Category: Life

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Engineering Life Work

How to Work a Job Fair as an Engineer

Clarification: When I write “work a job fair”, I mean how to get the most out of it as a student or job seeker. This could be confused with the fact that I sometimes recruit at job fairs, but I thought this should be brought up at the beginning after I re-read the article.

In talking to a fellow engineer about to attend a career fair, I realized I had some advice for him, having gone so many times in the past. I’ve even been back a few times to recruit for my current company and being on the other side of the handshake is an interesting insight into the do’s and don’ts.

  1. As soon as you realize they want you to apply online, ditch.
    • First off, this was a pet peeve of mine as an attendee and is to this day. As soon as HR departments at large companies realized they could just use computers to filter the resumes of prospective employees instead of reading them (yeah, I’m looking at you Big Blue), they did it as fast as they could. The result was that you now walk around job fairs talking to people and handing out resumes, only to assume those people will be throwing it away ten minutes later (“Why did I print that on paper that costs 50 cents a sheet?!?”). In the event you’re talking to someone from a company and you even overhear a different recruiter asking someone to apply online (assuming you hear it before you’re told directly to do so), kindly end the conversation with the person you’re talking to and write in your notes to apply later. Job fairs are to make first impressions; if the employers’ representatives are not taking notes on the people they are talking to, they really are only wasting your time.
  2. Be excited
    • Enthusiasm is contagious. It can make any conversation more exciting and in the case of the recruiters, less routine. They have many of the same conversations over and over throughout the day, often with people that don’t show particular enthusiasm for what they are talking about. More importantly, enthusiasm about your chosen field is a precursor to another trait that I feel is particularly important in any field: passion. Without it, you probably won’t be able to hold your interest long enough to become an expert in your field. And I mean a real expert, not like those silly people online that start blogs and call themselves experts. Haha.
  3. Be excited, but show a little modesty
    • Before you go off the rails and start spouting all of your best characteristics to a potential employer, remember a few things:
      1. Designing something in school is much different than designing something in the real world.
      2. No one wants to hear every single detail of your design project upon first meeting you.
      3. As an engineer, getting a design job just out of school is difficult and unlikely. The majority of engineers use their degree to launch into other types of jobs. I’m not saying you shouldn’t shoot for a design job if you want one, I’m just saying the expectation shouldn’t be that you will be handed one (and you should keep your mind open to all opportunities).
      4. If you present your past work correctly, the work will speak for itself. In fact, succinctly describing your achievements in an understandable way will help to show your enthusiasm much better than you trying to squeeze 500 words into a 1 minute time period. Show them that you are really proficient in the area you’re targeting and you’ll get recruiters clamoring to know how much you really know (and eventually what it’ll take to get you on their team).
  4. Forget the give-aways
    • The pens and t-shirts and yo-yo’s and other stuff they give away at these events are fun to get and sometimes quirky, but essentially worthless. If you want to get free stuff with a logo on it, go get the job from the company and worry about the branded crap later. Focus your time and resources on meeting people, not collecting widgets.
  5. Figure out what skills they’re looking for
    • No amount of preparatory work researching the companies you’re targeting will let you know what skills a company is looking for. Hell, it’s in the company’s interest to be vague when they list what kind of employee they’re looking for so the maximum number of people will stop by their booth. This is one of your most important tasks at career fairs; in fact, it’s one of the few reasons to stick around and continue talking to a representative from a company once you have found out they only accept applications online. Talk to the engineers that work in groups you would want to work in (wait to talk to them if there is a line) and find out what they look for in potential candidates. In fact, ask them that, “What do you look for in potential candidates who would be hired for YOUR position?”. It might sound a little weird, like you want to replace them with yourself, but it’s the most direct way to know what skills and techniques you need to have to work there. If you have those skills, awesome. If you don’t, work on getting those skills, however you can.
  6. Know what you like and don’t like and tell them about it
    • This hearkens back to being enthused about the field you’re studying. In the event you’re not very capable in transmitting your enthusiasm to the person you’re talking to, stating what you do and don’t like can help to showcase what you’re really trying to do with your career. But it’s also important because you can narrow down the companies that can actually offer you a job. If you’re really interested in embedded systems but you’re talking to  a company that only works on designing silicon, stating what you’re interested in can be a real time saver. If you’re not particularly fond of working on spreadsheets or databases and you say so, you can quickly be informed by the company you’re talking to that those things would be the main job function of any potential employees. In stating what you really like and dislike, you basically turn a career fair into a speed-dating service, quickly going through all of the options at a particular event and honing in on those that have real potential.
  7. Brush your teeth. Wear a clean shirt. Don’t be a robot.
    • I only wish this was more obvious to people than it is. I’ve already been pointing out that career fairs are only as useful as the impressions you make on potential employers; sometimes it’s also about the resume you hand them.  But if the whole ordeal is about impressions, some people don’t get it. Look decent, smell decent, smile decent. These are all things that are easy but immediately put you out of the running if you get them wrong. Remember the lollipop first question for $100 on “Who Wants to be a Millionaire”? Remember some of the dodos who got it wrong and had to immediately leave the stage? Don’t be one of them.

Do I know everything about job fairs? No, I know very little. I personally never really liked them as a potential employee. I’d rather stand out to an employer  by connecting on a personal level with a recruiter and then showcasing what I know. There just isn’t time for that at career fairs. But if you or the employers you’re interested in working for consider career fairs a necessary evil, I think the tips listed above can have a positive effect on some of your interactions.

What kinds of things do you try to do at job/career fairs? Can those things be done by engineers at career fairs or are they specific to another profession? Please let us know in the comments.

