AVR-Chat

The worst technician I ever hired blacked out my written test...a test 
that some have sat down, looked over, and handed back saying "you don't 
want a technician, you want an engineer."  No, I want a technician who 
knows how to do more than change a board...but that's an epistle.

One of the best technicians had no formal training.

When this problem with technical people showed up, 25 or so years ago, 
we went to a 2 (actually 3) step hiring process.  We have a written test 
we use that they're required to at least take a stab at.  Some people 
clam up in writing, but if they seem to know what they're talking about 
we go to the next step.  That's a workbench with equipment and tools, a 
manual, and a piece of equipment that we've broken for the event.  
They're told to plan on spending a morning or an afternoon.

Back in the old days Tektronix had scope service training at their plant 
in Beaverton, may still do it.  The final "exam" was to troubleshoot a 
scope without taking the covers off and solely from the front panel 
indications.  They would cut transistor leads off, pull them out of the 
circuit, or wrap a wire around them and we had to troubleshoot to the 
base transistor circuit.  I miss those old 453 and 454 scopes.


REB


David VanHorn wrote:

>>David's comment about how debugging is not taught gives me an idea.
>>Wouldn't it be fun to teach a class where you'd have a lecture/discussion
>>followed by a set up buggy problem for hands on skill building.  I took
>>something like this taught internally when I was at Apple and learned some
>>good techniques.  Doing it in the embedded world where you add the twist of
>>broken hardware would be a kick.
>>    
>>
>
>Various places have done this officially, or unofficially.
>I've heard tell of a game where a stereo or scope or something is
>deliberately "broken" in some way, and the contest is to find the
>problem with the minimum number of observations. Meter readings cost
>so many points, waveform measurements so many etc..
>
>In high school, we had components molded into ice cubes of resin in
>different colors, and you had to identify the components.  Green ones
>were easy, blue was intermediate like a diode and a resistor in series
>or parallel, and red ones were hard, like a shorted turn in an
>inductor, or a crystal.  They were numbered, so that there was an
>answer sheet to sort it out in the end.  A fun game.
>
>
>  
>


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