Ralford.net

  [Workplace]

It's near the end of my first year of employment. Hard to believe I graduated from PSU's engineering program one year ago this December. Don't feel like I've done much over the last year, but looking back, I feel accomplished. Turns out I was involved with many things: board level design, schematic clean-up and review, CADing PC/104 boards, mechanical drawings, hardware manuals, webpage updates, prototype testing, temperature chamber testing, documentation, and lots of technical support (all though it may not have always been supportive).

At this point I'm happy that I didn't go to grad school. I'm a year ahead with hands on knowledge of embedded systems, that I probably wouldn't find anywhere but the workplace. Of course, staying in school is the better decision for many people, but I'm happy to have added one year of solid background to my resume.

I owe my superiors at RTD a lot of thanks. They've put up with a lot my questions, a few questions here and there, and lot more of me asking them questions. I suppose we all benefit from this. Taking the time to train me means that they have one more engineer who knows what and what not to do. On the same note, if I didn't bother them, I'd probably be re-inventing the wheel. I'm sure I'll pass the torch some day, and hopefully I'll be as patient as those who've showed me what's up.

With that out of the way, for the first time I can say that I feel like an engineer.
Bring on my second year...

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