Categories
Blogging Engineering Learning Life

A Day of Labor: My New Website and Project

It wasn’t just today. It wasn’t really the day last week when I registered my new domain name. It was pretty soon after starting this blog that I realized how much more powerful having a website with multiple contributors to keep a consistent flow of information. “Welcome to the party!”, right? I realize there are a lot of other sites that take advantage of this idea. I didn’t think of it earlier though so here’s my chance. And here’s your chance too.

I am now on the hunt for the most articulate and technically proficient EEs and quasi-EEs out there. I plan to use this new website as a warehouse for important electrical engineering knowledge I wish I always had. I still wish I have it, because it can be very hard to keep track of (ever searched through that old pile of industry magazines? Yeah, me neither). Sure, there are sites out there like EDN and EETimes that have some spectacular writers and some interesting insight into the industry; however, I have always felt their hands were tied by a business model built upon advertising revenues that also might happen to maybe, possibly, sometimes on the harvest moon, when the winds are blowing right…influence the articles (at least in terms of what is written about). Maybe not, but it feels that way. Moreover, it feels like there is less technical content on those sites than there used to be. It’s understandable, the recession is kicking everyone’s butt, and it’s not taking it easy on the publishing industry. But the point remains, I want a place where I can consistently go to for up to date information about skills and techniques and I want to be able to understand it. I want it to be written by the top engineers and scientists out there and I want it to be in a format that is instantly applicable and useful.

As for ChrisGammell.com, I don’t really plan on changing too much. I will still write articles somewhere between technical and non-technical and try to post as often as I can. However, I think for my long term writing, I need to be part of a site that is on neutral ground and with a community built around it. I, like many in my generation, was raised working in teams and I think this will be the best format to help disseminate knowledge to others in the future.

If you are interested in contributing to a site such as this, please feel free to contact me and let me know what you would like to contribute. If you have a suggestion for the new site please leave a note in the comments below. I always appreciate feedback (even negative feedback! heh).

So let’s see, I told you my plans, I explained why I think they are important to me and others, I explained what would (or would not) happen to this site and I suggested you contact me if you’re interested in joining. Am I forgetting something?

Ah yes. The new site and community I started is called Electricio.us. I hope you like it.

Screenshot-Electricio-us

Categories
Analog Electronics Learning Life Renewable Energy

Day 2 of the Sustainable Cleveland 2019 summit

I must say, I’m impressed. My questions from day one have almost all been answered in one way or another. A few things really caught my attention today, some of which I didn’t really expect.

To start we had Ray Anderson of Interface. If you would have asked me what the company was just from the name I would have immediately jumped to technology. However, that’s not the case; Ray is in the business of carpets…and has been for 30 years or so. He also took a pledge, both for himself and for his company about 15 years back. A pledge to reduce environmental impact and do no harm. And they have succeeded so far (I didn’t get the feeling they were planning on quitting anytime soon). Here’s some of their broad stroke statistics on how they have progressed over the past 15 years:

  • 76% reduction in waste since 1996
  • 74% less water used to produce the carpet tiles
  • 44% less total energy used in production
  • 60% less fossil fuels in production
  • 27% use of renewable energy for production worldwide
  • 100% use of renewable energy for production in Europe
  • 24% recyclable or bio-based materials.
  • $405 million saved due to these reductions since 1994

Ray went on to explain the importance on reducing the overall impact of the technosphere on the biosphere (his words). He maintained that if we continue using technology in the wasteful, disposable ways we currently are, the future looks bleak. However, if we bring technology on as a reducer of waste instead of a primary contributor, great progress can be made towards a very low usage, need-driven (as opposed to want-driven) society. If I had to sum up the wonderful presentation by Ray Anderson, it would be this: do no harm in business and you will succeed. The results he has produced with his company Interface are a great example of renewable, sustainable practices producing a better shareholder solution and a better company for customers and the environment.

From there, we went on to explore the next stage of the AI process, the “Dream” stage. I believe this was an important component, trying to postively visualize where we believed the city could end up and finding a creative way of expressing it. There were many bold dreams of a Cleveland of tomorrow mixed in with a many themes that resonated throughout the presentations (more on those themes later). Some were sillier than others, which I have first-hand experience with: I was the captain of the Best Times 2019 boat.

Once the creative fervor was scaled back a bit, we smoothly transitioned into the design phase. This was by far the most exciting part and really what I had been waiting for. It is the meat of any AI gathering; when stuff really begins to come together and progress is finally made. We first were reminded about good brainstorming concepts. Personally, the concepts and ideas presented on how to brainstorm reminded me that this entire process was a great example of a crowd-sourced kind of activity. Key among the concepts was the notion having a multitude of ideas, so many that your head would spin. The concept is that among a large large group of ideas, a few winners would rise to the top, along with some accompanying themes. From there the groups would be able to identify the favorite ideas, group other thematic elements and begin to focus intensely on the top ideas. Hopefully, they can all be implemented into a single prototype that would later be presented as a final product, at least as a tangible result of the design/brainstorming process. Dr. Cooperrider used Ideo, the design firm and prior client of his, as an example of rapid prototyping and idea generation. I had heard about them previously but plan on finding out more about the world-renowned design firm.

