Alpha Eritrean Engineers Community February 2011

JOURNEY OF SUCCESS

SURPASSED MY OWN EXPECTATIONS

VALUABLE LESSON

REACHING OUT LIST OF COMPANIES HIRING

AEEC e

AEEC | February 2010 2

CONTENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS

JOURNY OF SUCCSUS

BY ANDAI TESFAI

SURPASSED MY OWN EXPECTATIONS

BY KIBROM HAILU

VALUABLE LESSON

BY FITSUM CHIFFA

REACHING OUT

BY YARED NEGUSSIE

LIST OF COMPANIES OR GOVERNMENTAL AGENCIES

CURRENTLY HIRING

EDITORS

SABLE GEBREMEDHIN, M.S. IN PSYCHOLOGY

ADIAM WOLDEGERGISH, PH.D

YOHANNES GHEBREAB, B.A. IN

MANAGEMENT

SAMSON GONNETZ, C.E. AND

YOSIEF WOLDEMARIAM, E.E.

AEEC | February 2010 3

When I came to USA many advised me to not waste my

time to go to college as they thought my gigantic dreams

were beyond my reach and if in case I make it would be

hard at the professional level to compete with American

people hence my academic success would back fire at me to

cause frustration than help me win life. For many the most

feasible option is the short cut to easily make money but

my senses told me success is the result of relentless hard

work and is attainable thus I decided to start my studies

immediate after my arrival. The beginning was not easy

mainly because I have long been disassociated from school

as I completed high school back at home eight years before

I moved to USA.

In 1992 I joined Santa Rosa Junior College (SRJC) and to

support my living I worked inside the camp particularly in

the cafeteria ground and tutoring math. Before I completed

the preliminary courses in electronics I was fortunate to get

an assembly job at Hewlett Packard (HP) through a

temporary agency (Man Power). Working at HP gave me

greater insight and inspiration to push harder in my

education hence right away I was enrolled in Electronic

Certificate Program at the same college. Before my final

semester in the program, HP offered me a permanent job as

Electronic Technician in Micro Wave Accessories

department. The job was challenging but for the first time I

felt optimistic because the transition from the assembly line

to the technical post signaled me progress is possible with

time. There I was calibrating and verifying 8510 Network

Analyzers to perform troubleshooting and testing different

Wave Guides, Coax accessories, Radio Frequency (RF),

Integrated Circuits and Electronic Calibration Modules that

varies from DC all the way to 1GHz. I used those

opportunities positively to upgrade my technical skills in

trouble shooting, operating different types of electronic

equipments, writing test and assembly documentations etc.

After two years of hard work as Electronic Technician I

joined the Research and Development (R&D) department as

R&D Engineering Technician. The department was staffed

with senior engineers who possess life long experience with

tremendous theoretical and practical skills. My hard work in

my previous job paid me off as my new job as R&D

Engineering Technician went on smooth and I was learning

very fast. At the R&D department I worked for three years

until I got laid off on October 2001 because of the

economical crises followed September 11 unfortunate

incident. The impact of my layoff was hammering but the

lesson I got both from school and work had permanent

impact in my life so I proceeded forward without deviating

from the right direction. I searched for a job for six months,

but I never had luck to find any.

Finally, I went back to school and earned BS in Electrical

Engineering from San Francisco State University. After

graduation I was hired as a contractor at TOSHIBA in

Mixed Signal Development Group (MSD) in San Jose as

Test Engineer through temporary hiring agency called

VOLT. I was testing new Integrated Circuit Chips using

different equipments such as Oscilloscopes, Network

Analyzers, HP Pulse/Pattern Generators, Tektronix Digital

Sampling Oscilloscopes, Agilent (HP) ParBERT,

Programmable Power Supply, Function Generators, Digital

Multi-meter, and Temperature Control etc. I wrote Bench

Test Procedures and final report for every new IC Chips I

tested for two years. Although I was working as a contractor

I never stopped from exploring other opportunities and in

2009 I joined a new company called Virident in Milpitas

and still working there as R&D Lab Manager. As a new

company we went through all ups and downs, but finally we

made it. Please see www.virident.com.

From my experience I would like to advise all prospective

professionals the following keys to success:

Have clear vision in life

Gather as much information as possible regarding

the field of study you want to study specially from

seniors in the same discipline

Do not change your major

Find right universities where you can get part time

job or internship programs related to your major,

For example: San Jose State University in Silicon

Valley for Electrical Engineering majors

Try to find an assembly job at early age while you

are at High school

Try your best to upgrade your skills

Expand your networking system with people

(related to your field) and add your own

For valid reasons each one of us chose our own unique path

towards success. Some prefer the short cuts and others the

long journey as I did to accomplish my mission. The good

thing is I achieved my goal though with heavy sacrifices.

~ Andai Tesfai, E.E.

