This one I guarantee will be shorter… So I got a new job a few months back. I started the last week of September, just before the end of the company’s fiscal year so I’m good to go on full credit for the year this year. Anyway, I got a full time position at Keithley, where I had been working as an intern/contractor for about a year and a half. My official title is Services Engineer. Basically it’s the same thing as an applications engineer, but it’s a different name so as not to be confused with the engineers in the applications group. Really it’s more of an applications engineering position than a position in the apps group is anyway.
The group I’m in is a new group in the company called the Keithley Services group. Basically what we do is put together test systems for customers, including picking out hardware and writing custom software. We also offer other services like training and consulting, but putting test systems together is our primary business. The goal of the group is to make Keithley more than just a hardware supplier, but instead a solutions provider. Kind of like the route IBM has taken.
So it all sounds like stuff the apps team would do, right? Well yes, and they do do a little of this, but at Keithley they’ve largely played the roll of tech support. When I was first applying for a job, the position I was going for was originally in the apps group. It was senior level though so my chances of getting it were not real high, but they weren’t bad either since a year and a half in Keithley’s R&D department made me so knowledgeable on their 2600 line of SourceMeters. While I was interviewing (6 or 7 of them at that) this new services position appeared and they recommended me for that. I read over the description, like what I saw, and one more interview later had a job. I’m pretty happy with it as it encompasses all of what an apps engineer should do without having to play the roll of tech support.
So I’m working a permanent position full time now. I’m getting a salary, have a retirement plan, got dental and medical insurance once again (after almost two years without) and have a steady income. Things are going pretty well overall. Now to start looking for a house. Hopefully I’ll be saying, "party at my place" in the next 6 months.