Before going further, I think it’s important to list of the top-level themes that were identified from the “Dream” stage implemented earlier in the day:

  • Advanced Energy Research
  • Advanced Energy Generation
  • Advanced Materials and Manufacturing
  • Communication Campaign and Branding of the final ideas of the summit
  • Engaging 1.6 Million People
  • Fostering Social Capital
  • Green Buildings
  • Health
  • Vacant Land Use
  • Local Foods
  • Maintaining Post Summit Momentum
  • Metrics of Success (for the summit)
  • Public Compact (or Manifesto if you will)
  • Social Entrepreneurialship
  • Strategic Partnerships and Learning
  • Sustainable Business Innovation
  • Transportation
  • Waste to Profit
  • Water
  • World Class Sustainability Education

As new visitors to the site might guess (given the graphic at the top of my site) , I chose the very first topic. As an engineer really interested in renewable energy (and how it can be implemented), I felt it necessary to talk about the research aspect, as opposed to the generation, of the energy. I feel the latter can be left up to others for a time when the energy is cheap enough to be widespread; until it has reached the tipping point of being more economical to use renewables over other forms of energy, the research will never really be done. Past that, once commercial interests begin using renewables on a regular basis, investing in efficiencies will be a self-sustaining activity and one that only adds to the new benefit of renewable energy technologies. I plan on saving the results from today’s brainstorming session for a post tomorrow or the day after, simply because of the length of this post and in order to report on our finished idea, as opposed to an undeveloped seed of an idea.

While day 2 of Sustainable Cleveland 2019 was effective (OK, and a little bit fun, I’ll admit), I think tomorrow will really decide the final outcome of the entire summit. Without concrete action plans, the whole thing is for naught. The fears that the summit is actually just another run-of-the-mill convention will or will not come to fruition. If instead we take action on the plans we have in place tomorrow and the next day and the day after, then we will truly be able to say we have achieved something. I look forward to experiencing and writing about tomorrow.

Categories
Learning Life Renewable Energy

Day 1 of Sustainable Cleveland 2019

Today was the first day of the Sustainable Cleveland 2019 summit, hosted by Frank Jackson in downtown Cleveland. It was a mix of speakers, round-table discussions, breakout sessions and the usual other summit/convention type activities. We are continually reminded that this is not just some conference to be forgotten but instead acted upon later on. Time will tell if that comes to fruition and as I wrote before will require input from everyone in the community, including you Clevelanders out there reading this.

To start, here are some neat facts I learned today:

  1. Van Jones, from the department of sustainability for the white house, reminded us that only 80 Billion dollars of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act were slated for “green” technologies. If you do the math 80/787 = 10.2% of the stimulus dollars are going towards renewable energy jobs and upgrades. Not enough.
  2. Peter Senge, author of “The Necessary Revolution” and professor at MIT, told us of a new(ish) EU initiative whereby cars made by European manufacturers must also be recycled by the same manufacturer. Imagine what kind of dramatic shifts in material usage and intelligent recycling will take place in order to preserve profitability and allow for (valuable) reuse of materials.
  3. Ray Anderson posed an interesting idea from an unknown book (as of right now) of designing systems and manufacturing environments using nature as a model. What would the byproducts of the process be reused as by other organisms? How can the process be optimized to use just enough energy, just as nature intends it? If there are materials pulled from the ground for use in the process, how are those same materials replenished at a later time?
  4. Jeff Baldassari, of The Taylor Companies (furniture), told us how his company has reduced waste throughout and optimized their process to a point that their entire monthly refuse hauling cost is only $1000.
  5. Dr. Senge also told us that we require an 80% reduction in carbon emissions to reduce global warming so it does not cross an irreversable threshold of run-away heating. More interesting, he told us about a project by MIT, an open source piece of software that allows the general public to better visualize what kinds of reductions we need in order to hit theose targets and how much collaborative action is required in the future. More info at http://climateinteractive.org/.

Aside from the speakers we also began the Appreciative Inquiry process, using techniques refined by our moderator David Cooperrider. We’re still in the “discovery” stage of the AI 4-D cycle (below), basically a time to figure out who is there, what individuals are good at and what in the past has worked well and can be built upon. The entire philosophy of the method is to focus on the positive aspects of change (what could be) instead of waiting until things go wrong and trying to fix them (what was). While it can produce some ideas for how to really enact the change, I am only expecting this summit to be a motivational type of event; an event that really makes people want to keep going with developing community and talking to their government leaders.

And although I have enjoyed my time so far, I’d like to point out some things I’m a bit skeptical about and questions that are yet unanswered:

  1. Will this really work? I believe my skepticism is based on the fact that we haven’t done anything yet. I’m told that happens on day 2 really, so I’ll have to find out more tomorrow.
  2. One of the things pointed out in some pre-summit literature is that to really drive change in a region, you need a critical mass of contributors in a given sector of a given region (i.e. wind turbine development in NE Ohio). Even if we do have some of the highest concentrations of engineers in the country (according to Van Jones), are they capable of working on renewable energy type systems? More importantly, are they driven to work on those types of applications? Finally, will there ever be enough business interest in those industries that would bring even more people into the region?
  3. Can we walk the walk? As a group of 700 succesful leader-types gathering at a conference/summit on sustainabilty, will we be able to go home each night and practice sustainability and not just talk about it? To be honest, I do what I can on the simpler side of things (CFLs, recycling, etc), but there needs to be more action and accountability by us first before we can ask others to do the same.
    • As a corollary, I wonder if it is ever possible to ask human beings–especially those that aren’t interested in the ideas we are working on–to consume less/sacrifice/etc. I know that we can be told to do something (reluctantly, I’m sure). I know we can be pressured into doing something because of super high taxes or prices. But the question is: can we drive people to realize that the typical American lifestyle is dangerous to the environment and can we make them care about it? I think this is a major hurdle and a topic I hope is brought up again and again at the summit. I’m skeptical that the general population will care about some of these issues; that is, until sea levels have risen past their doorsteps.

So far I have met some wonderful people, which if it came down to it, would be reason enough for me to attend this summit. Making connections with people that are enacting change in Cleveland really allows me to step outside the bubble of my world and to see what is important to others. In some cases technology doesn’t factor into their thought process at all, something that is hard for me to imagine. On the same note though, some of those I have met and am sure to meet more of are spectacular at working with people, something that is also not my strongest suit. I think there can be a mutual exchange of ideas among all of us that will allow me to grow as a person and as someone that will hopefully be able to drive change in my hometown.

What about you? Do you have any questions about the first day of the summit? Are you attending the summit and have somehow found this page? What is your take on the summit thus far? Let me know in the comments!

https://chrisgammell.com/2009/08/10/sustainable-cleveland-2019/
Categories
Engineering Life Music Renewable Energy

Engineering the Perfect Day

I don’t get too personal on my blog.

  1. My blog is about my professional life (mostly)
  2. It’s just the way I am

But on the way home last night I was thinking about how I might define a perfect day and thought it could be a good insight into who I am. You might not care but Chris-ten-years-from-now might, so I’ll write it for him. I think the exercise is healthy as long as it’s not taken too far (ie. I don’t plan on arranging my whole life around constructing this day exactly); but in general believe that this image should be used as a guide towards what I would like to be doing with my life and what I would like to accomplish.

  • 7:00 – 7:04 am
    • Wake up to kisses from my girlfriend and two puppies. Lie in bed thinking about what I can accomplish that day. Smell the pot of coffee brewing on a timer downstairs.
  • 7:04 – 7:47 am
    • Watch the Daily Show from the previous evening while drinking a cup of dark roasted, aforementioned coffee and noshing on a scone or waffle. Check on the status of my house and see how the renewable energy storage system is holding up after a night of not being able to collect energy.
  • 7:50 – 8:00 am
    • Walk to my own business/workshop/office just down the street. The weather in my dream-world would of course be beautiful all year round and would never have rain or snow (except on days I’m free to go sledding). Be greeted by my employees/co-workers/friends at the office.
  • 8:00 – 11:32 am
    • Work the whole morning on a new device that will allow people to better harvest energy from the environment in a friendly way (energy scavenging perhaps?). I don’t have more details about this part of my perfect day because the device hasn’t been invented yet.
  • 11:32 am – 12:13 pm
    • Lunch with everyone around the office. Bounce ideas off of people on how to better improve the energy device and how to get it to places people need it the most.
  • 12:13 – 2:34 pm
    • More work. At 1:24 pm I get that awesome feeling you get when you realize you just discovered something no one else has ever discovered (I have had that feeling many more times than it has ever been true…in this case it would be). The product still needs some development, but it’s at that moment that I know it is a viable solution and something that can be made and sold to people who need it.
  • 2:45 – 3:45 pm
    • Celebratory massage (Sometimes you just gotta chill out).
  • 4:00 pm – 5:47 pm
    • Soundcheck and a light rehearsal with my band. It goes flawlessly and everyone is very excited about the show. We decide at the last minute to include a cover of a song that we think will be a crowd pleaser (for all ages).
  • 6:02 – 7:47 pm
    • Dinner with family and a small group of friends at the local bistro. We have some kind of a duck dish paired with a few Great Lakes brews. It is absolutely delicious. The entire meal is complimented by intellectually stimulating conversation and friends getting to meet family.
  • 8:01 – 8:53 pm
    • Relax with bandmates backstage. Visit from tech/nerd/music fan who wanted to meet us and we all hang out.
  • 9:00 – 10:45 pm
    • A night of jazz and funk in front of friends, family and fans. The fans are people that are genuinely interested in the type of music I play. The friends are from all over the country and have come back for this show. The pianos and organs and pedals and amps have all been inspected, repaired and sometimes created by me. I also get to debut a new effect that has never been used before in music production. In lab tests the new effect makes people want to get up and dance 46% more than music played without it. I had previously decided to call it a danceofonium.
  • 10:47 – 12:30 am
    • Hanging out backstage with all of my friends that were nice enough to come to my show. Friends from different parts of my life get to meet and get along really well. Everyone there enjoys good music, food and beer, all of which are being served up liberally.
  • 12:56 am
    • The day ends as wonderfully as it starts: a kiss goodnight from my girlfriend and puppies. I drift off to sleep dreaming of tomorrow.

I know someone out the might ask “But if you feel like music is such an important part of your life, why do you do engineering?” A valid question. First off, I think engineering is an even more important part of my life. I don’t think our chosen work should be taken lightly, as it’s 1/3 of our lives roughly, and because of that I sought out work that continually challenges me and allows me to try different things every day. I think that engineering allows the part of me that wants to impact the world and leave a legacy behind that has much further implications than music. Engineering (and specifically electrical engineering) is collaborative, creative and can have a very positive impact on millions of people. While I feel that music can do the same, I don’t feel like that’s the reason I play music and I’m not sure I would want to play music to try to change the world. In the end, I play music for myself and for my friends and if other people enjoy it, that is an added bonus.

I’m curious, what is your perfect day like? Have you ever thought of something like this before? I think it really can give you and those around you great insight into what you aspire to be and do with your life. I would love to see what you have in mind in the comments on this page or a link to a post you write about your perfect day.

Categories
Engineering House Life

Energy Consumption Improvements in the House

Now that we’ve made it through a bit of the summer, I think we really need to focus on something important.

Winter is on the way!

If I recall correctly, my home is still not quite up to snuff in terms of how much money I’d like it to cost me to heat and energize my house. I realize my home will never be 100% efficient. I also realize I’m not going to plop down money to get to 100% because that’s silly and sort of impossible. Instead, I have to pick my battles with my own castle and decide what will produce the biggest returns.