Journey of success

AEEC | February 2010 4

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Wow…, what a great job!!! I am really proud of you guys. I just got the email and start reading it, it sounds really good. Thank you for your hard work and making it happen. Great job!!! Engineer Mekonen Hadgu

It is really nice to see the project issuing its first output. Great work and keep it up. Hope it will inspire lots of Eritrean Engineers and may be it will be a venue for attaining engineering carries for a lot of young Eritrean and the like. Engineer Filipos Abreha Bravo. This is really wonderful and your effort and those of others is much appreciated and needed. I hope the best for the future of AEEC and its members. I also want to thank you for your kind words in the 1st edition. I am very humbled and honored. I believe that if we are in a position to lend a helping hand to our fellow people, then the fruits of that simple effort are enjoyed by many.

Engineer Daniel Woldeselasie

Comments & Suggestions

Page

AEEC | February 2010 5

First, I am honored to write an article for the Eritrean

Engineers Community (AEEC) magazine & because

this magazine targets prospective engineers as well, I

will focus on ways and means of succeeding in

professional field of engineering. Certainly there are

many elements to success but I believe the most

important traits students in college should acquire right

from the start are discipline, hard work and ethics.

School is the perfect time to learn the techniques

necessary to be successful academically and advance

into labor market in the respective fields of study. In

order to succeed both as a student and professional, I

recommend for students to constantly seek out and

participate in project that interests them- that way they

can better get prepared for what is ahead. Trying to

solve a problem and get engaged in challenging project

is a clue and part of the process towards success which

many of my friends and colleagues are fully aware of.

It is very important to utilize every resources and

opportunity available. I still to this day remember my

first year at the university was mostly spent trying to

keep up with the demands in my classes. However,

during the second semester, I became more aware of

the meetings and events that were being held for

engineering majors. Once I had learned how to manage

my time better, I felt like I could tap into those

wonderful resources and opportunities. I went on to

graduate in May of 2009 from San Francisco State

University with a Bachelors Sciences degree in

Electrical engineering. I am currently working for a

consulting firm as an Electrical Designer in areas of

communication, security, power and fire safety

systems.

As you go to school or even after you become a

professional, I strongly urge you to be a member of

professional association. As for me, with the support

of the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), I

surpassed my own expectations and achieved many

goals in preparation to become professional by

attending several workshops. Amongst these

workshops were ways to prepare professional resumes

etc, it equipped me with important skill to win my

studies and employment opportunities. NSBE was

primarily formed by students and offered great

resources to increasing contacts and networks. My

membership with NSBE played a crucial role in

meeting fellow engineering students and professionals

in the field. Each year, NSBE holds national and

regional conferences where they invite companies

from all over the country to recruit for potential future

employees. As a member of NSBE, I was able to travel

to different cities throughout the country to attend

conferences, workshops, and seminars that enriched

my knowledge. I highly recommend students to get

involved with such organizations to facilitate the

opportunities and services for future career planning.

Additionally, in this bad economy when

unemployment is high, it’s good to look for

alternatives on finding a job. Students rarely use

networking directly with professional society in their

area of interest in finding a job. Most of these

professional organizations encourage students to join

them and attend their meeting and conferences. The

following quote sometimes makes sense and as

individuals we should utilize, “it’s who you know, not

what you know“ to better ourselves professionally..By

attending these professional organization’s events, you

will be able to build personal relation face to face and

allow you to let companies know what you are looking

for and/or interested in professionally during breaks

and networking time. What better way is there for

students to have access to perhaps potential employer

than meeting them in person! By doing so, you might

have slighter edge than those who submit their resume

via email.

For instance, for electrical Engineering major students,

joining IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronic

Engineer), the world’s largest professional

organization is a wise step in networking with

Surpassed my own expectations

AEEC | February 2010 6

professionals. IEEE has local chapters that

professionals hold meetings at least once a month.

Here in the Bay Area for example, e-GRID is the local

chapter for IEEE. e-Grid holds monthly Meetings,

Classes & Conferences in all over the bay area. When I

was a student, my schoolmates (who were also

electrical engineering majors) and I used to go to e-

Grid’s monthly meetings in which we had a chance to

meet and get associated with professionals and

managers in the fields of our interest. Spending a few

hours in such places is worthwhile to create wider

social connection. I personally knew students who

were offered jobs from some of the firms through those

meetings we attended. I cannot express enough the importance of preparing yourself for the engineering field as early as possible. It is also very crucial to engage yourself in organizations available at your schools and communities to better prepare yourself for the field and to have a smooth transition after finishing college. Should you be

interested in knowing more about e-Grid, link below

will direct you to get more information. http://www.e-

grid.net/

~ Kibrom Hailu, EE Interested in knowing more about e-Grid, link below

will direct you to get more information. http://www.e-

grt e-Grid, link below will direct you to get mor~ Km

Hailu, EE

“The beautiful thing about learning is nobody can take it away from you.” ~ B.B. King

~ Vince Lombardi

Hard to reach doesn’t have to mean hard to do

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Bringing the best and the brightest together

AEEC | February 2010 7

Taking any subject in higher education is not easy,

especially engineering courses with Professor Franco.

