qubelife.com

Via Lifehacker:

Twentysomething: Why I regret getting straight A’s in college

Outstanding. Incredible. Dead on.

Where this article ends, is there I start with the debate of going to grad school or not.  As usual, my two cents follows:

1. No one has ever asked about my GPA.
This can close some doors to getting an interview.

2. I didn’t sleep.
I didn’t sleep either, but I had a lot of fun not sleeping… Think about blowing 80 hours a week for something you’re going to forget 95%.

3. I’ve forgotten 95% of it.
True. 6 quarters of math and calculus and now I barely use it on a day-to-day basis. The important part is that all of these types of exercises have be seen as a problem solving exercise. I hear too many people talking about “why do I have to learn this stuff”? This work is

4. I didn’t have time for people.
Really important point. The best people in my career have been people from college who

5. Work experience is more valuable.
Especially for engineers, this is key. If you

Now, I’m not saying don’t try for good grades. Doing so will open doors. Good grades will get you interviews. However, they will not ensure a good interview. However, if you know what you’re looking for, good grades are far less important.

As opposed to the bad habits that we always seem to concentrate on:

• 7 Habits of Highly Innovative People
• other links from thinksimplenow.com
  • How to Capture Creativity
  • 9 Ways of Cultivating Creativity

Probably the most interesting thing to an engineer would be the fact that the guidelines in these articles pretty much directly apply to engineering work.

SURPRISE!!!! Engineering is a creative undertaking. If you think engineering is all about logic, math and science, you’re missing the point that the right half of your brain needs to get involved from time to time.

These are also great guidelines for engineering managers to look out how to deal with those who work in their group.

As an electrical engineer, I owe so much to the transistor.  It ushered in the age of the integrated circuit and is responsible for the miniaturization of so much starting with the radio and the TV.

EETimes has a FANTASTIC article on the transistor.  It starts with the telegraph, goes to vacuum tubes and onto where we are today.

Transistors come in many varieties, the field-effect transistor (FET) being the most important. Invented in 1960 (drawing on Shockley’s work) by John Atalla, it was at first a novelty. RCA introduced a series of logic chips using FETs, but they were used only in specialty, low-power applications due to their low speed. Everyone knew the technology would never replace the much more useful junction transistor.

Now, of course, FETs are the basis of the digital revolution. The speed problems were solved, and their extremely low power requirements made it possible to pack millions on to a single IC.

It’s amazing to thing that so much has happened over the last 100 years to change how our day-to-day lives work.  In many countries, the cell phone has 70% penetration, meaning 7/10 of the population own a cell phone.   The transistor allowed for the software industry to even be conceived in its current state.  There are so many people in the Valley that owe their success to this invention; it’s worth the few minutes to read about the reason for our success.

I stumbled across this article via digg.

It’s an interesting thought on 10 hot “computer jobs”. The titles should probably be computer-related jobs or jobs that use computers extensively (but then again, name a job that doesn’t now a days). My choice comments are below about how this doesn’t just need a degree in Computer Science.

1. Environmental Simulations Developer
- The computer is the tool here to make the calculations simpler nothing more.
- The real expertise is in how the thermal model is created
- probably something to do with environmental effects
2. Video Game Developer.
- Sexy graphics always gets you thinking video games are cool. Graphics and 3d modeling are only a small part of video games. Most people in the industry have jobs as testers… not sexy.
- This is the equivalent of saying you want to play in the NFL or NBA when you grow up and realize that most jobs are in the team PR.
3. Bioinformatics Simulations Modeling.
- Similar to item #1
4. 3D Animation Technician.
- Similar to item #2, except Hollywood is becoming even more involved
5. Internet Entrepreneur.
- You still need a different idea and find the right computer technology to mate to it
- How many people do you know actually understand why Google is worth so much money.
6. Medical Modeling Systems Developer and Technician.
- See item #1
7. Digital Film Production Assistant and Technician
- Hollywood job
8. Website Network Manager / Administrator.
- Traditional IT type things. There is always a lot of confusion between IT jobs and Computer Science jobs.
9. Training Software Developer.
- You need the idea of how to train people before you write the software…
10. Visual and Audio Content Producers.
- Again the computer is the tool

Sometimes lists like this make me a bit mad.  “Hot jobs” typically means demand which typically means you can make money.  At the end of the day, it’s still important that you like your job and enjoy it.  Chasing a job without knowing truly what’s involved is why there are a lot of unhappy people in the workplace.

