Personal Employment
|
Personal Employment
|
|
Dave's Personal Employment Story
Printed Circuit Board Designer Is Dave in business for himself or what? Since my removal from everyday job status late in 2001, I have been going it alone. Sometimes that is good, sometimes not. 2003 saw a year of record income for me self-employed or not. 2005 was not the best (2004 was not much better). 2010 started very slow but picked way up and by the fall I had to turn down work. 2011 was quite full and so was 2012. I am available for the right company with the right conditions at the right price. What does that mean? Everyone wants to use the magic salary number as the first step in screening. For the right company under the right conditions, I could be had for a very low cost. For some companies, I may want the salary to be quite high. The only way to see if I'm the right person for your company is for us to talk. By the way, you see my resume is in PDF form and not doc. I provided a resume in doc form to an agency recruiter who changed it to simply lie about my experience in some design areas to try to place me in a contact position I was not a fit for to get him some commission money. Luckily I never got a call from the company he submitted the doctored resume to, so I didn't have to expose him as the un-ethical slime he probably still is. Dave's Story: 1970's
My
training is in electrical engineering. It
started as a teenager in becoming a licensed amateur radio operator (WB9BWP). My interests took me to Boy’s Technical High
School (a public high school where you actually specialized in a particular course of
study, and the diploma so notes) where I specialized in electronics (By the way,
the high school, while it still exists, in no way approaches the quality of
education I received back in the '70s - that could be the subject of many other
discussions). I then attended Milwaukee School of Engineering
where I received an Associate Degree in Electronic Communications Engineering Technology. I left 2 quarters (about
8
classes) short of my Bachelor’s Degree
(EET)
due
to a shortage of money and patience (my ideals often get in my way—maybe
that has also led to my unemployment stints).
After
leaving school (1976) I took a job at Eder Industries as a project engineer.
Eder was sort of what today is called a contract manufacturer. During most of my time there I was principle
project engineer for a medical laboratory instrument.
My involvement covered all aspects of product design including circuit
design,
PC
board layout, board level through final assembly including producing test and assembly
procedures all along the way, introducing the product to manufacturing including initial
manufacturing setup, technician training and even some field service work as well as all
the documentation for the project including the first computerized BOM for the company. 1980's
In
January of 1981 I moved to Marquette Electronics. While
there I was a printed circuit board designer, CAD system administrator, printed circuit
board design supervisor, departmental computer guy.
In
September of 1985
I transferred to the Research and Development facility of Marquette
Electronics. My duties there included printed circuit board
design, CAD system administration (the evaluation, purchase and set up of yet another
system), computer network design, construction, and administration, computer system
support, manufacturing liaison, engineering services management, computer help desk
(I was it),
etc. 1990's
Due
to some management decisions, R&D as a corporate entity was eliminated and
so was
I. I
left
the company (Marquette) in 1993
when I then
joined a small dealer of electronic design software and hardware. While there I did everything but accounting
(including technical support, sales,
training,
network
management, software development, business automation development, corporate graphics
design and more).
I
led the development of our first in-house product (CAD system libraries and utility
software). I also started and edited a
quarterly newsletter for our customers. I
organized and conducted training seminars in printed circuit board design using products
we sold. All that
was not quite enough, and in July of 1995, the business ran out of money to pay me (they
really did run out of money to pay me, all I got for my last 3 weeks of work was a flaky,
2 year old, 486 PC without even a monitor). In November of 1995 Eaton Corp. (Corporate R&D again, oh-oh) contracted with me to provide printed circuit board design and investigate future CAD system directions. In April of 1996 I was hired for real and was Electronic CAD Systems Administrator/Product Designer. What that means was often open to interpretation but included Printed Circuit Board design, Electronic CAD system administration, configuration, training, help, library development, whatever. I also had been involved in numerous internal web pages related to design projects (design and maintenance of the pages) and information gathering associated with their use. Related to the CAD system administration is the design and maintenance of my “Engineering Component Information Database”, a database of assorted information relating to components used on PC boards for new designs. 2000's
On
7/30/01
management decided that doing PCB design and having
a
non-IT
person take care of engineering computing needs are two non-essential functions
(after being given an exceptional review, promotion and raise on 7/1/01),
so I
was
eliminated (over the next 6 months R&D went from approximately 350 people to 85). On 7/31/01 I was granted a stay of execution until
10/31/01
(their exact words were, “We didn’t know you were working on anything
important”).
Since
then I have been officially unemployed.
