> But personally, I can't imagine getting hired for a job where even one of 
> the above is useful. I mean, sure, somebody somewhere designs ICs for a 
> living.

Several people in my department have designed ICs at some point or another, 
for LCD drivers or just general stuff for test equipment.  I imagine a lot 
of electrical engineering jobs elsewhere require such skills without being 
solely an "IC designer".

> And somebody, somewhere else, designs bridges. Have *you* ever met a 
> bridge designer??

Yes, several, although having done an engineering degree probably helps to 
meet them :-)

The point is that mostly you don't recruit a "bridge designer" or an "IC 
designer", you want a structural engineer or an electrical engineer.  Being 
able to design bridges or ICs is just one of the skills you need them to 
possess in order to do their job.

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>> But personally, I can't imagine getting hired for a job where even one 
>> of the above is useful. I mean, sure, somebody somewhere designs ICs 
>> for a living.
> 
> Several people in my department have designed ICs at some point or 
> another, for LCD drivers or just general stuff for test equipment.  I 
> imagine a lot of electrical engineering jobs elsewhere require such 
> skills without being solely an "IC designer".
> 
>> And somebody, somewhere else, designs bridges. Have *you* ever met a 
>> bridge designer??
> 
> Yes, several, although having done an engineering degree probably helps 
> to meet them :-)
> 
> The point is that mostly you don't recruit a "bridge designer" or an "IC 
> designer", you want a structural engineer or an electrical engineer.  
> Being able to design bridges or ICs is just one of the skills you need 
> them to possess in order to do their job.

Of course, when I think about designing ICs, I'm thinking strictly about 
purely digital "logic" devices such as microprocessors or crypto units. 
There are of course other types...

My point is, it seems almost unimaginable to me that real people 
actually get hired to do technical jobs such as these. It's the 
equivilent of being a world-class violinist. Sure, such people must 
exist somewhere, but you're never going to meet one, and *I* will 
certainly never become one.

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> Of course, when I think about designing ICs, I'm thinking strictly about 
> purely digital "logic" devices such as microprocessors or crypto units. 
> There are of course other types...

There's probably more "other types" being designed than microprocessors or 
crypto units, by a long way.  What about FPGAs?  Those are also really 
common to use across many industries, someone has to program those.

> My point is, it seems almost unimaginable to me that real people actually 
> get hired to do technical jobs such as these.

It seems unimaginable to you that anyone does anything apart from the people 
*you* meet.  Try to think a bit "behind the scenes", there is a huge 
industry for designing and building ICs.  I can't begin to imagine how many 
people are employed in total in the IC industry worldwide, let alone the 
people who are designing small ICs "in-house" for internal use.  Do you 
think just a few dozen people designed every single IC that is available 
today between them?  (Just look at the ST Micro website to see sheer 
quantity of ICs available)

> It's the equivilent of being a world-class violinist.

Only if you're world renowned as one of the top IC designers in the world, 
probably some fellow of the IC designers institute (or whatever it is 
actually called) and giving lots of sessions at conferences etc.

> Sure, such people must exist somewhere, but you're never going to meet 
> one,

Not in work unless your job is somehow related, and out of work it will be 
random chance, so the more people you meet the more likely you are to meet 
someone who designs ICs :-)  I'd be very surprised if nobody in your company 
knew someone who had designed an IC.

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Invisible wrote:
> Now, who *the hell* is going to care about any of these things?

Google. University research labs. Amazon.com. Lots and lots of places need 
those sorts of skills.

-- 
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   Is God willing to prevent naglams, but unable?
     Then he is not omnipotent.
   Is he able, but not willing, to prevent naglams?
     Then he is malevolent.

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Invisible wrote:
> Have *you* ever met a bridge designer??

My uncle designed all the bridges in Philadelphia. ;-)  At least the steel ones.

But really, ask yourself this: "What problem requires knowing about 
cryptography to solve?"  "What problem requires knowing about numerical 
integration to solve?"  Then you'll know what jobs you're qualified for.

-- 
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   Is God willing to prevent naglams, but unable?
     Then he is not omnipotent.
   Is he able, but not willing, to prevent naglams?
     Then he is malevolent.

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>> Now, who *the hell* is going to care about any of these things?
> 
> Google. University research labs. Amazon.com. Lots and lots of places 
> need those sorts of skills.

And exactly how many people, in the entire world, work for Google or Amazon?

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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Orchid XP v8 wrote:
> And exactly how many people, in the entire world, work for Google or 
> Amazon?

I'm just naming the ones you probably heard of.  It's like asking "how many 
people need to know how to PCR DNA? or "run a centrifuge".  Lots, in 
hospitals and medical labs, but you don't see them working in front of you.

-- 
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   Is God willing to prevent naglams, but unable?
     Then he is not omnipotent.
   Is he able, but not willing, to prevent naglams?
     Then he is malevolent.

Post a reply to this message

Orchid XP v8 wrote:

>>> Now, who *the hell* is going to care about any of these things?
>> 
>> Google. University research labs. Amazon.com. Lots and lots of places
>> need those sorts of skills.
> 
> And exactly how many people, in the entire world, work for Google or
> Amazon?
 
Hmm probably thousands, in several countries?
-- 
Stefan Viljoen

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Stefan Viljoen wrote:
> Hmm probably thousands, in several countries?

Seriously?  Amazon hires thousands of people just for the christmas season, 
let alone all year. You really don't fill 43 orders per second with 
"thousands" of people. :-)  It also doesn't count Mehcanical Turk. ;-)

Oh, there we go:
http://askville.amazon.com/employees-amazon/AnswerViewer.do?requestId=5927635
That's from 2006, and hard to say if amazon.co.uk is the same "company" as 
amazon.com.

Google has 20,000 employees, but with about a 10%-30% turnover each year.

-- 
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   Is God willing to prevent naglams, but unable?
     Then he is not omnipotent.
   Is he able, but not willing, to prevent naglams?
     Then he is malevolent.

Post a reply to this message

On Fri, 20 Nov 2009 09:52:13 +0000, Invisible wrote:

>>> I mean stuff like knowing which departments deal with which problems,
>>> what order a customer request has to go from place to place to get
>>> stuff done, things like that. Stuff that's perculiar to the particular
>>> department structure that BT has chosen to implement.
>> 
>> That's very useful information to know if you're on the outside and
>> need help.  There are probably companies that would love to get their
>> hands on an employee who has that kind of inside knowledge.
> 
> Well, perhaps. Good luck finding 'em though.

It starts by looking at companies that might have that need - like ISPs.

Jim

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