I read a fortune cookie once that said “Managers do things right.  Leaders do the right thing.”

In case you were ever curious about a short version of “the right thing”.  I found a good list here via Digg.

A quick Google query of “managers vs. leaders” will give you a lot of people with various takes.  Here’s the short version: You do what a manager tells you to because you HAVE to.  You do what a leader is saying because you WANT to.

There was an usual number of posts on EETimes.com over the past couple of days.  Most of them center around a number of debates regarding the US education system and engineering with some surprising discussion.

• Engineering education study draws industry fire
  • According to the report (from the Urban Institute), “available data indicate increases in the absolute numbers of secondary school graduates and increases in their math and science performance levels.” Further, the study found, “there has been growth in the number of undergraduates completing [science and engineering (S&E)] studies and the number of S&E graduates remains high by historical standards.”
• Prosperity 101: Education equity
  • A new study published by the Washington-based Urban Institute challenges those assumptions, arguing that U.S. math and science test scores are in fact better than previously thought. Its most controversial finding, however, is that there are plenty of U.S. engineering graduates but too few jobs.
• Competitiveness debate shifts to U.S. tech priorities

So many of the questions come from:

• Is the USA producing enough engineering (or simply more core Math / Science people)?
• Is engineering still a growth area to attract talent?
• What should US policy makers (ie politicians) do to change this situation?

For me, it’s the last one that seems to be out of sorts.  Why should politicians get involved?  Shouldn’t they be spending their time on something other than telling corporations how to make their jobs more appealing?

Lifehacker links:

These are two of the best succinct on-line guides I’m seen for writing a resume.

• How to construct the killer resume
  • Remember, always, that you’re trying to sell yourself to the company.
• Ten tips for writing a resume that will get the right kind of attention
  • In a nutshell, the goal of any resume is to get an interview, and the best way to get there is to show off your best accomplishments in a professional fashion and make sure that the trails they follow indicate professionalism as well.

After poking around Computerworld.com from the previous post, there was a thought provoking post about Top 10 Dying Computer Skills.

I disagree with C.  As C is still heavily used for embedded work, and there is a lack of competent, hardware-savvy C programmers.  Linux is also heavily C for lower level work.

Overall, the article is interesting from the standpoint of being an “engineer” vs. “coding expert”.  Computer languages are more like tools rather than skills.  Becoming great at a tool is a way to guaranteeing yourself extinction in the tech world. Engineering should always be a “problem solver” first using the skills and tools at their disposal to do so.

Via Slashdot.

An editorial about how gaming is changing the psychology of the workplace.

They found that 80 percent of managers in the US under the age of 35 had significant video game experience and that gamers had a more positive outlook on life than non-gamers. Gamers tended to prefer multitasking to individual assignments, to stave off boredom.

As a reformed hard-core gamer, it’s nice to see a mostly positive view on what is a irreversible change in our entertainment industry.

A nice way to start your thinking about your job and education on a whole for the week.

From EETimes.com:

• State of the Engineer - Nice high-level review of EE employment
• Salary Survey responses - Responses to the above article
  • My personal favorite response in whole is here:

The government doesn’t operate under the same “business model” as industry, and this is where the achievement gap develops between U.S. and European/Asian engineering counterparts. K-12 schools tend to teach children the skills they need to be functioning adults, i.e., capable of financially supporting themselves, and be law-abiding citizens. If this end is achieved, big-government feels they have done their part. Industry needs more than just “functioning” adults in the workforce. It needs highly skilled and motivated engineers. That’s really beyond the K-12 system’s job description, as the government has ostensibly determined.

From SF Chronicle:

• American kids, dumber than dirt - blunt title, with even more inflammatory content. Here’s part of the conclusion:

As for the rest, well, the dystopian evidence seems overwhelming indeed, to the point where it might be no stretch at all to say the biggest threat facing America is perhaps not global warming, not perpetual warmongering, not garbage food or low-level radiation or way too much Lindsay Lohan, but a populace far too ignorant to know how to properly manage any of it, much less change it all for the better.