Taking his classes required a lot of my time and

energy. By the same token, life here in America is not

effortless either. For me, integrating school, living in

the states and trying to balance it all was a challenge

which I had to cope with every semester. However,

since I had strong desire to become an engineer which

I have had since childhood helped me overcome the

challenges of balancing work and school. To overcome

my challenges I had to sacrifice my sleep time when I

needed it the most, decrease quality family time and

minimize my socializing time with my friends and

loved ones. Even with my sacrifices, I honestly

believe, the time I spent at school was some of the

most enjoyable, productive and abundantly memorable

experiences. Some of my wonderful experiences

included enjoying and building my friendship with my

classmates and having the opportunity to creating an

arithmetic calculator and microcontroller.

I attended a university in the very popular city of San

Francisco, where parking is rare to find, especially

within the surrounding of the university I attended.

Also, due to distance and traffic congestion I decided

to carpool. When I started carpooling, I was fortunate

enough to find Eritreans going to the same school and

had a great time with them while commuting to school.

As time went by, our relationship became stronger and

we ended up being good friends. Even though, I never

had time to socialize, carpooling became a way of

make great friends and having memorable experiences

while attending school. Looking back, I am thankful I

made the decision early to participate in carpooling.

Due to my carpool experience I have created best

friends whom I still keep in touch with and continue to

create the most enjoyable and memorable time.

While attending school, I was very fortunate to have

Professors like Holton and Franco amongst many as

my instructors.

Each of the professors I had are exceptionally qualified

and demonstrated wisdom and authority in their field

of expertise. I truly believe each of my classes were

thought-provoking which made my educational

experiences meaningful. I also acquired a great deal of

knowledge and experience which ultimately helped me

and two of my classmates be able to design amongst

many things, a arithmetic Computer (calculator) in the

school lab. This calculator, which we created was a

kind that had a basic function (adds, subtracts, divides

and multiplies) as well as a resistor, capacitors, gates

(XOR, OR, AND NAND etc.) and a 7-segment LED to

display the numbers and microcontroller program. The

calculator was a combination of software and

hardware. Creating this calculator was an exciting, fun

and challenging experience. What I mean by that is at

the beginning stage of our development, a few chips

were burned out because of design mistakes, however

we learned from our mistake and overcame all the

obstacles and achieve the desire result. The ultimate

result of this lab exercise was to see our final product

on the program display.

The lab experiment, which I did with two of my

classmates, paved the way for a much more

challenging experiment in making a microprocessor

during my senior project lasting two semesters. Work

on a single project for two semesters in a group of

three was another challenge by itself. As a team, each

member had to make his/her schedule work to

accommodate all of us. Dealing with individuals who

have entirely different cultural background as well as

social life was equally challenging in making the

microprocessor. However, although the experience was

tough at that moment, it taught me a valuable lesson

which helped me when I started working in the real

world. My college experience and interaction with my

peers and professor has helped me work with diverse

people across many cultural boundaries. While

working with my classmates, it was a great

achievement to put our difference aside in order to

Valuable Lesson

AEEC | February 2010 8

attain a common goal, learn each other’s personalities

and create better friendships while learning from each

other. This has helped me now that I am working and

will continue to help me for the rest of my life when I

meet and interact with different people. At work

presently I am working with various groups dealing

with contractors and people who have different

background. If it wasn’t for my senior project’s

experience it would have been difficult to handle the

experiences I encounter daily the way I do now.

The pleasure of working as an engineer now is

extraordinary and extremely rewarding, even though

the process of becoming an engineer was very

challenging and in my case required a lot of social and

financial scarifies. By making such sacrifice and

becoming an engineer I have more opportunities and

without it I could not imagine having it at all. Now I

have the opportunity and choice to go to the office to

do my work. If I do not go to the office I can perform

my job anywhere, so long as I have internet access and

am able to complete my work on time. Ultimately,

my hard work and scarifies has paid off at last.

~ Fitsum Chiffa, E. E.

To read without reflecting is

like eating without digesting.

~Edmund Burke

extraordinary and extremely rewarding, even though

the process of becoming an engineer was very

challenging and in my case required a lot of social

and financial scarifies. By making such sacrifice and

becoming an engineer I have more opportunities and

without it I could not imagine having it at all. Now

I have the opportunity and choice to go to the office

to do my work. If I do not go to the office I can

perform my job anywhere, so long as I have internet

access and am able to complete my work on time.

