andyt@kontron.UUCP (03/09/86)
**** gobble,gobble,gobble *** >National Semiconductor is also looking for application engineers. >National spends an estimated $100,000.00 training each Applications >engineer during their employment... >You manage your own time to meet agreed goals which are changed to >reflect new opportunities. You may have your first appointment >at 8:00, a breakfast meeting with a Sales Engineer to discuss a >new project at customer X. At 10:00 am you meet with Joe engineer >to help him solve a circuit problem. Your customer Joe is happy- >it's 1:30 and you are just getting to lunch..... training sessions >[are held] several times a year...in Santa Clara or somtimes a resort > in Arizona. Harry Reed @ doon@sdcrdcf As a former Appications Engineer I must set the record straight about this type of job. You manage your own time as long as you realize that the work day starts at 1 o'clock in the morning and quits at 12:59 at night. The company will spend at least $3.59 training per year. You arrive at the 8:00 meeting with the sales critter to find him/her drunk, before the meeting is over you wish you were. You arrive at the customer site at 10:30, by 10:32 you are having your head nailed to the floor while the other engineers in the design team are applying lite cigarettes and hot pokers to your flesh because the sales critter told them the part will run at 10MHZ wherein reality you will pull out your pubic hairs to get it work at all. After being rescued by the Companies cracker-jack assault team you dash over to a meeting where the sales, product marketing, and engineering managers spend 3 and 1/2 hours throwing rocks at each other. You then stumble your way to your desk and find the Current Product List #450-A567-02-3.14159 Rev Z written in Swahili. A customer calls, wants to know why your chip melted when they applied 2000 volts at 500 amps. Another customer calls and wants to know how to design a 20 Gigahertz logic simulator. You say you have no idea. They say why not? You suggest they take a vacation to a warm place. They call thier sales critter. You are summoned to a meeting of the sales, product marketing, and engineering managers where they spend 3 and 1/2 hours throwing rocks at YOU. You go home, get to sleep, the phone rings at 4:45. It the Kenyan sales manager who wants you to describe the product line. In Swahili. The next day you attend a product meeting held in beatifull downtown East Palo Alto. The cracker-jack assault team is there to provide covering fire. **************************************************************************** Needless to say, the above should be taken with a ton of :-). I have never worked for National so have no basis for an opinion as to thier operation. Actually I loved the two years I spent doing this type of job. ***************************************************************************** andyt @ voder!kontron!andyt The above is mine and belongs to me - so there!