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Can't get the staff!!!

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by guruofdos

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Wanted! Computer tech with electronics skills!

Must be able to fault find MSI circuits (4xxx, 74xx based TTL and CMOS) to component level, trace faults often without any technical data...

Must be able to build a PC from scratch and configure and install software and hardware...oh, and VB/VC++ programming is handy...x86 Assembly Language is helpful.

Crestron programming is necessary occasionally...

Must be able to specify, design and install AV systems, LCD projection systems and switchers, cabling and room and multimedia control....

Must be adept at using PC video editing software (ULead Systems), Turbocad, MSOffice and Lotus SmartSuite...

Must have a good working knowledge of AVI and MPG file formats and graphics manupulation and conversion software...

Must have good skills with basic hand tools and small workbench power tools. Wood and metalworking skills an advantage....

Duties to include development and production of military and police simulator systems, small batch production work, cable assembly, site repairs, servicing and installations of computer and AV/Presentation equipment....

No graduates....and MS certs would be a strong disadvantage!

Can I find anyone?!!! Can I hell!!!!

12 replies

by vegatecgroup

Getting someone with indepth knowledge of electronics and software is difficult because both disciplines require a great deal of higher education. I know people that have a great deal of knowledge about software engineering, but not much in the way of electronics and vice versa. Myself, I am a BSEE, but my programming skills are
limited. I have considered going back to college to get a degree in computer science, however it will take a few years to complete the process. Good luck finding someone with the disciplines you require. I am sure there is someone, somewhere with the credentials right now, but they are probably already making more money than any of us could afford.

by jardinier

I am overcome with a wave of nostalgia as I read your list of required skills. Whilst many of the current techies no doubt spent their youth playing with Commodores and Ataris, I spent mine designing and building audio amplifiers ... real high-powered stuff with about 20 watts output!
My first attempt at a career was as a Cadet Radio Engineer at AWA. I learned some basic electronic skills, as well as working with production equipment. Can you imagine standing all day, day after day, turning out soldering iron bits on a lathe? From here I moved on to assisting in the assembly of commercial radio transmitters.

I can build a PC from scratch (blindfolded and with my hands tied behind my back, I like to say).

Perhaps I would qualify as the assistant assistant to the assistant assistant !

by guruofdos

You are the sort of person I'm looking for! It's that kind of philosophy and mind-set I'm after.

Enthusiastic amateur (not meaning that in any derogatory way) with a whole pile of 'fotgotten arts' and the ability to turn a hand to something new and give it your best shot!

We don't hire on qualifications,but on experience, ability, depth of knowledge and a love of the subject!

Shame you live down-under :-(

Mike

by guruofdos

I have all the above skills, and only did the first year of a degree!

Electronics was my hobby since age 7, and the other skills I picked up during the 16 years I have worked for our company.

I need another 'me' but short of cloning, I seem tobe a bit of a 'one-off'!

by jardinier

Join the club, Mike. I have attempted university on three occasions: Radio Engineering (1959); Electrical Engineering (1960) and Economics (1975). I have possibly the rare distinction of not completing the first year in any of these attempts.

Andyet (not boasting) I can match wits with the best of them. A good friend is Ross Blunden who helped build the first computer in Australia at the CSIRO, and later became Foundation Professor of Traffic Engineering at the Uni of NSW (the first such chair in the Commonwealth). Another friend, Mark Tweeddale, was Foundation Professor of Risk Engineering at Sydney University.

And then of course there's me brilliant cousin, Sir Gustav Nossal, Professor Emeritus of Pathology at Melbourne University.

by pauleugene

I think you are being a bit optimistic if you expect to find one person to perform all the skills that you require.
At the other extreme you shouldn't need one person for each of the skills listed.

Why not try for one hardware person and one software person. Alternatively have you considered taking on a person with the hardware skills listed and training that person on the software packages that you listed

by guruofdos

currently does all the above, and that's me!

Hence I need to either clone myself of get someone similar.

Take a look at www.trentontechnical.com to see what we do and why we need a multi-skilled technician! The actual 'job ad' is on the News page.

by ron vought

Yup...sound about like all of the jobs posted for IT techs these days by clueless HR personnel. I was wondering??? I have the skillset whereby I can remove/insert dust-bunnies within power supplies and server cases....does this fit in with the woodworking abilities or board-level skills??

by guruofdos

If I left it to HR to fill the position...I'd be retiring by the time they pulled their finger out!

I'm the engineer needing an additional pair of hands so I think I'm better qualified to look for the necessary skills than some pen-pusher in HR who doesn't even know what an HD-15 connector is, let alone recall the pinouts and wiring colours from memory!

It seems cloning myself is the most promising option so far! Of course, I COULD work double the hours for double the salary, but I already do 80 hours a week some weeks and I do have a wife and a baby on the way. It has only taken 16 years for our two Directors to realise that there is such a thing as work/life balance and that I can't do it all single-handed anymore! My instructions were...

'We need another YOU....find someone!'

'nuff said!

by pesk, mbcs, mcse, mcitp, sts

tech with a HDN in Electronics and Electrical Eng. and I also built the metal/wood chair on which my b*tt is planted right now. Where do I sign?

On a more serious note, I think that what you do is quite interesting, having done this form of thing before. I started my career in Electronics and after years of smelling those solder fumes and getting stunning headaches from peering at resistor colour codes, the lustre of electronics wore on me and I changed to a full time computing and ICT career, which I used to moonlight in...I can say it is the best thing that I did. As for the MCSE after my name, I don't use it much, but one day, I figured, I paid almost ?4000 so that I could use that four letter word without having to wash out my mouth, by hell I was going to use them.

All the best in filling the position. Keep us posted, blighty...

May the force be with you.

by thechas

If I ever think about moving to the UK, I'll give you a call.

I have a number of friends that would be interested IF they did not need to re-locate.

A big question is what is the compnesation?

You are looking for someone with a specific skill-set that is not all that common.

Here in the US, many people with electronics training have PC skills.
(That's how I got to where I am.)

However, for the most part, these are older (40+) workers. The new crop often has just PC skills.

Good luck in your search.

Chas

by guruofdos

You hit the nail on the head! PC skills developed over time as a sideline to a training and background in electonics. You and I both did it that way by the sound of things. I started playing with electronics at the tender age of 7, building radios and such like and decided that was going to be my career. Qualifying in electronics and getting a job as a service technician back in '87, I didn't plan on getting into computers...it just happened by accident! Our company developed a basic simulator system in 1990 which used discreet electronics to control the sequencing and operation of various equipment. I found a project in an electronics magazine for a 24 line digital i/o card for a PC and wondered if that could be used to do the same job. That's what got me started and it kind of snowballed from there. Realising that the sequencing and control could be performed on a computer and that more options could be displayed on a screen and modified by the user instead of using switches and indicators was the start of my love-hate relationship with the silicon beast!

Compensation? Negotiable but a starting point for discussion is about ?18000 (US $27000) pa plus pension, private healthcare, expenses and plenty of opportunity for travel (all the beer you can drink while away is paid for...that's the best perk!). Age isn't a problem...there are only two of us under 45 in the company!!

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