Why did I ever go into EE?? Even more, why did I ever go into DSP??

College Majors Engineering Majors
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<p>@bonehead…ur right about me being specialized…and that takes me even one step further…all my grad research (and pretty much all the stuff listed on my resume related to DSP), were related to bioelectrical signal processing…so the most i can do is ask him for tips on where to apply…but that’s something i can do myself…go on indeed, dice, etc…and i have done that, and i’ve even found job descriptions PERFECTLY aligned with what i did…it was like love at first sight…so i apply to them, and nobody gets back to me…i try calling the HR like 923842903 times, and the best i got was someone telling me ONCE that she’ll forward my resume to the hiring manager…tried calling many times after that…no response…</p>

<p>i feel more like a DSP specialist first…EE second…when the recruiter at Bose told me that i’d need to know analog for the interview (which turned out to be a big fat lie), i went and reviewed transistors…BJTs, MOSFETs…as well as diodes and op amps…i remembered op-amps okay…but the rest, hell i forgot even the basics of those things…but if u were to ask me how a DFT works, or how laplace and z transforms are related, i’d be able to teach u that stuff like a professor (okay maybe not THAT good, but i helped out many students when i took the class as a grad student and i worked back to that level)…once u get into the more advanced signal processing type of stuff, it becomes pure applied math…look up LMS and RLS algorithms in adaptive signal processing…ain’t got nothin to do with no circuits…</p>

<p>@pennstate16…power jobs, at least, as far as i saw, are very boring…u pretty much work with utility and power companies, and do the same work over, and over, and over again, until ur some obese 65 year old man constantly *****in about how u have been working at the same place since 1973, and ur wife is ugly, and that how ur brain has rotted from being at the same place all these years (true story…i worked with ppl like that)…but TBH i’m sure there are some cutting edge power jobs out there…renewable energy and whatnot…i honestly picked DSP bc it’s math-heavy…the only reason i ever did engineering in the first place was bc i love(d) math…i won the AMC contest in my grade back in HS and got an 800 on the SAT math…i loved physics as well…feel free to PM me if u wanna ask me anything else bro…</p>

<p>@frugaldoctor, i am definitely experiencing a shortage right now…i hate this…i went from being an extremely hard worker, working FT, doing grad school, and going hard at the gym (which was a bit much)…to grad school and the gym (which was just right)…and now that i graduated…i just feel like a bum who job searches and works out hard…reminds me of the summers before a season of college football at RPI, except i’m 27 now and need to have a job…feel so useless, thanks to engineering</p>

<p>@fractalmstr, i am looking at general EE positions now as well, along with DSP…it’s so funny, i dont even know how to tailor my resume to a general EE position…i have my 18000 DSP projects, and my old power job…and nothing in between to talk about lol…i can’t just switch outta engineering to be honest…i mean i have a masters degree in it, and it’s all i’m known to do…i guess i have a proverbial EE / DSP / Engineering “stamp” on me, and there’s not much i can do about it…maybe if i were 3 inches taller, a little stronger, and more athletic, i could try for the NFL…but that ain’t happening lol…</p>

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<p>You shouldn’t have too much of a problem getting an entry-level or general EE position. Although some recruiters are weary about hiring people with Master’s degrees for these positions simply because they’re afraid the candidates will just bolt when they find work in their specialty area. It’s a common problem with advanced engineering degrees… once you specialize, you’re kinda ‘that guy’. </p>

<p>However, you should be able to explain your circumstances (with a positive spin of course) to the interviewer if you end up going for an entry-level or general EE position. That should help to ease their turnover anxiety. Plus you could probably use the entry-level job as a segue in to your specialty area if the company has an opening later on.</p>

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<p>Exactly, but make sure that you don’t actually send a recruiter like Dice your resume. Use them to find the jobs, but you want to apply to the companies directly. </p>

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<p>I went on on SimplyHired and googled Biomedical Signal Processing in MA and only about 24 jobs came up. One seems right up your ally. Allied Minds. </p>

<p>Have you applied to the Allied Minds job? I can’t tell if that’s a recruiter, so I googled the text of the job ad and found it on LinkedIn also
<a href=“92 Gentex Corporation jobs in United States (1 new)”>92 Gentex Corporation jobs in United States (1 new);

<p>You can also click on the recruiter Kathryn Graves and you can see that she works directly for Allied Minds now, so it’s probably a recruiter that works exclusively for this venture firm that does searches for their startup companies. That’s ok. You want to avoid general search firms like kforce, dice, etc that just forward your resume for 20-30% of your first year’s salary. </p>

<ul>
<li>Keep a record of every job you apply for. There are a finite number of jobs, and you ought to know each one of them so that you can tell a new one when it pops up. </li>
<li>You also want to guess how good of a fit you are. </li>
<li>Make sure it’s not a recruiter posting the ad, and if it is, copy the contents of the ad into Google search and try to find the Principal company. </li>
<li>Send the resume and follow up with a phone call a few days later. Sometimes you can charm the HR person into giving you some indication of interest. It sounds like you’ve already done that in a lot of cases. </li>
<li>I don’t know if you can pull your resume back from recruiters. You own the copyright though. There may be a way.</li>
</ul>

