cool job interviews

oh, and for interviews. Back in college I helped interview new prospective Lab and grading TA's. We try to hire as many people as possible, as the tuition benefit is maximized that way.

so of about 35 people, we hired 1.

but why? Many of the canidates had never used any (literally) of the lab equipment. This severly hurt their chances of getting a job TEACHING labs. One guy had a great resume for "satellite communication engineering". unfortunantly, he could not draw the spectrums for AM, DSB-SC, and SSB-SC. One canidate was asked to draw a logic-gate level adder. Ended up with a shift register. But the best one...

A professor picked up a resistor at random. then asked the canidate the value. the color codes are on a large chart. so he reads brown-blue-yellow -- 160k. well, the yellow band was actually gold, so its 1.6ohm. still, this is an understandable mistake. so he's ask to confirm this using the multimeter.

"well, if i had a way to measure current, and a voltage source, I could determine the resistance". He had never used a multimeter. so we show him what button to press to measure resistance (autoranging). He's still dumbfounded. after a few minutes (yes, not a short time), we show him the rack of cables.

Awesome, a lightbulb goes off. He picks up the BNC to alligator clip wire and starts to shove the alligator clips into the banna-jack inputs of the multimeter... ahhhh, thwarted again. This actually doesn't work. at least not for him. So a minute or so later, we suggest using a different cable.

In anycase, he didn't get the "teaching labs to students" job...

edit -- these are all grad students, or undergrads in an accelerated program. These people all had degrees from some university somewhere...

Ambient said:

lol no. Try to come up with 10 reasons though. It's not easy when you are nervous. The easiest is: It's easier to roll 300lb of iron than carry it.

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The true answer is probably so it is impossible to fall into the hole. By the way, I want that teaching lab equipment job, that sounds really easy.

Ambient said:

Thanks guys. Lots of great advice. I will be doing some praying for sure. Half of it will be for just getting there without getting killed. People in my state suck at driving.

Hopefully I don't get stuck in it, but I was planning on starting my own company at one point anyways. At the moment I will take the first job that comes my way lol. My grades were not stellar, as I was more of a hands on type of learner in a not so hands-on school. I got nervous and would forget things that I knew in a test. In the lab I was the guy people came to for help. Before a test, I went to them lol. Hopefully I will have better luck than your buddy, Roff. This is a small company (9-10), so I shouldn't have a problem with people ignoring my value like in a large company.

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Sounds good.

Praying is the most important thing. There are several candidates out there much more experienced than you and probably willing to work cheaper. For some reason, they picked you. Be grateful to the lord for this opportunity and don't let it go to your head that you accomplished this all on your own. You have had alot of help along the way. The lord, your parents/guardians and friends and whatnot. Thank them and stop by them for a visit from time to time. I sent my radio club advisor a AVT Department polo shirt and some posters from BATC. I got my advisors some LEXMARK RFID T-shirts. So be grateful.

Be humble and be yourself. You probably have a nice personality. HR people want folks who are team players and tackle problems with positive attitudes. Engineers want guys who are competent and get along very well. no one wants an old fart that complains and makes everyone's life miserable.

I wouldn't worry too much about the grades. People understand that there are intangibles and other circumstances during one's college life. Some kids get all the help from their parents, so no problems. But alot of folks have jobs, families and other commitments that might effect school. But the HR and engineer(s) that interviewed you saw qualities in you that satisfy the position.

When you get there, just be yourself and try to move with the flow. Ask for help when needed, if you are not familar with something, don't touch it, especially if you feel uncomfortable.

Whe I first started using network analyzers, these were very expensive equipment, something like 50K USD and above. They are sensitive to ESD events, suppose if a spark came in contact with the ports that exceeded 40 dBm, that will damage the whole equipment.
So we must wear wrist straps, still I wasn't sure, but I asked. Later on, once I got familiar with it, I used the reference book to touch on advanced topics like port extensions, Q-testing and whatnot.

But my key point is ask and soak up as much information and training as you can while you're there.


You'll enjoy it! You'll have fun working on cool projects, meeting interesting people and doing fun activities. Take a deep breath, relax and pray to the lord and all things will be fine!

Salgat said:

The true answer is probably so it is impossible to fall into the hole. By the way, I want that teaching lab equipment job, that sounds really easy.

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They don't pay very well and the work is overbearing. I graded ECE 444 Introduction to Communications Theory. I had alot of headaches with kids copying there matlab assignments and not knowing what a fourier transform is, let alone convolution theory. I argued with students that the solution was wrong, they'd gripe over me with a few oints. sometimes i caved in because i was tired or i didn't want to spend my free time looking over someone's homework.

The only benefit is that it waves tuition. But I guess to some folks its worth it. But I'll never to do it again! EVER!

I don't believe that manhole question. I can make a a square lid, tapered to a dovetail in the end. sort of like a trapezoid, that will never cave in due to the geometry. but meh...microsoft supposedly used it as a way to gauge prospective employees. but we all know, windows crashes all the time, so ....the question is suspect at best. its a trick question.

Ambient said:

Anyone else have some cool interview stories? Post em here!

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No Lol I was finding a job to work with electronics stuff but my poor country doesn't have them.The job i'm currently doing is something completely different from my electronics side i don't like that

Gayan Soyza said:

No Lol I was finding a job to work with electronics stuff but my poor country doesn't have them.The job i'm currently doing is something completely different from my electronics side i don't like that

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Join a radio club! Great way to learn and sustain electronics technology.

Salgat said:

The true answer is probably so it is impossible to fall into the hole.

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I thought so, too, at first. I think an equilateral triangle would also do the same trick, or maybe a hexagon. Given that, I think Ambient's answer that because it's easier to roll than pick up is a pretty good one. I put it to my girlfriend, she said that if the cover ever came loose, it would cause the least amount of damage to cars (i.e. no pointy bits). There seems to be a lot of good answers for "circle," it's the why that demonstrates imagination, I think.

quixtron said:

I don't believe that manhole question. I can make a a square lid, tapered to a dovetail in the end. sort of like a trapezoid, that will never cave in due to the geometry.

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Please post a picture of what you mean.

minimum manhole sizes are set by standart
to have a minimum size at all directions the circle is the most economical to produce in order of material usage but also in the manufacturing process

so at the end of the day it is again the co$t of the product that shaped the manhole cover

Robert-Jan

Also the fact that the pipes are round would make a triangular manhole cover look pretty stupid.

A triangle can fall through. A hexagon can fall through. Of course, you can make the hole substantially smaller than the lid, and you can keep either one of them from falling through, but with a circle, the hole only has to be infinitesimally smaller than the lid.

Ambient said:

lol no. Try to come up with 10 reasons though. It's not easy when you are nervous. The easiest is: It's easier to roll 300lb of iron than carry it.

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I spent one summer working on cable TV plant up on poles and also down in manholes.

Workers don't roll manhole covers. Workers don't lift 300 lbs. We used a manhole cover tool that DRAGS the cover off the hole and drags it back.

And the cover is round because the hole is round!

Bob

Hank Fletcher said:

I thought so, too, at first. I think an equilateral triangle would also do the same trick, or maybe a hexagon. Given that, I think Ambient's answer that because it's easier to roll than pick up is a pretty good one. I put it to my girlfriend, she said that if the cover ever came loose, it would cause the least amount of damage to cars (i.e. no pointy bits). There seems to be a lot of good answers for "circle," it's the why that demonstrates imagination, I think.

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Well, as Roff noted, if you are allowed free reign with the width of the lip that the cover sits on when in place, then you can do it with many shapes. If you want to maximise clearance through the hole and use the least material to make the cover, then I don't think any shape but a circle or a regular polygon which approximates a circle fairly closely can be guaranteed to never fall through its own hole.