Ultimately, my hard work and scarifies has paid off

at last.

~ Fitsum Chiffa, E.

E.

AEEC | February 2010 9

In today's job market and economy, the saying “it is not

what you know, it is who you know” rings true to many

peoples' ear. The economy is creeping up slowly, yet the

unemployment numbers are troubling. Many talented

people are unemployed, not because they lack skills, but

because they don't have the “right connections”.

My company recently hired 13 new graduate associate

software engineers. I thought this might mean jobs are

opening every corner and people are going to be hired,

but on my way back from work, the report on radio was

just the opposite. I run across of people who have been

victims of the current economic situation. They all say

how many countless resumes and cover letters they

have sent. They are in the brink of giving up, and some

considering a career change. They wonder if their

resumes are even being looked at – the sad truth is that,

their resumes might not have been looked because

someone who knows someone at XYZ Company had his

resume reviewed before everyone else.

Career coaches and speakers at every meeting advise

everyone to network. Networking is extremely

important in today's competitive job market. Finding

someone who will give your resume a look in the midst

of piles of resumes corporations are receiving in a daily

basis is important.

Knowing how to network is a skill in itself that can land

you a great job, or land your feet in the door step – as

many like to say. There are many ways to network,

online and off line. Networking sites like Linkedin.com

are great places to start networking and job hunt.

Another major place for networking is associations.

Professional associations like AEEC play great role in

connecting the right candidate with the right job. It is

true that AEEC is new organization that is growing;

however, its inception was based on networking

Eritrean engineers from all over. Staying connected will

allow us to flourish in our numbers and knowledge.

Organizations, like AEEC, are conduit for what is

happening in the industry and job market.

Understanding the crucial function we can play, we have

compiled few very talented Eritreans who are currently

seeking jobs. We hope, this will lead to having others

step forward and share positions that might be available

in their respective employment. We are each other’s

assets. The information we share can change someone's

life forever. There is nothing as pleasing as impacting

others in positive way. As the gap of unemployment

period widens, we all know the chances of getting jobs

are getting slimmer. In my opinion, the length of

unemployment gap is inversely proportional to chance

of getting hired. We can help by mentoring and

providing information about various job opportunities

that we know of, to this people.

~ Yared Negussie, Computer Engineer

Eritreans who are currently looking for Engineering/Technical jobs

Name Degree Experience Email Phone Number

Samson Gonets Civil Engineer One Year samigonnetz@yahoo.com (510) 495-4538

Thomas Araya Computer Science Seven ears thomasaraya@yahoo.com (510) 757-7352

Simon Haile Electrical Engineer One year dhaile8@gmail.com (678) 982-0147

Reaching Out

AEEC | February 2010 10

Current Job Opportunities

Companies or Government Jobs Field Closing

Date

http://www.calopps.org/ViewAgencyJob.cfm?ID=9523 Engineering Continuous

http://www.calopps.org/ViewAgencyJob.cfm?ID=9398 Engineer - Civil Until Filled

http://www.calopps.org/ViewAgencyJob.cfm?ID=9562 Engineer – Civil

March 11, 2011

http://www.boeing.com/careers/jobsEvents.html Software Engineer (4/5) 6J7BP4 Until Filled

http://www.boeing.com/careers/jobsEvents.html Software Engineer (4/5) 6J7BP4 Until Filled

http://www.boeing.com/careers/jobsEvents.html

Mechanical System Design & Analysis Engineer (3/4) 6G5BP3

Until Filled

http://www.calopps.org/ViewAgencyJob.cfm?ID=9562 Elec. Electronics Engineer Mgr K 6B1AMK Until Filled

http://www.boeing.com/careers/jobsEvents.html

Wire Design & Install Engineer (3/4) 6B1CP3

Until Filled

http://www.boeing.com/careers/jobsEvents.html

Wire Design & Install Engineer (4/5) 6B1CP4

Until Filled

AEEC | February 2010 11

About the authors

Andai Tesfai (wereba1991@yahoo.com) earned

his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from San

Francisco State University. Currently he is

working with Virident as R&D Lab Manager.

Kibrom Hailu (knhkib@gmail.com) earned his

B.S. in Electrical Engineering from San

Francisco State University. Currently he is

working with FW Associates Engineering

Counsalting Firm as designer.

Fitsum Ghiffa (fitsumchiffa@yahoo.com) holds

B.S. in Electrical Engineering from San

Francisco State University. Currently he is

working with AT&T as field engineer.

Yared Nugssie (negussie@gmail.com) received

his B.S. in Computer Engineering from Chico

California State University and he currently is

working with Pearson..

Got an Engineering experiences to share?

All you need to do is put them in writing

with not less than 250 and not more than

650 words. We will put them on

subsequent issues.

Send them to:

<Alpha0909@gmail.com>

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