先说说我的情况.EE Ph.D. 我是很背的, 先是做有限元模拟, 从2001年 起才开始做RFIC Design, 到现在很多当年一起来的人都已经拿GC了, 我这才刚准备走出校门, sigh...OK, 先说说我的不成功的经历.

我的第一个INTERVIEW应该是在2002年 Spring 学校的Job Fair上, Intel的一个家伙问:"你上了些什么课?"我说有Data converter design. "OK, show me a 8-bit xxx ADC architecture". ft!这个是 头天课堂上老师刚刚讲过的, 我怎么就记不起那些个电阻该怎么个连法 呢? 结果瞎画一气还没画出来. 丫冷笑着说:"等你学好了之后再来吧!" 更令人沮丧的是以后几年Intel来Campus Job Fair, 都是丫负责电路方 面的, 所以就再没有在Intel的booth前停留过了.

今年元旦一过开始seriously地找工作. 几大站点, 象Monster, Flipdog, Dice等, 我都去登记了, 但一点效果都没有--我总共得到的7个Phone Interview和两个On-site Interview中, 没有一个是从这上面得来的 -- Maybe对其他专业会不一样.

接到的第一个电话来自一个台湾人办的DC地区的小公司,大约是二月初. 前一年毕业的台湾师兄说当年他曾与之联系做INTERN,后因故未去. 我就给 他们把resume fax 过去, 没两天就接到电话说要interview, 还有一个 University of Maryland 的某教授, 就让我介绍了一下我所做的Project. 我事前也没做rehearsal, 就节节巴巴地说了十几分钟, 然后那个Professor 问了一个问题, 具体记不清了, 只知道是有关mixer的,我就按我的理解做了 回答, 然后这个公司的人就问我是不是开始写论文了, 我说是(其实还没有), 然后他就说"then send me a copy of your dissertation summary".挂了电 话后我赶紧花一下午写了个两页的东西给他发过去, 结果是"黄鹤一去不复还". 我自己总结主要有两个教训:1. 对自己的东西没做系统的总结就匆忙上阵; 2. "dissertation summary"没有显示出Ph.D.应有的水平. 没收到回音本来还 觉得有些遗憾, 领导说台湾人的公司, 不去也罢, 以后的机会还很多呢. 想想也是, 这下才稍安了.

接着是学校的SPRING JOB FAIR, 在IBM, Micron, Rockwell Collins等5,6家 公司处投了简历. 看到了Skyworks的名字, 当时脑袋里浮现出点点白云在蓝蓝 天空中漂浮的影像:这是个搞什么architecture design的吧? 就没去仔细看, 自然也就没投Resume了. 后来得知组里面好多人都跟Skyworks interview过了, 而且那里的头就是老板当年在另一公司里的手下, 这下心里才后悔死了, 赶紧到 他们网站上投了Resume, 倒是很快就安排了Phone interview. 一共是两个人, 一个问有关mixer的问题, 一个问有关VCO的问题. 这次interview进行得很顺利, 他们也说我表现很好, 让我静侯佳音, 以便on-site. 但随即组里有两个人锯了 他们的offer, 我也久久未收到他们的回音. 打电话找contact的HR LADY, 伊也 从来不回. 又从老板处要来Director的地址(他当年的手下), 直接给他写了封信 寄去, 也是杳无音信. 如果说找老板直接给他打电话呢, 我觉得我的脸皮也没 那么厚, 跟锯他们的colleague谈起吧, 他也没有给我director的电话号码的 意思, 只好做罢. 现在看来反而是件好事, 不然的话多办就继续呆在这个boring 的中西部了.

对于IBM, 我是从学校的校友通讯录上查到某个校友作到了Manager, 就直接 把RESUME发给他, 说想做INTERN. 过两天他就打电话问对PLL感不感兴趣. 我说 我做了个VCO, 想在这基础上做PLL, 然后他又问了一下VCO相关的问题. 过了两 天他手下一哥们又打电话专门问PLL, 诸如intergrator的作用呀, 对noise的影响 呀, 怎样减少phase noise呀, 等等. 我是几乎"茫然一片在心中", 当然也就再 没得到他们的回音了.