  1. Insulate
    • This is the number one project for the late summer/fall for me. I have very poor insulation in my upper floor. In fact, when we bought our house we could actually see the snow melting on the roof where the heat was escaping. Talk about watching your money fly out of your pocket! Check with a local contractor to see how much insulation you’ll need to really see some energy savings. Also, don’t forget the federal credit when you’re finally cutting that check…you could get up to a $1500 tax rebate.
    • But wait…there’s more! Don’t think that whole house insulation is the only thing to focus on. Oftentimes, the biggest culprits of letting expensive, hot air out (or in really) are the small cracks around windows and doors. Spending 40 bucks on some expandable foam, a tube of caulk, a water heater blanket and some new winterizing doorstops can go a long way.
  2. Turn it off
    • There’s no denying that the most effective way to cut energy consumption is by turning devices and lighting off when not using it. This idea, coupled with using energy when it is cheapest and most abundant, is the crux of the “smart grid” idea. For devices that aren’t managed by a central management unit such as the one in the article, most devices now have a “sleep” mode that has reduced processing instructions; the device periodically “wakes up” to check to see if anyone has requested its services and if not it’s back to sleep. Devices with low quiescent current (or the current while not doing much of anything) can show large energy consumption savings.
  3. Buy/Replace
    • Even though people probably don’t relish the idea of throwing away (or hopefully recycling) their old appliances, this is sometimes the best option. Your old freezer in the basement might be saving you trips to the grocery store (good) but might be doing it at the environment’s and your expense by increasing your electricity bill(bad). Pick up a Kill-a-Watt meter to see how much power your old junker is really pulling out of the grid; if it’s considerable, think about pulling the plug.
  4. Inspect your ductwork
    • Oy, with the not-electronics already! I know, it’s not glamorous, but it’s often the simple things in houses that can really cost you. This is a big weakness in my house and something I will have to address before this winter. Back in the 50s and 60s they must have thought it fashionable (or at least cheap) to attach boards to the underside of the crossbeams of my floors. As such, the air actually being pulled down through the cold air returns is minimal, most of the air is actually pulled down through the floorboards and back into the cold air intake of my furnace. It’s a good time in the summer to check out where your ducts are leaking air so that you can save big dollars in the winter months.
  5. Junk Water Dump
    • I saw an article a while back about the waste water from your tub also wasting energy. Think about how much natural gas/electricity it takes to get your water heater to temperature. Now think about how warm the water still is when it’s washed away all the nasty off your body. Finally, think about how cold the tap water can e in the winter. If you have a reservoir underneath your tub collecting warm wastewater and then coil the incoming cold water through it on the way to the water heater, you could possibly retain some of that usually wasted energy. Check out the link and check to see if you ever have that kind of option the way your house is set up. This could be the same for the dishwasher and the washing machine while the water is on “warm”.

I know you’ll see a lot of this information elsewhere but I’d feel silly not to encourage readers here to try it out for this coming winter. As I said above, there are many different monetary incentives to do so, both in rebates and power savings. I plan on getting the jump on these updates now so I can take advantage of the energy savings for cooling my house as well as heating it later on. If I find out about or come up with any other ways to save money and energy in the future, I’ll be sure to post them here.

What about you? Have you decided to do any updates to your home (energy-wise) while the weather is still nice? Do you have any tips you’d like to share? Just leave them in the comments!

Categories
Analog Electronics Digital Electronics Life Politics

The Digital Switchover and Why It’s About People

The Digital Switchover.

Not me. I almost did that a while back, but no. Not me.

Television.

Normally I wouldn’t write about it. A digital television standard is long overdue and in the end this will be a good thing. When you compare Analog vs Digital, there are many more benefits on the digital side of things: lower power for transmission, better bandwidth of signal, more bandwidth usage over the spectrum. All of these are good things. I can even talk about how those digital signals still have lots of analog components as they’re transmitted over the airwaves: multipath, signal loss, power calculation, reception problems, etc.

But no. I’d rather point something else out:

Technology adoption is driven by human nature. It must be adopted before it can help people.

Sure, the digital signals will be great. High Definition pictures and you don’t have to give a dime to those lovely cable companies. Lower power generation required to transmit the signals will help save the environment by lowering the carbon footprint. But until the switch actually happens (today…maybe), no one gets the benefits. The switchover has been delayed to now from this past February. Lawmakers deemed the country unready to make the switchover at that time. I mean, if people can’t watch TV, how will the politicians get their message out to the masses?

No matter how many new devices are introduced into the marketplace and no matter how available they make DTV switcher boxes, people still will not change until pushed. They will not go out and get the digital box or call their local politician until one day they turn on their television and the signal is not there. That is what will drive the final changeover. I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw a little bit more leeway from politicians before stations are officially told to shut off the analog transmitters.

This problem isn’t exclusive to television. This has happened for the past 30 years in conservation and renewable energy.  Regardless of how many times climate change experts point out we’re killing the planet, nothing moves until there is a scare that oil is running out (it is) or natural gas won’t always be available (it won’t) or coal is filthy (it is) or the power just goes out. Then people change their tune; they change gears and start thinking about buying that solar array or that home wind turbine. They start recycling again because they think it will start to help (it will, but what about the past 10 years of bottles you put in the landfill?). But the thing is, you need to think about buying the solar cells now, when there isn’t a 6 month backlog of installation requests and prices are jacked up due to demand. And Solar might even already be an affordable option for you.

I’m sure people will say there’s an economic aspect of it for DTV and that the people that use analog signals the most can’t afford the converter boxes. Perhaps that has some truth to it. But the point remains that no matter the technology, until that last group resistant or indifferent to change decides to go out and do something about it, those people can’t be helped.

