I'm Transitioning

In a few, I'll hit 24. Exactly this day a year ago, the Metro was devastated by heavy rains absent a typhoon. Almost everyone was more than flood swept. Luckily, our family survived those testing times. I felt very blessed that day.

Now that I'm turning 24, I'd like to think that the same blessing is with me. But I'm making things sure. I'm planning the things that are ahead of me. I'm beginning to become socially relevant, a thing that I've been of less concern over the past years.

I start drawing virtual maps of my connections and where these connections will bring me. Investments feel like they're becoming a vital part of my future endeavors. The feeling of having a savings account is always a relief more than a budget-eating portion. My life for the next six years already has allotments: There is no room for unplanned events or unmanaged risks.

Speaking of risks, I think this is the perfect time for me to take risks. Risk is inevitable. That's the reason why we had a subject back in college called Risk Management. I think there are only two kinds of risks -- the one you can handle and the one you can't. Let us say that since I've prepared for this season of my life years ago, the risks that will challenge me are only those that I feel I can handle. I just have a good feeling about it.

Spiritually speaking, people in the church, in these scientist pools, environmentalists, they say this is the end time. Somehow, this has affected my plans. Instead of focusing on my long term plans, I start breaking down things into priority. I guess maturity also plays a role here. This time, I have to focus on what's near me, what's gonna make or break me. This essentially breaks down my plans into small units but planning them to be additive to one another makes it appear to be a bigger achievement over time. Again, it all boils down to planning.

Just thinking of my plans gets me excited. I don't know if I'm the only one who feels this way. Some people are afraid of the future. But I guess only people who haven't prepared for it are the real subjects of failure. I'd like to think I'm not one of them. Failing to plan is planning to fail.

Perhaps one of the things that I'm looking forward to is the incarnation of my plans to life. I can sense my future laurels, yet I try not to be overcome by confidence. I can't wait, while they say patience is a virtue.

Modesty aside, I feel proud of myself. For the past year I've done things in my life, but none of them I regret. I made tough decisions not only for me, my job and family, but also for other people I care about. Seeing these decisions pay off makes me feel vindicated, gratified.

Now, looking at how long I've written, I can't help but feel that, I'm becoming a different person. Or maybe, I've evolved to someone that I always thought I'd not become. I was a happy-go-lucky type of student in college. That's one of the reasons why planning, for me, is a great feat, a great deal. It is an indicator of my readiness to face whatever lies ahead.

This version of me is shaped by my experiences, bad and good alike. It took twenty-four years in the brewing. I'm changing. I'm transitioning... into a vampire responsible individual.

What's your job?

Many times, people ask me, what's your job? I answer, I'm an electronics engineer. When they probe further, I say I'm a Design Verification Engineer in a Japanese semiconductor company.

The moment I end my sentence is the same moment they realize that they shouldn't have asked. They will look astonished, none any less than bewildered.

I will start explaining it here in detail; Unlike in real conversations, I keep it a short description to engage them. If they are interested enough, they will ask questions and I will feed smaller information yet just as crucial for their understanding.

Primarily, my work is to test chips (Integrated Circuits, ICs). These chips could either be on its development stage, improved versions of previous developments, or final packages which would be sold to the clients/market. We test chips with different technologies: motor drivers, LED/LCD drivers, reset ICs, power management ICs, linear/switching regulators, among others.

There are several ways to test a chip, and we do it manually. When I say manually, we have a test board with the chip mounted on it, and we connect supply voltages or currents through wires from the equipment. We have a laboratory where there are loads of different kinds of instruments, and a thermostreamer which could emit air from -80°C up to 220°C. Another way of testing is with the use of machinery. This ain't our job.

Since we do things manually, it is expected that as engineers, we will be able to measure the expected results from different parameters. These parameters could be as simple as output voltage or as bizzare as output noise. We need to know which instrument will be used for which. We also need to perform a simple debug if the indications from our Japanese clients will not give any result.

Indications are the procedures for obtaining the correct and expected result for a parameter. A wrong indication is the main antihero of our job (aside from faulty chip design). Since we work with strict deadlines per chip, we can't afford to have some unproductive time. To rectify this, we need to communicate with the client and ask for changes to the indication. Waiting is the next step, we need to wait until they have sent these indications by ftp so we could proceed with our measurements.

That, among other problems, makes our job easy. In theory, if you just follow the indications, then it is good to go. Makes us quite look like operators, don't we? But it is more than that. 99% of the time, just following the indications won't give you the expected results. You need to employ the technicques in measurement from the college days. What a throwback.

So that's it. That is what we mostly do, not to mention other things like circuit simulation, report making, et cetera et cetera.

Sometimes, it feels good to know that rhe product you are testing is going to be inside one of those smartphones, cars or laptops. But a greater portion of my job stresses me now than it enlightens me. There are just reasons reasons reasons, I digress.

So the next time someone asks me that question again, I hope I could easily give a workable answer. Let this blog be.