What was your first job out of college?

[Paul E. Schoen]

"Al in Dallas" <alfargnoli@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:299uf31jarbqokefcsisjg20g1mi0o6p5t@4ax.com...

On Sat, 29 Sep 2007 20:23:22 -0400, "Paul E. Schoen"
pstech@smart.net> wrote:


stacyr29@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1190919269.128883.211120@22g2000hsm.googlegroups.com...
And, did you like it? What did you do and where are you now?

Thanks.

While I went to college, I worked at the same company where my father
worked, and I was variously employed as a draftsman/illustrator,
technical
writer (for a military manual), and QC inspector. When I left college, I
worked at this same place as a draftsman, at a very low hourly wage. I
often helped one of the other draftsmen to do his job, and when I found
out
he was making about twice what I was, I asked for a raise. It was
refused,
because the personnel director said that the other draftsman had a family
to support, while I was still living at home and didn't need the money.
IIRC, I quit immediately.

So, I found a job supervising newspaper boys selling new subscriptions,
at
a higher pay than I was getting, and then I found a better job as a
draftsman again at a job-shop. Their contract ended and I enjoyed
unemployment for 26 weeks.

Three years out of college, after also running a part-time TV/stereo
repair
business, I got a "real" job as an instrument technician, and about three
years later, I became an electronics design engineer, which was what I
always wanted to do. The company was sold 15 years later, to a company in
Dallas, but I didn't want to relocate (or work for them), so in 1989 I
started my own business in electronic design (www.pstech-inc.com), and
still enjoy it.

It took you SIX years to get the job you were educated to do?

I had some very interesting adventures in the early 70s, that were much
more educational and rewarding than a boring 9-5 job. I had originally
planned to work as an instrument tech for a while to get enough money to
set up a shop for self-employment, but the job got more interesting and it
was good to have a steady income, so I finally entered the corporate
mainstream.

Paul

 

[terryS]

On Sep 28, 3:30 am, "Michael A. Terrell" <mike.terr...@earthlink.net>
wrote in part:

How many are you? ;-)
How many? what's that suppose to mean? Ok, I miss used the
term "WE" with "I".. I apologize.! English grammar was never
my strong point, even though it's my native tongue.
That's why I throw my reports over to the secretary for review
before I submit them.
After all, they are an appliance aren't they ?

No, they aren't, and they shouldn't have to do your work.

Central Florida- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I tend to agree with Michael. In my mind no matter what job one does
one should be professional enough to be able to communicate
effectively and accurately in at least one language.

For most of us that is English; sadly too like most I have no other
language capability which is certainly a limitation. With time back
would certainly have learnt French or maybe Spanish. Although the way
the world is developing Chines or Farsi (India) might be better but
much more difficult for a westerner (and an older one at that) to
learn even a smattering.

That doesn't mean we don't all, occasionally, in haste, misspell a
word or don't use 'Spell-check' correctly. But bad sentence
construction etc. only obfuscates and tells the reader that YOU don't
communicate very well!

For example: I had a graduate engineer working for me at one time who
couldn't write even to follow a pre-set format. We (myself and other
managers) wondered how he ever passed his engineering courses. We gave
him a low performance review for that and other reasons and he
eventually straightened himself out.

These days much communication is direct (email, MSN, ng postings etc.)
i.e. no secretarial involvement at all, such as this item that I type
and post myself. Must spell check it before sending and read over to
spot the worst of any grammatical errors.

Criticism welcomed. Always willing to learn.

 

[Michael A. Terrell]

terryS wrote:

I tend to agree with Michael. In my mind no matter what job one does
one should be professional enough to be able to communicate
effectively and accurately in at least one language.

My english isn't perfect, but at least I try. I took Latin in high
school, all those decades ago.

For most of us that is English; sadly too like most I have no other
language capability which is certainly a limitation. With time back
would certainly have learnt French or maybe Spanish. Although the way
the world is developing Chines or Farsi (India) might be better but
much more difficult for a westerner (and an older one at that) to
learn even a smattering.