What about you? Have you made the switchover yet? If not, why? Leave a note in the comments.

Categories
Health Learning Life Music Work

Generation “Why Aren’t I Better?”

I am not a perfectionist. I think of myself as too practical to be a perfectionist.

However, I find myself setting very high expectations for myself and I don’t feel I am alone. Generation Y has always been encouraged by parents and others every step of the way. We have been told we can do anything and more drastically, we can do everything. We have been multitasking since kindergarten and over-scheduled ever since. We played the most little-league sports, we took the private music lessons, we had the private language tutors, we were boy scouts. We had the most extra-curriculars on our college applications, we had the best grades we could, we took all of the AP classes and we applied to more colleges than we’d ever need to. We took the most engineering credits, studied as many hours as we could stand, we drank during the remaining hours and we graduated with as many minors as they let us. We had the most interviews as our schedules would allow, we got the most job offers, we had the biggest signing bonuses and we got the fanciest job. We expect the biggest promotions at work, the biggest pay raises, the best benefit packages and the best of everything.

Now what?

OK, I’m not saying I did all those things above, but some of them rang true. I’d be willing to guess there are a few readers out there in the same boat. And now that I’ve exited the goal driven world of school and extracurriculars, I still have the drive and I have the spirit, but there isn’t as much need for it. Yes, I try as hard as I can at work and that continues to be a focus of my efforts. But in the rest of my life there’s really no pressure to do anything if I don’t place it on myself. Some would say that this is a great thing! “You can relax now!”, they say. But it is more of a mindset that we place upon ourselves naturally. A few examples:

  1. I have recently started playing music again since fixing my Wurlitzer 200. I immediately expected to excel at playing once again with much less practice than I had during other times I was playing.
  2. When starting this and other blogs I immediately expected people to flock to my site to read what I had to say. I did not understand at first that the content that I write must be good enough for people to want to read it and that others must link to it for it to really be found.
  3. When I began investing some of my income a few years back I instantly expected the stocks and funds I picked to begin beating the S&P500, even though I had no experience. I mean, hey, I read some books!
  4. Every single time I (re)start weight training I end up hurting myself because I try to do the same amount I remember doing the last time or expect to be able to do even more.
  5. I expect to have great relationships with people I am close to, even though I spend time doing more frivolous things like checking Facebook or Twitter instead of being in the moment with those next to me. I expect to be connected with everyone and know what’s going one with everyone all the time.

I point out my flaws because I think they are natural reactions to some of these situations, if not unrealistic. Perhaps the same is true for the general population or perhaps they are more specific to the high-expectation crowd of Generation Y. The truth is that in all things, there are averages. In music and in new media and in investing and everything else, there is always an average, always a mediocre player. However, Generation Y was consistently exposed to the top .1% by parents and the media. We have always been told not only can we do anything and everything but that we will also be THE best at it. Am I being clear how this doesn’t make sense that so many people believe they can be so good at everything? No? Let me be clearer, using one of my favorite uses of (overly) simple statistics:

Think of how bad the average driver is on any given day. Half are worse than that.

It’s such simple terms to think in, but really MOST people are going to be average, right? Do you really think that you are as bad a driver as most people out there? I know most people I talk to think they are top notch.

The point here is that these skills and talents do not come without practice. You can’t just step in and become an expert at anything and everything just by starting to do something. But people in Gen Y continue to expect to do so. We have been told and we continue to hear stories of Wunderkinds, but we never stop to question the work those people had to do to get where they are. Think about it: how often does the nightly news report on the 4 year old that can play Mozart? And how many times does the same news show highlight the parent forcing the child to hold a violin at 6 in the morning and practicing 8 hours a day? I don’t mean to demonize the media because I understand they are just trying to get the story; but it only adds to the mystique of the no-work success.

So what happens when you tell an entire generation that they will be THE best (at everything) and they figure out that it might not happen? I think we haven’t even begun to see the beginning of how these attitudes manifest themselves in the public and online. Let’s list off some of the more obvious ways:

  • Twitter — It can be used for good and for evil but I believe at least some of the popularity of the site stems from being able to show off how you are the “best” at whatever you’re doing. By showing your “uniqueness” on Twitter it allows people to believe they are different from the masses. Instead of taking time to concentrate on one subject and become better at it, our attention is again fragmented by constant updates and updates about minutiae.
  • Facebook and all the rest of social media — I think one of the ways that Gen Y shields themselves from the realities of the world is by surrounding themselves by friends or “friends” in the case of people you connect with online but don’t really know that well. I think of if I ever formed a new band. If I got all of my friends to come out to a show,  it’s likely they would say nice things after the show to me, even if I stunk up the house. I have nice friends. But really that’s shielding me from the reality that if I played the same music for a group of strangers, I’d get rotten tomatoes and zucchini thrown at me (do people ever really do that?).  As a generation we surround ourselves with friends, quasi friends and complete strangers online in order to share our successes and get positive feedback. But doing that with everything in our lives can mask areas where we really need improvement.
  • Social Isolationism — One major downside is that in expecting the best from ourselves we automatically become critical of others. This hinders our ability to go out and meet new people. The best way to connect with a person is to enter the new relationship with a sense of wonder…what does this person know, what can they teach me, etc. If we aren’t entering new social situations this way and instead we automatically instead begin looking for faults, then new relationships are doomed to fail. And then people go back to the social media tools listed above and end up isolating themselves more.
  • Higher Quit Rates — Penelope Trunk often cites the fact that Gen Y changes jobs on average every 18 months; she also loves what this adds to the workplace dynamic. And while I don’t disagree that changing jobs more often can advance your career in certain ways (compensation, respect at a new job), I think that it is a trend that is likely to go down after a time (meaning people quitting after even less than 18 months). Even at a year and a half in a technical position, I am not sure that enough depth of knowledge is gained to really move on to another job. So people in Gen Y will start to move on to the next job quicker and quicker, expecting to excel at each without ever learning the system and without ever putting the time in to gain useful knowledge for themselves or their next position.
  • Forgotten Blogs — You can find a lot of interesting things on the final pages of a Google search; most notable is the web garbage from those that had the same high expectations for a blog as I mentioned above. Pages upon pages of half-finished thoughts will sit there untouched until accounts go obsolete or the person gives it another shot. It’s natural for people to quit doing things; in fact doing it at the right time is a skill. But quitting simply because you are not instantly the best at something is not right, doubly so when you forget to remove your online record of it.