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<p>You can get a lot of DSP-like experience on a general purpose computer (Windows, Linux, Android, iOS), using intrinsics. </p>

<p>ClassicRockerDad’s post #13 had a lot of good info in it. </p>

<p>When I interview candidates, it is also pretty tough on them, and a lot of time is spent on things the candidate doesn’t know rather than just what they know. And it does take most of the day, speaking to a lot of people, each of whom will grill you. I’ll typically pick some topic described on the resume, preferably something I’m knowledgeable about, and start drilling down deeper and deeper until I reach a level where the candidate is no longer comfortable. I want to understand how deep his/her knowledge goes, and how well he handles it when he doesn’t know the answer. For example, if I give a hint, can he use it to help solve the problem?</p>

<p>I want candidates to be smart, eager to learn, and happy to do whatever kind of work that is assigned to them. To have a positive can-do attitude when faced with a tough problem, but not ******** if you don’t know something - admit that you don’t know the answer, but want to try to figure out how to solve the problem.</p>

<p>Before you interview, do some homework on the company. Look at the website and try to understand what they do. Do some research on the technology actually used by the company. Do people from the company speak at trade shows or technical conferences? </p>

<p>If you see a job description that you like, try to find a contact into the company other than HR. Use LinkedIn. Search for technical publications by that company. See if you can figure out the hiring manager’s name yourself somehow. Ask the Headhunter has some good advice for job hunters.
<a href=“http://www.asktheheadhunter.com/[/url]”>http://www.asktheheadhunter.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Where have your classmates found jobs? Stay in contact with them, and see if any of their companies are hiring. If so, send your resume to them, and ask them to send it to their manager. At a lot of companies, employees are eligible for referral bonuses if they refer someone who is ultimately hired. </p>

<p>Good luck.</p>

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<p>@classicrockerdad…remember the story about me calling the HR rep a whole bunch of times and not getting an answer?? well that was with Allied Minds lol</p>

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<p>LOL! I see. </p>

<p>Well I hope you are attending the WPI career fair tomorrow.</p>

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<p>“so the most i can do is ask him for tips on where to apply…but that’s something i can do myself.” - Don’t underestimate the value of personal contacts. It seems like that’s how a lot of folks get their job. Talk with your advisor - he/she may have direct industry contacts that come to mind as you discuss your current interests.</p>

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<p>A friend who makes awesome money designing analog IC’s ran into the same grilling interview (after 20+ years experience). Never mind a masters degree, multiple patents, and so on. Now, I understand the idea behind ‘purple squirreling’ of new hires regardless of experience, but in my 30 years of work my experience has been that those who are extremely good and answer tough, challenging questions without blinking are the same people that will, at least for our company located in the middle of FlyOver County, will either not accept our offer at all, will use our offer as a leverage to get more money elsewhere, or take the job and bolt a year later when his buddies at GAFAM etc pull some strings.</p>

<p>In contrast, the near genius people we prefer to hire stay with us for decades (layoffs nonwithstanding :D)) and really contribute in a very tough field where it can take a year or more to figure out how things work. </p>

<p>It’s not difficult to hire geniuses if you make the interview hard enough. It is difficult to get them to stay for more than a couple of years, work well with less-than-genius people, and understand the intricacies of selling devices to hundreds of thousands of people at a time (patch? what’s a patch?).</p>

<p>As for personal contacts, that seems to be the prevailing method of getting jobs. We had some decent size head cuts in the 2009 time frame and nearly everyone I know landed a job via connections… Even today.</p>

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<p>Did you look into jobs in California? Companies like Broadcom, Qualcomm, a few others have jobs in dsp area. Start ups are usually best option trying to find a new job in a slightly different field. I am not sure if you are already familiar, but learning verilog will open up a lot of jobs in ASIC/ASSP VLSI field. I am also assuming you are familiar with scripting languages like tcl and perl. All the best!</p>

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<p>I agree with turbo, connections are the shortest path to the hiring manager. It is mind numbing to go through the resumes submitted online, all resumes look the same after an hour going through them. Do you have linkedin account? Request your professors, former coworkers to endorse you and leave a recommendation note.</p>

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<p>On the other hand, an insider may be too powerless, too chicken, or too indifferent to help so don’t count all your network chickens until they hatch or something like that…</p>

<p>When I was in college in the 80s I helped - REALLY HELPED - a classmate finish his thesis (proof reading, formatting, references, and the occasional section or two :)) as he left school right before finishing his graduate research and defending his thesis. His company in a posh Florida city was looking for a coder. After many hours of help he ended passing the resume of a compatriot of his that had a child with a chronic medical condition and needed insurance STAT. The guy was hired and all I had was an entry in the acknowledgements section…</p>

<p>Before you ask anyone to help make sure they plan to do it…</p>