That doesn't mean we don't all, occasionally, in haste, misspell a
word or don't use 'Spell-check' correctly. But bad sentence
construction etc. only obfuscates and tells the reader that YOU don't
communicate very well!

I have nerve damage in my left hand, and carpal tunnel in my right,
so my fingers don't do what I tell them. i read what i've written, and
correct it, then run the spell checker. that doesn't get everything,
but it does get enough to make the messages readable.

For example: I had a graduate engineer working for me at one time who
couldn't write even to follow a pre-set format. We (myself and other
managers) wondered how he ever passed his engineering courses. We gave
him a low performance review for that and other reasons and he
eventually straightened himself out.

I have taken test procedures back to the engineers who wrote them,
and they couldn't figure out what they wrote. They also had a bad habit
of specifying test equipment not available on the production floor. They
expected the cal lab to find something suitable, but at one time several
specified a network analyzer, and the only one in the company was locked
in that engineer's office. This was before they went ISO 9001. One of
the things we did during that time was to remove all references, except
to test fixtures.

Eventually, I was allowed to rewrite these useless documents. Before
I sent them to be signed off by the engineer in charge of that product,
I would have a technician who had never worked with that item sit down
and run through an actual test. The idea was to make each test
procedure clear enough that any technician they hired who was worth
keeping could do almost any job, without outside help.

A lot of original test procedures were so convoluted that it took you
through the same steps, several times. One AGC board averaged 5.5 hours
to test. A slight change to the test fixture, and streamlining the
directions took the average test time to 18 minutes. (Some of the
integration ranges had to be measured with a period counter, and
calculate the actual frequencies.)

These days much communication is direct (email, MSN, ng postings etc.)
i.e. no secretarial involvement at all, such as this item that I type
and post myself. Must spell check it before sending and read over to
spot the worst of any grammatical errors.

Criticism welcomed. Always willing to learn.

Constructive criticism is a useful tool, to those who aren't 100%
ego. There is no hope for that small group.


--
Service to my country? Been there, Done that, and I've got my DD214 to
prove it.
Member of DAV #85.

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida

 

[Bob Myers]

"terryS" <tsanford@nf.sympatico.ca> wrote in message
news:1191172621.705681.200630@22g2000hsm.googlegroups.com...

I tend to agree with Michael. In my mind no matter what job one does
one should be professional enough to be able to communicate
effectively and accurately in at least one language.

Can't disagree with that. I have been known to go so far as
to tell newbie engineers that their top priority as an engineer
is to communicate clearly, and their most important product
is documentation.

Engineers do not make products as such; that is the job of the
manufacturing line. It is the job of the engineer to clearly and
unambiguously communicate HOW to make those products,
and what to do about it when the production goes wrong.
That's "documentation."

Some argue that the engineer's main job is the creation of new
designs - but the design itself, the new idea that the engineer comes
up with, is utterly useless until it is written down, drawn, made
into a schematic, etc. - and note that those latter two also almost
always have to have some accompanying verbage to explain them.
That's "documentation."

Bottom line - I don't especially care how well you know your theory
or how creative you can be when it comes to inventing something
new, if you can't express those ideas clearly. If that's the case,
then I don't want you.

Bob M.

 

[John]

On Thu, 27 Sep 2007 11:54:29 -0700, stacyr29@yahoo.com wrote:

And, did you like it? What did you do and where are you now?

Thanks.

I didn't finsh college until after I retired.

I've worked for 3 different companies since then and now do
consulting/programming - mostly on PDA's used for interfacing and
control.

I'm quite happy to be working at home and only when the project is
interesting ;-)

John

 

[HapticZ]

first job after graduation? that was FINDING THE JOB! not just A job, THE
job,

u know, the one that will actually pay bills, allow me to live happily and
be a useful contributor to society.

so far, after 45 years THAT job has yet to be created.

)


<stacyr29@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1190919269.128883.211120@22g2000hsm.googlegroups.com...

And, did you like it? What did you do and where are you now?

Thanks.