It will be interesting to see how these things will change over time. More than likely, new online services and activities will pop up that exacerbate the problems in Gen Y. Eventually I’m sure people will begin to see the virtue of putting the time in learning depth of a subject and not just breadth. Then expectations about being considered an “expert” will be more realistic.

It’s not hard to see this is a self-deprecating post. I do it as a slap to my own face and because I have found myself getting increasingly stressed over things in my life that aren’t all that important; the stress is derived from unrealistic expectations and not properly prioritizing the things I do on a daily basis. And I’m not saying that you shouldn’t strive to be the best in everything that you do, because in reality someone always does have to be in that top .1%. I just think more people should think about expectations they set for themselves and the time they allocate to activities in which they expect to be experts. Slowing myself down and re-evaluating how I set goals and expectations for myself is a healthy process and one I need to do to keep self-induced stress low.

What about you? Do you put a lot of pressure on yourself? Do you fall into the category of “Generation Y” or are you from a different generation? If so, how do you set expectations for yourself?

Categories
Engineering Life Politics

What The World Needs, Part 2

Engineering parents don’t tell their kids to study engineering for lots of reasons. One of the biggest reasons is that they don’t understand what engineers do. There aren’t really any television shows that explain it. It’s not sexy enough for Hollywood. There really just isn’t much information to the general public unless they are looking for it. I know I didn’t have much access to this info before seeking it out. And I know how it feels to have people nicely shake their heads and smile when I explain what I do at parties.

So I’ve decided part 2 of the “What the world needs” series here will be more references to engineering in popular culture. It can be advertising in any form (as in “Any press is good press”). People talking about engineering and what the heck they do might inspire some to go out and find out more. They might start reading blogs about engineering (dream on Chris). How might this stuff get into the mainstream? Well, comics of course! And no, not Dilbert. I choose XKCD for my mainstream weapon of choice. If you have never read the site, I insist that you go there immediately and read as many backlogged comics as possible. The author has a great grasp of mathematics, science, love and life. Bringing focus onto engineering/science/nerdy culture can only do good things for the profession and encouraging kids to explore if they would enjoy the work.

A note about the comics on XKCD, always be sure to mouse over the comics to get the “hidden message” which extends the sarcasm and awesomeness of the comic itself. Without further ado, my new favorite XKCD:

Urgent Mission

(If you don’t quite get it, current is defined in the opposite direction of how electrons actually flow thanks to Ben Franklin. This can get REALLY confusing when working with electronics, but eventually you learn to deal with it. Eventually.)

Categories
Economics Engineering Life Supply Chain

Are Engineers Naturally Cheapskates?

In a down economy, there is always focus on low cost. Job cutting, project re-definition, scaling back expenses, finding new sources of parts, all of these actions can lead to lower costs and help businesses stay alive in crappy economic climates. I think that the average (electrical) engineer can’t but help to let this mentality creep into other parts of their lives. In fact, I think the best engineers enter the profession and excel with this mindset. This revelation about engineering penny pinchers may have been stumbled upon by myself after being accused of being overly-thrifty a time or two. I don’t mind it though; I think maintaining a mindset of low cost is good for my work life and my personal life.

I have been on my own personal finance journey ever since I bought a house in the middle of a recession. I have been a regular reader of Get Rich Slowly, a fantastic blog about personal money issues, getting out of debt, smart money planning and tips on living a simple and frugal life. One of my favorite books suggested by JD has been The Ultimate Cheapskate’s Road Map to True Riches. It is full of interesting ideas to save money in non-traditional areas and generally living a simple and fulfilling life. If you’ve never read it, I highly suggest it. I also suggest to my engineering friends out there to consider how you can refocus your engineering efforts to match these principles. In his writing Jeff Yeager lists “6 golden rules for ruling your gold”, but I think they have everyday practical implications in engineering. Here is how I translate them for a thrifty engineer:

