Chris Eddy wrote:

> Patience, Grasshopper.  The gulf between the fresh rosy face and the seen it,
done
> it engineer is measured in years.  When I jumped in the big pond, I had 5 year
s
> of  design experience.  I started out making $25 per hour, and begging to be
> 'trusted'.  4.5 years later, I have hit 50-55 per hour.  It would be higher, b
ut
> western Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh) is a bit funny about big dollar figures.  In
 my
> first year as a consultant, our family income was $14,000, with student loans
and
> debt to boot.
>
> What I am saying is that you may be able to cut down the growth time through s
heer
> intelligence and hard work, but it takes time, nevertheless.  I am personally
> convinced that BSEE should be no less than a six year degree, so that guys lik
e
> you can come out of school and be ready to take on the hard stuff.  I have see
n
> alot of code come my way (panic! can you help us out of a bind?) where the
> engineer was darn smart, but did not know how to write solid code.  Brute forc
e
> work got it to work at all.
>

Here at U.C., it takes _only_ 5 years to get a BSEE.  IMHO, the best part of our
curriculum is our manditory co-op.  So far, I've accumulated over a year and a h
alf of
REAL engineering work.  I agree, I started with the brute-force method.  While I
 was
able to MAKE things work, I quickly saw it was the hard way to do things. I know
 now
when I return for my final co-op quarter, I'll be able to churn out quality work
 which
will stand the rigors of real engineering problems.... I won't complain about th
e
money there anyway.  :)

-Vincent Deno

>
> But don't loose your invincibility cloak, it may come in handy. (will).
>
> Chris Eddy
> Pioneer Microsystems, Inc.