After three or four years of hard study, you have graduated. Well done, and now the job hunting starts, writes Ash Madni, Head of Silicon Design at CML Microcircuits (UK) and a veteran of 31 years in the Analogue Integrated Circuit industry.

Here are a few interview tips that you may find useful.

My undergraduate year at Salford University

I remember my first year as an undergraduate at Salford University, back in 1981. I was late for a lecture on Network analysis, and I had to make my way from one end of the campus to another. To make matters worse, the Network Analysis lecture was being held on the 9th floor of the Maxwell Building (pictured below).

I arrived about 5 minutes after the lecture had started and was greeted with the usual jeers reserved for those students who came late. Mr Boothroyd, the lecturer simply looked at me and said nothing. I quickly found my seat and started making notes. Mr Boothroyd was one of those lectures that not only presented brilliantly but wrote clear and concise notes on the blackboard, making it extremely easy for students.

So basically, a two-port network could be reduced to a single voltage source in series with an impedance. Well wow, were my thoughts. At the time I didn’t realise how useful this technique would be. I would have to wait some ten years later to really exploit this method. A few months , the entire Electronics Undergraduate collective, some three hundred students,were invited to a talk by Professor George Carter, a giant in the field of Ion Implantation.

Professor Carter began by asking “Do you know your mother’s name?” We all sat in silence thinking, what on Earth has this got to do with Electronics? He then answered his own question, I will paraphrase here;

“Well of course you do, because you use her name every day. The point here is that if you use the materials we taught you every day, you will never forget it” The penny had dropped! I thought, YES, this is the way I am going to become a practising Electronics Engineer….I will remember what I have been taught in my undergraduate years.

A typical interview question

Fastforwarding a few decades, my first question at an interview I recently conducted was; Can you generate a Thevenin equivalent of the simple network shown in Fig 1 below?

Figure 1: Simple network

Applying Kirchoff’s Voltage laws;

This results in the following Thevenin equivalent;

Figure 2; Thevenin equivalent

That wasn’t hard and pretty trivial. So I guess some people might think how would we apply the above approach to a more complex circuit. Another good interview question is, what is the voltage gain of a common base amplifier? Figure 3 below shows a simple common base amplifier biased by a current source and a simple dc voltage source in the base of the transistor.

Figure 3: Common Base Amplifier

The first thing to do is to look at the hybrid π equivalent Figure 4 left, generating a Thevenin equivalent of the basic Common Base configuration to the one shown in the middle and finally inserting the Thevenin equivalent back into the complete circuit. The blue dotted rectangle is the two port Thevenin equivalent of the undegenerated Common base amplifier.

Figure 4: Common Base, Common base without degeneration, Common base with Thevenin equivalent

The analysis for the two port Thevenin equivalent of the Common Base amplifier is

Applying Kirchoff’s voltage laws;

 
Thus from the last equivalent circuit, on the right, in Fig 4, from inspection we have;

Note the input impedance of the Common Base Amplifier is Re+re.

Whilst I have given a short demonstration of some of the questions I might ask, this doesn’t mean all interviewers will ask such questions. However, the point here, is that this is very basic level of interview questions, demonstrating the need for having a good background of the fundamentals.

Your CV and recruitment agencies

Before you apply for jobs, one thing you will absolutely need to do, is to prepare a good CV. There are plenty of examples of this on the internet, so I won’t go into it here. However, make sure you outline your final year project. This will show employers the strengths you may possess, or what you have specialised in during your course.

Once you have prepared a CV, the next thing to do, is to find yourself a really good recruitment agency. I would recommend both IC Resources and Yoh recruitment for UK and European-based roles.

Make sure to speak to the agent asking about the roles they currently have open for graduate positions. The agents will do their best to setup interviews for you.

Once you have secured an interview, make sure you understand the products the company is manufacturing, their background etc.

At the interview

Again, there are plenty of examples of this on the internet about appearance, punctuality etc. I would add that soft skills are equally as important as hard technical skills. By soft skills, I am referring to listening, team working, enthusiasm, “can do” attitude, friendly open manner, etc.

Good listening skills are hard to nurture, and need to be developed over a period of time. Talk to your University tutors, about courses you could attend or they may give you some coaching directly. Do not underestimate the need for good listening skills. Once you start with an employer, you will no doubt be working closely with your assigned supervisor. He or she will be your mentor in the coming months and years, therefore, being able to listen to them is essential.

Final thoughts

After the hard graft of study, preparation, you have done everything you can do in your power. The rest is up to the employer, so I wish you Good luck. Remember, everyone started as a young graduate somewhere in their career. One day, it may be your turn to advise future graduates.