Almy and Tauhid’s Blog

Back when I was in college, I studied a lot of knowledge that I had no clue on what they are used for. Let’s pick control theory for example.. it used a lot of math.. matrices, inverses, etc. Furthermore, growing up as person who seldom read the news and who was more interested in goffing off, I never quite grasped the stuff I was learning in school.

Now that I work in an area that utilizes all those theories, I was forced to learn the history of where each individual technology came from. Although I’m still a slow learner, discovering the background stories behind all the theoretical background certainly made it more interesting. Just for an example, one of the first applications of the Kalman filter was for the Apollo program. From that point on, it has been applied to a myriad of problems: air traffic control, telecommunications, GPS, intelligent transportation systems..etc. Other research areas certainly have their own stories.. digital signal processing, optimization .. you name it.

Anyway, the title of this blog entry refers to my desire to jump into an industry sector that a) I am interested in, and b) I have the correct skills for. After searching for a while, I think it’s obvious to anybody that more money is poured into certain sectors compared to others. So it all comes down to this: how important is it for me to work for a company that I like? Most people don’t have this luxury.. for example I know people who endure 4 hours commuting everyday to work — simply because they don’t have anywhere else to go (or are reluctant to move).. their job needs such rare skillsets in rare places. OTOH, I’ve also read about somebody in the US who quit their job at a fortune 500 company to become a school teacher. She took a 70% pay cut because of that. However she’s happier in her new job because .. it’s what she wants to do.

This weekend, I plan to do some research on what sectors are out there (starting here), and what their status is. Who knows, I might find something that I’m passionate about.

Tau

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Update: There’s a WEALTH of information on the Dept of Labor website. So far I’ve only browsed the general information, mostly about what an EE might do in his job. Hopefully I’ll find a page that explains the different industries and what specific EE skills are needed. There’s also a link here where you can see a list of companies in a certain area (engineering, entertainment, transport, etc). This will be a handy resource when it comes time to send my resumes to companies.

It just so happened that I was feeling down last week… you know, the usual stress at work and home. So I decided to take an evening walk this weekend.. and returned with a smile. It’s hard not to smile after witnessing something like this

I am currently blessed with a house that is far away from city lights, and I’ve always known that it’s possible to see a lot of stars from here. But for some reason I never looked up and admired the sky for a significant amount of time. Read the rest of this entry »