Hi Guys,
   I recently received an E-mail from one of my 
past students who works for MathWorks Inc., the 
makers of Matlab.  He said there are two job 
openings at Mathworks, in Novi Michigan (30 miles 
Northwest of Detroit), for DSP engineers.
However, one of the openings may be transferred to 
Torrence, California.  That has yet to be decided.
 
Brief Job description 
 :
MathWorks is seeking a Design Engineer that understands both Embedded
Software and Hardware development. Knowledge of common programming
languages such as C/C++ and also Verilog and VHDL is one of the
requirements for this position. A successful candidate would also be
familiar with Systems Engineering and have knowledge of Simulink and
MATLAB.  Familiarization with Image/Video processing in
software/hardware development is desired as well. 
 
If that job description sounds interesting to any 
of you, you're welcome to apply  for that DSP 
job at the following web site, and don't forget to
enter the name "Brian Farmer" as a reference when applying,:
 
http://matlab.my/N0d3rx
 
Good Luck,
[-Rick-]

On Thu, 26 Jul 2012 12:53:08 -0700, Rick Lyons wrote:

> Hi Guys,
>    I recently received an E-mail from one of my
> past students who works for MathWorks Inc., the makers of Matlab.  He
> said there are two job openings at Mathworks, in Novi Michigan (30 miles
> Northwest of Detroit), for DSP engineers. However, one of the openings
> may be transferred to Torrence, California.  That has yet to be decided.
>  
> Brief Job description
>  :
> MathWorks is seeking a Design Engineer that understands both Embedded
> Software and Hardware development. Knowledge of common programming
> languages such as C/C++ and also Verilog and VHDL is one of the
> requirements for this position. A successful candidate would also be
> familiar with Systems Engineering and have knowledge of Simulink and
> MATLAB.  Familiarization with Image/Video processing in
> software/hardware development is desired as well.
>  
> If that job description sounds interesting to any of you, you're welcome
> to apply  for that DSP job at the following web site, and don't forget
> to enter the name "Brian Farmer" as a reference when applying,:
>  
> http://matlab.my/N0d3rx

If I apply should I mention that Scilab is absolutely The Best math 
package that I've ever used, and you don't have to cough up the price of 
a nice car to get your hands on it?

(Working for Matlab would be kinda fun, except for the Michigan or 
California part).

-- 
My liberal friends think I'm a conservative kook.
My conservative friends think I'm a liberal kook.
Why am I not happy that they have found common ground?

Tim Wescott, Communications, Control, Circuits & Software
http://www.wescottdesign.com

On Jul 26, 3:53 pm, Rick Lyons <R...@_BOGUS_ieee.org> wrote:
> Hi Guys,
>    I recently received an E-mail from one of my
> past students who works for MathWorks Inc., the
> makers of Matlab.  He said there are two job
> openings at Mathworks, in Novi Michigan (30 miles
> Northwest of Detroit), for DSP engineers.
> However, one of the openings may be transferred to
> Torrence, California.  That has yet to be decided.
>
> Brief Job description
>  :
> MathWorks is seeking a Design Engineer that understands both Embedded
> Software and Hardware development. Knowledge of common programming
> languages such as C/C++ and also Verilog and VHDL is one of the
> requirements for this position. A successful candidate would also be
> familiar with Systems Engineering and have knowledge of Simulink and
> MATLAB.  Familiarization with Image/Video processing in
> software/hardware development is desired as well.
>
> If that job description sounds interesting to any
> of you, you're welcome to apply  for that DSP
> job at the following web site, and don't forget to
> enter the name "Brian Farmer" as a reference when applying,:
>
> http://matlab.my/N0d3rx
>
> Good Luck,
> [-Rick-]

I thought the guys name was Brain Farmer.  I like that name better.

On Jul 26, 4:50 pm, Tim Wescott <t...@seemywebsite.com> wrote:
> On Thu, 26 Jul 2012 12:53:08 -0700, Rick Lyons wrote:
> > Hi Guys,
> >    I recently received an E-mail from one of my
> > past students who works for MathWorks Inc., the makers of Matlab.  He
> > said there are two job openings at Mathworks, in Novi Michigan (30 miles
> > Northwest of Detroit), for DSP engineers. However, one of the openings
> > may be transferred to Torrence, California.  That has yet to be decided.
>
> > Brief Job description
> >  :
> > MathWorks is seeking a Design Engineer that understands both Embedded
> > Software and Hardware development. Knowledge of common programming
> > languages such as C/C++ and also Verilog and VHDL is one of the
> > requirements for this position. A successful candidate would also be
> > familiar with Systems Engineering and have knowledge of Simulink and
> > MATLAB.  Familiarization with Image/Video processing in
> > software/hardware development is desired as well.
>
> > If that job description sounds interesting to any of you, you're welcome
> > to apply  for that DSP job at the following web site, and don't forget
> > to enter the name "Brian Farmer" as a reference when applying,:
>
> >http://matlab.my/N0d3rx
>
> If I apply should I mention that Scilab is absolutely The Best math
> package that I've ever used, and you don't have to cough up the price of
> a nice car to get your hands on it?
>

