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The FPGA Designer Who Didn't Get the Job

zipcpu.com

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Re: The FPGA Designer Who Didn't Get the Job

#11

Post by ampdepolymerase »

smnrchrds wrote: post #9
ampdepolymerase wrote: post #3

This is a classic supply and demand problem. EE and FPGA jobs don't pay well. You can see the same thing happen in entry-level ML. Applicants want to design models, not spend their days cleaning data. If you pay well enough you will get good candidates who will be willing to put up with mindnumbing jobs. The Zip CPU author sounds like those software "artisans" who regularly get posted on HN. There is plenty of room f…

I think the disconnect was not about compensation, but expectations. If you are working for a small business, you have to wear many hats. There are not enough X jobs to fill all your time, so you do X 60% of the time and Y, Z, and Q the other 40%. In a BigCo, there is enough work to go around that 200 people can work full-time just on X. If you get hired for X, you don't have to do anything but X. The client, if they…

All these problems will solve themselves if the companies raise their compensation. You see this in the ML industry all the time. Many non-tech companies and even small to medium sized tech companies expect their data scientists to be fullstack engineers. And yet refuse to offer a similar level of compensation. Then they wonder why all the top talent flock to unicorn and FAANG type corporations.

Re: The FPGA Designer Who Didn't Get the Job

#12

Post by FormhellFrom »

I really don’t see what’s wrong with an applicant saying “no”. Employers say “no” all the time! The paragraphs and paragraphs about small-business ownership and how you have to hustle and grind and have character seemed really odd to me. Your applicant didn’t want to do what you wanted them to do. Just move on?

Re: The FPGA Designer Who Didn't Get the Job

#13

Post by ip26 »

FormhellFrom wrote: post #12

I really don’t see what’s wrong with an applicant saying “no”. Employers say “no” all the time! The paragraphs and paragraphs about small-business ownership and how you have to hustle and grind and have character seemed really odd to me. Your applicant didn’t want to do what you wanted them to do. Just move on?

I think the author was just a bit peeved after interviewing what he saw as the hardware equivalent of a software engineer who considers writing any tests beneath them, a job for someone else.

Re: The FPGA Designer Who Didn't Get the Job

#14

Post by SalamandersRUs »

If you found this article interesting, I'd recommend this article by the same author: https://zipcpu.com/blog/2020/11/26/zipcpu-biz.html

> On another team I worked with, I was asked to call a man by female pronouns. This one brings me more grief, as I enjoyed working with the individual in question. He wanted to declare himself to be a woman. He changed his name, his clothing, his looks, his dress, you name it. While I might disagree with his decisions, who made me a judge? However, for me to call a man a “she” would make me a liar. This I refused to do.

Re: The FPGA Designer Who Didn't Get the Job

#16

Post by FormhellFrom »

SalamandersRUs wrote: post #14

If you found this article interesting, I'd recommend this article by the same author: https://zipcpu.com/blog/2020/11/26/zipcpu-biz.html > On another team I worked with, I was asked to call a man by female pronouns. This one brings me more grief, as I enjoyed working with the individual in question. He wanted to declare himself to be a woman. He changed his name, his clothing, his looks, his dress, you name it. While…

Damn, for all the huffing and puffing about “prima-Donnas”, it sure sounds like this guy couldn’t even follow a very reasonable request.

Re: The FPGA Designer Who Didn't Get the Job

#17

Post by smnrchrds »

ampdepolymerase wrote: post #11
smnrchrds wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the disconnect was not about compensation, but expectations. If you are working for a small business, you have to wear many hats. There are not enough X jobs to fill all your time, so you do X 60% of the time and Y, Z, and Q the other 40%. In a BigCo, there is enough work to go around that 200 people can work full-time just on X. If you get hired for X, you don't have to do anything but X. The client, if they…

All these problems will solve themselves if the companies raise their compensation. You see this in the ML industry all the time. Many non-tech companies and even small to medium sized tech companies expect their data scientists to be fullstack engineers. And yet refuse to offer a similar level of compensation. Then they wonder why all the top talent flock to unicorn and FAANG type corporations.

While remuneration is an important part of job satisfaction, it's not the only factor. If hire someone who hates travelling for a job that requires 90% travel time and give them a generous salary, they accept it, but will be completely miserable in it. They won't quit because of the golden handcuffs, but is that a "solved problem"?

Big banks do this to the juniors: pay them tons of money and work them to death. They have no problem finding talent. But I prefer companies find ways to make their employees lives not miserable instead of saying "here's some money for your misery, you may want to spend some of it on a good psychologist".

I am saying this as someone who has seen what working in oilsands does to people. Some people enjoy it, but some only stay for the money. They are extremely well-paid, extremely miserable, and never quit.

Re: The FPGA Designer Who Didn't Get the Job

#18

Post by FormhellFrom »

ip26 wrote: post #13
FormhellFrom wrote: post #12

I really don’t see what’s wrong with an applicant saying “no”. Employers say “no” all the time! The paragraphs and paragraphs about small-business ownership and how you have to hustle and grind and have character seemed really odd to me. Your applicant didn’t want to do what you wanted them to do. Just move on?

I think the author was just a bit peeved after interviewing what he saw as the hardware equivalent of a software engineer who considers writing any tests beneath them, a job for someone else.

Someone else pointed out that nowhere did he list how much he was going to pay this guy. Horror stories abound about companies using “take home” application tests to get work done for free, I think it’s somewhat reasonable for the applicant to be wary about this.

Re: The FPGA Designer Who Didn't Get the Job

#19

Post by jcims »

FormhellFrom wrote: post #18
ip26 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the author was just a bit peeved after interviewing what he saw as the hardware equivalent of a software engineer who considers writing any tests beneath them, a job for someone else.

Someone else pointed out that nowhere did he list how much he was going to pay this guy. Horror stories abound about companies using “take home” application tests to get work done for free, I think it’s somewhat reasonable for the applicant to be wary about this.

>On top of that, my client was offering to pay this individual to do the work.

Re: The FPGA Designer Who Didn't Get the Job

#20

Post by bsder »

ampdepolymerase wrote: post #10
bsder wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> EE and FPGA jobs don't pay well. The problem is that EE/FPGA jobs have to compete with FAANGs. However, hardware, by and large, isn't VC funded. Hardware also has a fairly objective criterion for success. So, you're not going to get offered $200K unless you actually know what you're doing and bring direct business value. And, if you don't know what you're doing, that's going to be apparent real quick. As for the Zi…

> The problem is that EE/FPGA jobs have to compete with FAANGs. Too bad. That is the free market. The market is not obligated to provide companies with labour, just like companies are not obligated to provide people with jobs.

No argument.

But the flip side is that I'm also not required to hire someone either.

However, programmers don't get to complain that the FAANGs are gatekeeping/discriminating/etc. when the programmers decided that FAANG jobs are the only ones paying salaries they're willing to work for.

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