  1. Live within your means at thirty, and stay there. — I translate this idea as staying on budget for a project. A simple idea but many projects fail to do so. However, this also assumes you have a realistic budget in the first place. Allotting $10 for test equipment when you don’t have any and you plan to work on high speed signals is not a realistic way to start a project.
  2. Never underestimate the power of not spending. — Again, this is my translation but I would say this would be to cut out extraneous costs in a project. True, this sounds a bit scrooge-like, but I feel if I was bootstrapping my own company, this would be the only way I would operate. Ten years down the road you will remember the feeling of accomplishing your goal of releasing a product more than you will remember the t-shirt and mug you got commemorating it.
  3. Discretion is the better part of shopping. — I’ll speak more on this later, but the idea is to understand when you are buying a valuable product or service and when you are just being “sold” on something. It also means you have to understand the intricacies of what you are buying. From an analog engineering perspective, I think of this as buying a switching converter or something similar. Sure, you know you need to change the voltage supplied to a part of a circuit, but unless you know why you do or don’t need the latest and greatest buck converter, you might end up paying too much (for something you won’t necessarily need…could a linear regulator do the trick?).
  4. Do for yourself what you could have others do for you. — Design services are available for just about any task in engineering.If you were desperate enough, you could farm out every task in a project to a separate engineering firm that would piecemeal put together your project for you (READ: outsourcing). While it’s nice to use this service every once in a while to help speed up a portion of a project you are not an expert with, the time it takes to learn what has been done for you will often outstrip the time you save. Then if something breaks later no one knows how to fix it and you must pay the same design firm to help you again.
  5. Anyone can negotiate anything. — This is my favorite of the six golden rules and the one I have been taking most seriously lately. My attitude has been, “What is the downside to asking for a discount from a vendor?” If you are the customer, the most they will tell you is that they cannot swing any discount; at that point I thank them for their time and tell them I will get back to them after talking to some competitors. In a recession, people are eager to make a sale and are willing to lose some of their margin to do so. Don’t think of it as costing them money, think of it as gracing them with your business in a down time.
  6. Pinch the dollars, and the pennies will pinch themselves. — Paying $0.10 more per resistor when you are only buying 100 may have huge dividends. It could reduce the error in a circuit by orders of magnitudes. This is a small expense. Paying $100,000 for an oscilloscope that can measure 80 GHz when you really only need 10 GHz (still a little too RF-y for my tastes) could save you a significant amount of money and raise your overall margin for a product. Making money decisions based on need instead of “ooo-look-at-this-ery” can help project teams, companies and individuals have more rewarding payoffs at the end of a project.

Adding to the cheapskate stew and something briefly mentioned in point 3 above is discretion when buying a new product. I believe engineers are well suited for this mindset and that it stems from a slight mistrust of marketers and salesman. This is neither vituperation against engineers or any salesmen or marketers I have known, just that it is a general trend I have seen. I believe it is the result of encountering both sides of the sale. From the product designer perspective, there is often tension with marketers and salesmen when there is lack of communication. If the salesman talks to a customer and tells them that a new product can jiggle a widget 3x faster than the competition, the customer may purchase the product thinking it will always be jiggling at 3x of FluxCorp‘s latest product. But if the product can only sometimes and under the correct conditions jiggle that fast, well, there will be some problems; when the salesman relays back to the engineer that the customer is unhappy with their new product, arguments and finger pointing may ensue. On the other side of the sale, engineers often encounter sales forces descending upon them to encourage using their sub-widget in the new widget jiggler. If the salesman can supply a portion of the design to your new product then they will share in your success, because every new product made is a sale for them (albeit only a fraction of your product’s final sale price).  However, engineers sometimes encounter marketers and salesman (on the “being sold to” side of things) that may provide some “stretching” of the truth of a sub-widget’s ability. In either case, I believe that being a part of selling to others and being sold to helps hone engineers’ ability to sniff out when they are being sold something (as opposed to buying something because they want/need it). This is both something learned in engineering and a quality that some of the best engineers possess.

Yet another thing that drives engineers towards thriftiness is the nature of their jobs. If you look at an engineer and compare them to a scientist, there are some interesting distinctions. First, engineers are responsible for bringing products to market. This means that whatever technology they are using (oftentimes first discovered by scientists) must be viable on a large scale and must be done efficiently. If a scientist determines that a capacitor can hold more energy if you tap on it with your finger 1000 times before applying a voltage across it, that might be a brilliant (albeit completely fake) discovery. The engineer has to worry about how that capacitor can be sold at a reasonable price (in relation to the demand of the marketplace) and how to possibly produce millions of finger-tapped capacitors as fast as possible. Most importantly, the engineer and the company he/she works for is judged on the difference of the cost and the selling price (margin). More often than not the marketplace will be the one determining the price, so the only option for making more money is to reduce the costs in producing the product. A scientist may have external funding which allows for time to discover the newest technologies that will be later implemented; there is less direct influence on the success of the technology by near-term funding (though I know grant-writing is no picnic). The direct payoff and re-investment of profit from a successful product introduction influences how engineers operate. The thrifty engineers are successful because they can have the money they save go directly back into their next product.

A counter argument to being a (true) cheapskate is when it comes to quality. Many times in work and in life there can be significant savings from buying a quality product the first time. An example might be buying a high quality, variable temperature soldering iron (maybe even with an auto shut down). Compare that to buying a piece of junk Radio Shack soldering iron that you happen to leave on after working on your Wurlitzer. The former can last you many years and will perform well and help you solder many different products throughout its lifetime. The RS soldering iron burns out in less than a year (perhaps due to negligence, we’ll never know) and is not capable of soldering even the largest components properly. In this example there is money saved by not having to purchase another RS soldering iron and there is time saved while working on a project. So while I say that I am a cheapskate, I try to take all costs–including time–into account when purchasing something.

So answer the question Chris. Are engineers naturally cheapskates? After looking at the facts here it is pretty obvious that no, engineers are not naturally cheapskates; rather, they are often in a position to pick up money-saving skills while working on engineering issues and are well liked by management if they succeed in saving money. Also, if you happen to have some innate cheapness you will be at an advantage when starting out in engineering. Some of the people I have encountered in engineering have shown me the benefits of reducing costs in their personal lives and always knowing as much as possible about what they are buying so they can make make the best possible decision.

How about you? Are you a cheapskate? You definitely don’t have to be an engineer to be one. Do you find that engineers are naturally more thrifty? Please let me know in the comments or take the poll below!

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Photo by MacQ