On Thu, Apr 16, 2009 at 4:51 AM, Alan B. Pearce wrote: > >>Another course I had in 4th year required that the final multi-week > >>lab assignment was soldered together, I thought that was a good idea. > >>An EE should at least have some familiarity with how to solder. > > > >More than once, I suggested the "final question" to a job candidate > >was to toss them a hot soldering iron, and see which end they grab :-) > > . > > In the latter years of working for the company I did my apprenticeship > with, > I worked with the guy who got the task of sorting the prospective intake > for > new apprenticeships. He got to a point where he gave them two tests as well > as an interview. One test was a basic electronics test - draw a crystal > set, > identify component symbols, etc, to see if they had at least played with > electronics in any way as a hobby, and the other test was a basic secondary > school level maths test, as it became evident that the level of maths > learning they were attaining was pretty horrible. > > When I interviewed for my current position, there were two or three > technical people (well all minimum degree based, some with doctorates) on > the interview panel (as well as a couple of HR people), and I beat off > people with masters degrees - because I had the experience to answer the > technical questions, like sketch an analogue amplifier built around an IC > amplifier block, when and why do you use twisted pair wiring, if you feed a > pulse into a coax that is open circuit at the other end, what signal do you > see at the driving end, all basic questions which required answers learnt > early in my career, some through experience, some from book learning. But > the fresh from university applicants didn't have the experience backing to > answer these in a manner that was convincing to the panel. > > And my feeling is this is where solarwind will find the going tough, he > will > come out of university with a heap of book learning, and come crashing down > from a great height as he comes up against this requirement for experience. > I don't think anyone disagrees that experience is just as valuable as education. The problem is when you have two people with equal experience and one has more education. Even if they seem identical the one with the extra piece of paper wins. The hypothetical technician with 20 years experience may know as much as the MSEE with 5 years experience but it doesn't mean that they'd get hired over the MSEE. I'm passing no judgment here, it's just the way it happens. -- -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist