#GOOGLE EMC ENGINEER PATCH#

NOTE: this was one of my best career decisions! That way, we could work together to resolve the issues and coordinate testing and design reviews for the project. The project managers were desperate, definitely on edge, and were expecting miracles.Īfter quite a bit of networking and a LOT of listening, I suggested that the project manager from each design team assign one of their group as the responsible regulatory liaison between the group and me as the EMC engineer. By the time I was hired, some projects were six months late due to EMI issues. Besides boning up more on EMC theory and design, I also knew I needed to make clear to the dozen, or so, product design groups that as a “one man show”, there was no possible expectation that the designers would be able to “throw” their product onto my workbench and expect I’d be able to “fix” all the numerous EMC issues myself. I figured this would translate pretty well into the world of EMC. Up to this point, working for various aerospace companies, I had had experience in microwave design, DC-DC power converters (talk about going from “DC to Daylight”!) and RF design.

#GOOGLE EMC ENGINEER PATCH#

I determined I’d better find out why these two had been fired (they were incompetent) and had best find a way to patch things up between the Quality Department, where the EMC function resided, and the R&D designers, who were considered the “top dogs” in the organization. If someone wasn’t performing, they’d generally get “moved” into another department where their skills were a better match. The organization was pretty well known for the “country club” and collegial atmosphere. Joining the company in 1988, and after just about two weeks on the job as a new EMC engineer for the Colorado Springs Division of HP (oscilloscopes and logic analyzers), I learned that BOTH my predecessors had been fired! Now getting fired from HP back then was almost unheard of. I was always grateful for that vote of confidence. “Ken is an HP employee who just hasn’t found HP yet”. One of my greatest complements was from one of my technical interviewers, who said.

A lot of this was learned, of course, the hard way during my career up to that point, but much was gleaned from the top management books at the time (1980s era). In my own case, I was fortunate to have been brought up in the “HP Way” and had already learned many of the skills required to successfully work with multiple work groups and personalities, as well as the ability to speak on the level of engineers and management prior to getting my foot in the door at Hewlett-Packard. Let me relate my early experience as a new EMC engineer first and then we’ll get to some of the responses.

To answer your question directly, there may be some benefit to learning engineering design practices before diving into the field of EMC, however, if you have an experienced EMC engineer from which you can learn the ropes, that could work as well.

Google emc engineer