I suspect that would not be a good thing to mention.  I had an guy
interviewing me once who asked me to tell him my weaknesses.  The
question hit me wrong at the time so I told him to pick up the phone
and call my wife.  She could tell him my weaknesses far better than I
could.  I did not get the job offer -- haha


> (Working for Matlab would be kinda fun, except for the Michigan or
> California part).
>
> --
> My liberal friends think I'm a conservative kook.
> My conservative friends think I'm a liberal kook.
> Why am I not happy that they have found common ground?
>
> Tim Wescott, Communications, Control, Circuits & Softwarehttp://www.wescottdesign.com

On Thu, 26 Jul 2012 16:49:56 -0700, brent wrote:

> On Jul 26, 4:50 pm, Tim Wescott <t...@seemywebsite.com> wrote:
>> On Thu, 26 Jul 2012 12:53:08 -0700, Rick Lyons wrote:
>> > Hi Guys,
>> >    I recently received an E-mail from one of my
>> > past students who works for MathWorks Inc., the makers of Matlab.  He
>> > said there are two job openings at Mathworks, in Novi Michigan (30
>> > miles Northwest of Detroit), for DSP engineers. However, one of the
>> > openings may be transferred to Torrence, California.  That has yet to
>> > be decided.
>>
>> > Brief Job description
>> >  :
>> > MathWorks is seeking a Design Engineer that understands both Embedded
>> > Software and Hardware development. Knowledge of common programming
>> > languages such as C/C++ and also Verilog and VHDL is one of the
>> > requirements for this position. A successful candidate would also be
>> > familiar with Systems Engineering and have knowledge of Simulink and
>> > MATLAB.  Familiarization with Image/Video processing in
>> > software/hardware development is desired as well.
>>
>> > If that job description sounds interesting to any of you, you're
>> > welcome to apply  for that DSP job at the following web site, and
>> > don't forget to enter the name "Brian Farmer" as a reference when
>> > applying,:
>>
>> >http://matlab.my/N0d3rx
>>
>> If I apply should I mention that Scilab is absolutely The Best math
>> package that I've ever used, and you don't have to cough up the price
>> of a nice car to get your hands on it?
>>
>>
> I suspect that would not be a good thing to mention.  I had an guy
> interviewing me once who asked me to tell him my weaknesses.  The
> question hit me wrong at the time so I told him to pick up the phone and
> call my wife.  She could tell him my weaknesses far better than I could.
>  I did not get the job offer -- haha

OK.  I left off the smiley.

I like that answer to your weaknesses -- I hate those questions: they're 
really an opportunity to see how well you lie, and thus tell you more 
about the place than they tell the place about you.

--
Tim Wescott
Control system and signal processing consulting
www.wescottdesign.com

On Jul 26, 9:07 pm, Tim Wescott <t...@seemywebsite.please> wrote:
> On Thu, 26 Jul 2012 16:49:56 -0700, brent wrote:
> > On Jul 26, 4:50 pm, Tim Wescott <t...@seemywebsite.com> wrote:
> >> On Thu, 26 Jul 2012 12:53:08 -0700, Rick Lyons wrote:
> >> > Hi Guys,
> >> >    I recently received an E-mail from one of my
> >> > past students who works for MathWorks Inc., the makers of Matlab.  He
> >> > said there are two job openings at Mathworks, in Novi Michigan (30
> >> > miles Northwest of Detroit), for DSP engineers. However, one of the
> >> > openings may be transferred to Torrence, California.  That has yet to
> >> > be decided.
>
> >> > Brief Job description
> >> >  :
> >> > MathWorks is seeking a Design Engineer that understands both Embedded
> >> > Software and Hardware development. Knowledge of common programming
> >> > languages such as C/C++ and also Verilog and VHDL is one of the
> >> > requirements for this position. A successful candidate would also be
> >> > familiar with Systems Engineering and have knowledge of Simulink and
> >> > MATLAB.  Familiarization with Image/Video processing in
> >> > software/hardware development is desired as well.
>
> >> > If that job description sounds interesting to any of you, you're
> >> > welcome to apply  for that DSP job at the following web site, and
> >> > don't forget to enter the name "Brian Farmer" as a reference when
> >> > applying,:
>
> >> >http://matlab.my/N0d3rx
>
> >> If I apply should I mention that Scilab is absolutely The Best math
> >> package that I've ever used, and you don't have to cough up the price
> >> of a nice car to get your hands on it?
>
> > I suspect that would not be a good thing to mention.  I had an guy
> > interviewing me once who asked me to tell him my weaknesses.  The
> > question hit me wrong at the time so I told him to pick up the phone and
> > call my wife.  She could tell him my weaknesses far better than I could.
> >  I did not get the job offer -- haha
>
> OK.  I left off the smiley.
>
> I like that answer to your weaknesses -- I hate those questions: they're
> really an opportunity to see how well you lie, and thus tell you more
> about the place than they tell the place about you.
>
> --
I can't quite say with a straight face something like:

