a calculator to mitigate human error......... What the hell does this have to do with my knowledge of electronic components, manufacturers and suppliers?



I'm not a salesman, I don't do fiction, i'm an engineer, I deal in cold hard fact AND I'm not some kid that just left uni, i've been doing this 20 years.

I'm seriously considering a career change because it seems everyone either wants someone whose skills don't match their talent for BS, or they want someone who is obsessed with theoretical electronics and has no practical experience.
I've worked with design engineers who have never picked up a soldering iron, they were great at designing stuff that didn't work in real life, dropping it on someone else's plate and then washing their hands of it. "Oh ok that PCB is 3mm thick, did you check the lead length on your connectors? no? so how does anyone actually solder them?"

I love engineering, but it's getting to a point where i'm nearly 40 years old and I need to think about a long term career that provides financial stability.

Start your own business.

 

If you are at a point that you are relying on strangers on the Internet to convince you not to change careers, then that is a good indicator that it is probably time to change careers.

 

Part of the interview process may be to see how well you deal with inane workers that ask inane questions.

 

If you are at a point that you are relying on strangers on the Internet to convince you not to change careers, then that is a good indicator that it is probably time to change careers.

Actually I don't see it as asking strangers, there is almost nobody else in my life who could possibly comprehend what I do, how I think, or even this situation that I find myself in, not even my closest friends.

 

what are your advantages over other candidates this role?

How about: How am I supposed to know? You have the data. Perhaps, you would like to re-phrase your question.

 

How about: How am I supposed to know? You have the data. Perhaps, you would like to re-phrase your question.

Only if you've already decided that you don't really want to work there or, possibly, determined that they are receptive to putting up with a smart-ass (and if you have already impressed them otherwise and the interaction to that point has been relaxed and playful, then this might well be the case).

Otherwise, interpret the question the way it was almost certainly intended: What strengths do you believe that you bring to the table that few other candidates would be likely to?

 

If you are at a point that you are relying on strangers on the Internet to convince you not to change careers, then that is a good indicator that it is probably time to change careers.

Actually I don't see it as asking strangers, there is almost nobody else in my life who could possibly comprehend what I do, how I think, or even this situation that I find myself in, not even my closest friends.

What if an interviewer asks you, "We need someone who is a 'problem solver.' How do you approach solving a problem?"

What would your response be? (Assume you are not applying for a very basic, entry-level position.)

John

 

The "problem solving" methodology doesn't have to include direct intimate knowledge. There were many times I was troubleshooting a complex machine (e.g. Auger Spectrophotometer). I was unable to operate it, but "we" could fix it because I knew what questions to ask.

 

What if an interviewer asks you, "We need someone who is a 'problem solver.' How do you approach solving a problem?"

What would your response be? (Assume you are not applying for a very basic, entry-level position.)

John

For me with the role I was in most recently, identifying the issue, identifying it's effects, containing the issue or carrying out a temporary fix, identify the root cause, establish a long term corrective action and review it after a time to ensure it's still an effective solution. It's sort of my own customised cut down 8D approach that I used in small scale fast moving manufacturing environments.

Other people problem solving? Seems to involve pointing a finger at someone else, even so called professional engineers i've worked with, who start pointing fingers as soon as they think there's any negative attention heading their way.

 

Well, that was not the answer I expected. I had read your initial statement to mean you were more involved and/or interested in technical aspects (e.g., "prototyping, design, component spec verification for some of the worlds biggest automotive manufacturers") and didn't appreciate being interviewed by non-technical individuals. I also meant "problem" more in the context of a new challenge, such as a technical or design challenge, rather than a management problem.

Nevertheless, you are considering a major career change as a middle-aged individual, and I agree with those who doubt going to a blog such as AAC and asking advice from an anonymous crowd is not the best approach.

The first paragraph in your response identifies a process for solving management problems. Have you applied that process to your current challenge about your career choices?

John

 

Well, that was not the answer I expected. I had read your initial statement to mean you were more involved and/or interested in technical aspects (e.g., "prototyping, design, component spec verification for some of the worlds biggest automotive manufacturers") and didn't appreciate being interviewed by non-technical individuals. I also meant "problem" more in the context of a new challenge, such as a technical or design challenge, rather than a management problem.

Nevertheless, you are considering a major career change as a middle-aged individual, and I agree with those who doubt going to a blog such as AAC and asking advice from an anonymous crowd is not the best approach.

The first paragraph in your response identifies a process for solving management problems. Have you applied that process to your current challenge about your career choices?

John

I've spent time in the automotive electronics manufacturing environment (tier 1 UK supplier), the quality related tools and systems work for everything and are designed to remove the barriers between the technical individual and the non-technical person who may end up reading the reports.

 

Some graduate type manager who presents you with a circuit diagram with a 50ohm, a 100ohm resistor and a 12v supply, he asks for the voltages across them and the current through each, you do it from experience and you say "ok so the total for those two resistors is 150ohms, 50 is one third of the total, therefore the voltage across the 100ohm is two 3rds, which is 8 volts and the current through each is 80mA".

But this isn't good enough, he wants me to write out formulas and do it the hardest way possible

We can not accept that - those who behave so - they really do not need as.

There are electronics companies whose expansion has a political purpose.
Few engineers are enough to make a device design. And product are multiply in hundreds of thousands of pieces.
However, they employ thousands of engineers for the same problems.
Because politically they are asked for a large number of employees (engineers) but did not need them.

 

I encourage you to try something new. You might actually be happier and healthier doing that. One thing for certain is that stress will be down and enthusiasm will be up, and that's a good good thing.

 

In the US their is a high demand in wastewater treatment. A large percentage of operators are at retirement age. A lot of plants also were updated in the early 90's and are mostly mechanical. Process control and treatment may not be your thing but there's a high market in SCADA systems, control panels, sensors and energy saving. Just a thought for you.