This is my line of reasoning--and please shoot any stupid points down. I'm just thinking about this because it's fun (I'm a sad, sad man):

It seems to me that a circle is the only shape which has equal maximum and minimum lines of bisection. So for any non-circle, there is a way that you can rotate it so that the minimum width of the cover passes through the maximum width of the hole.

This is using ideal shapes of two-dimensional planes. The thickness of the cover and the width of the lip will both matter. If you are allowed to make the lip width greater than the difference between the shape's maximum and minimum widths, you can make other shapes work. But then you increase the amount of material you need and reduce the room for access through the hole.

You could also increase the thickness of the cover to a greater fraction of the shape's size, but then you're also wasting material.

I think that a circle also uses the least material overall (as Robert-Jan noted) and as a couple people have also said, the holes are round.

Please post a picture of what you mean.

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I'd like to see that picture too.


Torben

I did a little research. It turns out that a Rouleaux triangle will also work. I had never heard the term.

Roff said:

A triangle can fall through. A hexagon can fall through. Of course, you can make the hole substantially smaller than the lid, and you can keep either one of them from falling through, but with a circle, the hole only has to be infinitesimally smaller than the lid.

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I suppose you're right! It kind of hurt my brain trying to think of a non-circular shape that wouldn't, then hurt it again sorting out why the non-circular would still fall through!

I better brush-up on my spatial reasoning skills. I'm hoping to join the army here soon, and part of the entry test is a portion I guess designed to gauge some aspect of recruits' aptitudes. It's multiple choice, but it involves looking at pictures of shapes and determining what goes where, e.g. choosing the right two dimensional fold-out that will fold up into a given three dimensional figure. Not the sort of thing you'd find on your average job application, I don't think!

Roff said:

I did a little research. It turns out that a Rouleaux triangle will also work. I had never heard the term.

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Well now I don't know what to think! Round triangles?!

Roff said:

I did a little research. It turns out that a Rouleaux triangle will also work. I had never heard the term.

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OK, that's pretty neat. After work today I'm going to mess around with that idea.

Thanks for the link!


Torben

[Edit: Got a break and did a little more reading and doodling--turns out that many regular Rouleaux "polygon" (puffy polygons) with odd numbers of faces have this property. Live and learn. I think this is pretty cool. Thanks again for the link!]

That is how the Wankel rotary engines are designed. But they are not very fuel efficient in the RX-7's.

Sounds like you guys are coming up with the other 9 answers I gave as well lol. The two last I gave were : preference and "The first guy made them round, so the second and so on made them round". I guess you could say heritage.

Wikipedia has a nice discussion of manhole covers, including some reasons they are round.

Torben said:

OK, that's pretty neat. After work today I'm going to mess around with that idea.

Thanks for the link!


Torben

[Edit: Got a break and did a little more reading and doodling--turns out that many regular Rouleaux "polygon" (puffy polygons) with odd numbers of faces have this property. Live and learn. I think this is pretty cool. Thanks again for the link!]

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Perhaps a circle is just a Rouleaux polygon with (2*infinity-1) sides.

Hank Fletcher said:

Quixotron's advice is great for anyone who wants to work for a living, just bear in mind that it's an ethos that will never make you a millionaire. The subordinate will always be subjugated, they just go hand in hand.

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Thats not necessarily true. One of my bosses enjoys a six figure salary, has about .5 million dollars in company stock at reduced price, travels to europe and japan at least a dozen times out of the year and has a nice pension/retirement bonus. He spends half the time in meetings, enjoys 5 weeks plus of paid vacation and enjoys calling the plays. yes, he's been there for 25 years or so at Lexmark, but he seems happy and content. I couldn't see what more a man could want.

slow and steady wins the race. cheney is a great example. the guy will retire filthy rich. he also has deep political connections within the GOP party, so he gets to make the big decisions and noone messes with him. same with mccain, he started off as a foot soldier for reangan look at him now, one step away from being president of the US. of course, these guys PUT IN THEIR TIME! we're talking a minimum of 20 years service.