Interestingly,
most of my previous employers have either disappeared or been assimilated by others. Eder (after having 2 different owners for it’s
first 40 years, then 3 more different owners during the next 10) became part of APW and
then sold to Creation Technologies of Canada and their name no longer exists. Marquette Electronics was sold to General Electric
to be part of their Medical Systems division (and their name and many of the people I knew
are gone). ELPASO just simply went out of
business. Eaton is there, but much smaller
(the entire R&D management chain above me except for the top person was eliminated
during the year following my removal). During my unemployment, I have been paid as an independent PC board designer and have also been offering my talents to some associates who are trying to get a business of their own going. This is along with refreshing my Microsoft Access and Visual Basic programming skills.
My
CAD experience includes lots of experience with Gerber, ComputerVision, PCAD
(old DOS program, not the Windows thing),
some AutoCAD, Viewlogic, OrCad, PADs,
a brief stint with Mentor Design Capture and Expedition Layout and
just a touch of
Cadence
Concept and Allegro and Electronic Workbench
(Multisim/Ultiboard). Currently (and for the past 10+ years) Altium
Designer is the system I work with the most.
I
know my way around all the major Gerber Viewer/Editor programs (preferring GcPrevue for
simple viewing tasks) and have experience with basic AutoCAD functions (used with PCB
software for mechanical needs as well as basic mechanical drawing/design).
I
was chairman of the Wisconsin PCAD User’s Group from 1993-1996. I was
occasionally
involved
in getting a Wisconsin chapter of the IPC Designer's Council going. My general software experience includes many
software packages including most Microsoft products. My
programming experience includes Basic, Visual Basic, Access, and assorted macro languages
(there has been some C training, but nothing major). I
am proficient in database design and administration
(primarily Microsoft Access and in the past have used dBase and rBase-but don't expect
them today). This Web page maybe demonstrates some of my
computer
and
graphic design
abilities. Of course there is the salary question. That question is usually used to quickly screen out people a company can not afford. Can a company really afford some cheap under (or un) qualified person? I don't like to answer the salary question and here's why. As opposed to some people who are into a job title or exactly how much they are paid, I am not. That doesn't mean I will work for peanuts, it means that there are more things than just cash which are important to me. How far do I have to travel to get to work? What are the facilities like? What is the neighborhood around the facility like? What are the hours of the job? Is there flex time? How much vacation time is available? Is there a stock ownership plan? Does the company have profit-sharing? Is the job salaried or hourly? Am I able to sometimes work at home? What are the people like? For the right answers to questions like those, I can be satisfied with a lower salary. For the wrong answers, my price goes up. Sounds cocky of me doesn't it? Opposed to what the government or any other legal definition says of me, I do consider myself a professional. I operate in a professional manner and I expect to be treated professionally, not treated like a 4 year old. Some companies do not seem to grasp the concept of that, or the concept of salary not being the primary motivator. Some companies are not leaders in their field either. The other area where salary becomes a sticking point is for a job that may not pay as much as a past job so I wouldn't be happy. Honestly, my best year as far as salary (from a "normal" job) goes came in 1992. A number of people after that time would not believe what I was paid. I can produce a reference from the person who gave me the raise in Sept. of 1992 who will verify the numbers. All jobs since then have paid less, yet I produced as I always have (again, since I was dumped from them all maybe I'm not that good after all). I even had to argue with "HR" people that "yea, I was really paid that, regardless of your charts!" Let me decide if the salary is acceptable. If it is too low, I will say so. In doing so am I wasting a company's time? How about someone wasting my time? Does a company figure out that in looking for a person and not getting any takers, they may not be offering the right salary or benefits or environment? How much is it costing a company to have an open position for any length of time? Ah, the question of age (that along with salary) relating to how long I would be with a company. I am probably unemployable on a permanent basis, but could use my expertise in helping to grow your business? I am available for consulting work. Sounds like I have a bad attitude doesn't it? Treat me fairly, pay me fairly, give me reasonable working conditions and you would have to look long and hard to find someone who will work harder for you to grow your business. Don't believe me? What have you got to loose (compared to CEO's going to jail, lying on their resume, driving a company into the ground, I'm not too bad)? By the way, those things I listed previously as "benefits" I really did have at a previous job.
I
am
available
for a position with the right company (small, growing, adventurous, willing to pay me
honestly for my skills), and for the right compensation I return excellent work which can
help any adventurous company grow and prosper. Let’s
talk, really…
Don’t
want to hire me on a full time basis, but could use my expertise in helping to grow your
business? I am available for consulting work. |