"My biggest weakness is that I sometimes take on too much
responsibility and don't share the load as well as I could"

or

"In my intensity to do my duties I sometimes forget to communicate
with my fellow workers"


> Tim Wescott
> Control system and signal processing consultingwww.wescottdesign.com

On 27/07/2012 02:32, brent wrote:
...
>>
>>> I suspect that would not be a good thing to mention.  I had an guy
>>> interviewing me once who asked me to tell him my weaknesses.  The
>>> question hit me wrong at the time so I told him to pick up the phone and
>>> call my wife.  She could tell him my weaknesses far better than I could.
>>>   I did not get the job offer -- haha
>>
>> OK.  I left off the smiley.
>>
>> I like that answer to your weaknesses -- I hate those questions: they're
>> really an opportunity to see how well you lie, and thus tell you more
>> about the place than they tell the place about you.
>>
>> --


It's one of those pseudo-NLP questions supposedly to see how self-aware 
a person is. If they have to ask it directly like that, they don't know 
how to interview (or are trying to rush it); which may indicate a lot of 
other things they don't know.  I would answer - "freckles, a roving eye, 
chocolate, top-posting, pointless verbal insults to computers; and not 
taking people seriously". But I do not see myself ever applying for any 
job, anyway...

Richard Dobson

On Fri, 27 Jul 2012 15:39:20 +0100, Richard Dobson wrote:

> On 27/07/2012 02:32, brent wrote:
> ...
>>>
>>>> I suspect that would not be a good thing to mention.  I had an guy
>>>> interviewing me once who asked me to tell him my weaknesses.  The
>>>> question hit me wrong at the time so I told him to pick up the phone
>>>> and call my wife.  She could tell him my weaknesses far better than I
>>>> could.
>>>>   I did not get the job offer -- haha
>>>
>>> OK.  I left off the smiley.
>>>
>>> I like that answer to your weaknesses -- I hate those questions:
>>> they're really an opportunity to see how well you lie, and thus tell
>>> you more about the place than they tell the place about you.
>>>
>>> --
> 
> 
> It's one of those pseudo-NLP questions supposedly to see how self-aware
> a person is. 

If you say so.  I had to look up NLP on Wikipedia to find out that you 
probably meant Neuro-Linguistic Programming.  

The first time I became aware of it was in a list of suggested questions 
to ask an interviewee.  (along with "if someone gave you an elephant, 
what would you do with it?).

The group of us that were on the interviewing panel decided instead that 
we would ask questions like "if you wanted to calculate integer y to be 1/
pi times integer x, and your machine couldn't do floating point, how 
would you go about it?"

(Looking for y = (x * 100) / 314, or, better, y = (x * 7) / 22 or one of 
the other closer approximations).

That later morphed into a "story problem" question that investigated the 
interviewees algebra, basic C-language coding, integer arithmetic, and 
ultimately advanced C-language coding skills.  If the interviewee didn't 
come out of the process shaking and sweating then either they were 
outstandingly qualified, or we weren't trying hard enough.

> If they have to ask it directly like that, they don't know
> how to interview (or are trying to rush it); which may indicate a lot of
> other things they don't know.  I would answer - "freckles, a roving eye,
> chocolate, top-posting, pointless verbal insults to computers; and not
> taking people seriously". But I do not see myself ever applying for any
> job, anyway...

I think that they are probably asking because it's on a word document 
that came from an email that came from someone transcribing a 10-th 
generation copy of a mimeographed sheet on "how to interview".

Interviewing is a scary process: it takes six months to two years to 
really tell whether an engineer is any good or not, and I know for a fact 
that you can't weed out all the bad apples just by interviewing.

-- 
My liberal friends think I'm a conservative kook.
My conservative friends think I'm a liberal kook.
Why am I not happy that they have found common ground?

Tim Wescott, Communications, Control, Circuits & Software
http://www.wescottdesign.com

Tim Wescott <t...@seemywebsite.com> writes:
> [...] I know for a fact that you can't weed out all the bad apples
> just by interviewing.

Nor avoid weeding out the good apples.
-- 
Randy Yates
Digital Signal Labs
http://www.digitalsignallabs.com

On Fri, 27 Jul 2012 18:40:00 -0400, Randy Yates wrote:

> Tim Wescott <t...@seemywebsite.com> writes:
>> [...] I know for a fact that you can't weed out all the bad apples just
>> by interviewing.
> 
> Nor avoid weeding out the good apples.

That's a dilemma, for sure.

You can weed out _all_ the bad apples by weeding out all the apples -- 
that seems to be the policy of Big Corp HR departments these days.

(That's not just cynicism, or at least not mine -- I've been reading 
articles about just this.  You'd think that some enterprising Big Corp 
would take advantage of this by doing a better job hiring, but it seems 
as if there's one big collective ass out there into which all the Big 
Corp executives have stuck their heads).

-- 
My liberal friends think I'm a conservative kook.
My conservative friends think I'm a liberal kook.
Why am I not happy that they have found common ground?

Tim Wescott, Communications, Control, Circuits & Software
http://www.wescottdesign.com