I’m changing the focus of my life. For the last few months, I’ve been freelancing, which allowed me to work part-time while supporting an ailing family member during their final months.
The last freelance project has now completed field trials; only one code iteration was needed to support a minor board rev. My job is done! I’m ready for new challenges.
So, my casual job search is now an active one, and it’s becoming my main focus. What’s next?
What do I want to do next?
There are four things I like doing.
- Hiking
- Photography
- Engineering
- Writing
Hiking doesn’t pay, and, at my skill level, neither does photography; besides, I don’t want to turn either hobby into a chore.
Writing pays, but I have no proven record (well, I have blogs), and don’t know where to start in that field.
Engineering pays well enough to live in this area.
What do I actually want to do next?
I want to get into a smallish company; I often say that a company of 50-100 people is my preference, but that’s not quite true. I like to be in an engineering team of 5-50 people.
I’ve been in very small companies, as in three people; The HW engineer, the marketeer, and me. I love the challenges in this size group, but there’s no safety net. No one for code reviews, but you do get to “rubber duck” with the other engineer. We’ve had good success in some cases, and in others, stalled out once we have the white papers and patent applications, only to find we are not visible in the market, it wasn’t a niche to fill, or we made a couple of flawed assumptions and couldn’t pivot before the money ran dry.
I’ve been in huge companies (in 2010, could you get bigger than Cisco?) I was in Flip Video, a part of the consumer products group. It felt like we were a small company renting space in a large corporate building. I knew most of my team, but not everyone. I like having that level of intimacy; you have a good grasp of who does what and know who the resident expert is on any subject.
Preferred Industries and Roles
I would like to work in one of my favorite industries:
- Cameras
- ITS/IVHS (or VTS and maritime applications, or railroads)
- Safety systems
- STEM/STEAM educational “toys”
However, I also enjoy getting pulled into random industries. A recruiter matched me with a smart oven company a few years ago. I finally got to learn OTA firmware updates inside and out, as well as spend time with the chefs, getting kitchen tips.
At one camera company, I was allowed to architect the hardware, firmware, and gateware of their camera array systems. I defined the bus protocols and drove the extensions to the camera peripheral port command set. I worked with the UX team on control flow needs and did schematic reviews and board bring-up with my EE. I specified the FPGA implementation and reviewed the Verilog. I led a small team of SW engineers on FW development. I also interfaced with QA for test automation and developed factory flashing scripts and BIST code to enable the production flow.
I really enjoyed my first steps toward systems architecture and want to do more of this work. I’m looking for Staff Embedded Engineer, Lead Embedded SW/FW Eng, and Embedded Systems Architecture roles.
Summing Up
I’m ready to get back into full-time employment. I want a position where my experience is invaluable but also where there is still scope to learn even more and broaden my horizons.
I have preferred industries where I want to do more, so I will be focussing the search in those areas. But I also enjoy new adventures in technology, so I will keep my mind open while searching.
I live in an area of diverse opportunities for engineers, and I am looking forward to seeing what is out there for me.
Glorified Plumbing 