The RoadTester Poll: What Kind of Engineer Are You?

Hi Don.

You are right. I've been reading the comments and it's clear to see people have expertise in more than one area.

My challenge is to make sure I am agreeing to roadtest the right kind of products. I have tried creating discussions about a potential roadtest product and you guys tell me fairly quickly what your interest level is. This time I tried a different approach: do this poll to see how the different specialties split. Polls always have limitations. But I think they have some value. I'll have to just try out and see how it works when I am planning future roadtests.

Randall

Hi Randall,

I think a lot of us have very diverse careers.

I was a computer engineer with a combined hardware/software degree.

I quickly got into system level projects where I used both disciplines and beyond.

As I moved further away from the hardware, I started doing home projects just to keep my hand in the practical side of engineering.

Road testing at element14 gave me a great opportunity to revisit some hands on engineering.

DAB

I selected "Applications Engineer", because that comes closest to what I do for work, but my hobby pursuits are more along the lines of electronic design. I have a degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, but I currently do a combination of acoustics and electronics at work. I'd say my interests in RoadTesting are probably about evenly split between work topics and hobby topics. I voted for the DSP course in the ARM courses RoadTest poll because it would help improve skills I'd use at work, while I applied for the Picoscope 5444 RoadTest because a high-resolution measurement tool would be an invaluable addition to my garage workshop (there are too many important parameters for audio performance that can't be reasonably measured with an 8-bit 'scope.)

dougw  wrote:

 

From what I've seen, engineers mostly don't do it as a hobby. We who do are exceptions.

 

That is what I have noticed as well.

I started in electronics as a hobbyist and pursued credentials and a career in the field because I enjoyed working with electronics as a hobby. My career has taken all sorts of turns over nearly 4 decades, but the hobbyist aspect has held constant, and likely will continue to hold constant in my rapidly approaching retirement.

I apply for Road Tests because the technology element14 makes available, through the generosity of vendors, is really cool and exciting.  And when I win a Road Test competition, it is just plain all out fun to evaluate and write about the product and interact with community members through post-review comments.

Because I am a hobbyist, I can look at Road Tests as a fun challenge, rather than as work. I think many of the best Road Tests I've read come from members that get a jolt of geeky joy from playing with technology.

I went with Application Engineer (AE), even though I'm closer to a Product Marketing Engineer (PME.)

I guess the difference is the PME oversells a product's capabilities and an AE makes good on those promises. (just kidding.)

Douglas,

You make some great points: some of our members have held different roles at different times. So, which role do you select in this poll?

I guess there are a couple of ways:

1. click the one that best represents your current job

2. click the one that best represents your career

Perhaps I should have articulated the hos's and why's of the poll. I did say : "My motivation is to better understand the broad category of the specialties of our RoadTest Group, as well as the people who follow the group in order to help me work with our sponsors better when we are planning RoadTests."  Another simpler way is to say that sometimes I get offered products to roadtest (or webinar) that I feel are not a good match for roadtesting. Knowing the broad ranges of specialties may help sponsors in better understanding the RoadTesting group. A basic example would be a telecom product: at this point, I don't see many telecom engineers so I would veer away from this products.

Randall

From what I've seen, engineers mostly don't do it as a hobby. We who do are exceptions.

I have a degree in Systems Engineering but have performed many different types of engineering.

I have been a manager in some capacity for decades, but always try to retain some real engineering work.

I do hobby electronics to further boost my design activities and stay current in more areas.

Right now I am a Director working in a research group, but I also manage an engineering product development group.

I checked Electronic Design Engineer in the poll, because I still qualify in this category even though it probably isn't currently the best description of my duties, and obviously I could have checked several others.

Hmm. I selected "Software Engineer", but I have another job that corresponds to "Engineering Educator".

I added it. Thanks

Please Add Firmware Engineer category