另外还有个Phone interview, 也是直接把RESUME发在公司主页上得到的，是家 Austin的中小公司．Manager一来就让我画个电路, a common-source amplifier with a diode-connected transistor load, 让我说出某两点的impedance. 这是 analog design的东西啊, 不是RF的呀, 上过课以后我根本就没看过Razavi的book 呀...结果我嗯了嗯两分钟, 丫就说:"OK, it seems we don't have a match here, good luck!" 耻辱呀! 赶紧拿出教科书,Analog design, digital design, fabrication, RF design, converter design, 仔细过几篇不表.

后来到四月份的时候接到另一家公司的电话(也是从公司网上得到的), 说是做RF, 也是一来就问ANALOG的问题. 这次还可以, 到五月份的时候就去Denver做了ON-SITE. 结果那里只有7,8个人, 是 某家较大公司去年才收购的, 做完Presentation以后就与每个人面谈. The presentation went well. Talks with other persons also went well. 但当与Manager谈的时候就 出问题了. "Tell me what courses and projects you have taken and done." "I've taken ... Data Converter Design, and done a project of sigma-delta ADC..." "OK, draw me an illustration of your sigma-delta ADC" ...My god! I didn't review my this project at all! 但我也只好走到黑板上画起来..."Are you sure this is your sigma-delta ADC?" of course I'm not sure! "en...It's done about two years ago, I can't remember now, but I have it on my computer."我赶紧打开笔记本:"Look, this is the sigma-delta ADC I've designed for the project..."最后好不容易与他 谈完, 我感觉天都要蹋下来了! 这肯定是没戏了! My first on-site! Failed like this!

在与其他人的面试中, 从analog, digital, RF到Microcontroller的问题都有, 比如: impedance of a diode-connected transistor? to realize an XOR with only inverters and ORs, with transmission-gates, if multiple stage, what would happen for certain inputs? How to measure IP2 of a mixer? output impedance of a bipolar source follower? How to add feedback to stablize Vb? What's the difference between flicker noise and shot noise? For a 8-bit uC data transfer, how should clock be taken care of to avoid certain situation?...

很快同办公室与我同时加入这个Group的哥们拿到两个OFFER, 挑了一个乐呵呵地上班去 了.那一阵心里郁闷得很呀, 好不容易有个ON-SITE却没有抓住机会, 在intel, mortorola,TI,Agilent, HP, Analog等大公司各投了几十个相关的职位, 从没回音. Intel的朋友在内部post了我的RESUME以后, 倒是收到过几次EMAIL, 要求填个表, 估计好多人都填过的, 但填了以后也没下文了.眼看SUMMER就开始了而工作还没戏, 赶紧找到老板:"I haven't found a job yet, can I extend until Fall?"老板倒很 NICE, 同意了. 但想到在这里又要多呆半年, 烦啊! 我还是继续种我的菜吧!

大概是五月三十号吧, 突然收到电话:
"Are you bison?"
"Yes, I am."
"Are you looking for a job?"
"Yes"
"In RFIC design?"
"Yes"
"When are you going to be avaiable?"
"My official graduation date is December this year, but I can work right now on CPT, OPT from graduation through December 2005, beyond that I need H1B visa sponsorship. Is that a problem with your company?"
"No, not a problem, we do sponsorship. It's nice talking with you. Thanks. byebye"
"byebye"
就这么就完了. 突然想起没记下他的名字和电话号码. 从手机上留下的号码打过去, 却是个总机. 哎, 算了吧, 如果他对我感兴趣, 自然会打电话来, 如果不感兴趣, 跪下来求他也没有用, 我这么安慰自己, 没想到还真应验了.

每天仍然从Monster和Dice的Agent中找几个position 来发简历. 每天仍然没什么反映. 其间我还到一个网站,www.rfcafe.com,到那里的Message board上去找老美聊天, 一 个家伙说他所知道的RF的POSITION, 90%都需要SECURITY CLEARANCE, "I will try to get your resume through the remaining 10% in this area", just like that. 这里的几个朋友也给帮着投了几家公司, 虽然也没什么结果, 在这里也谢过了.

老丈母说,你该带个红带子在身上才会有好运.赶紧找出一个红带子拴在 手上.到六月十号的时候, 电话铃突然又响了:
"This is AAA from BBB, do you still remember me? I called you a few days ago"
"Oh...yah, yah, how are you?"
"Good, how are you?"
"Good, thank you"
"How's your job-hunting going?"
"I still not find a job yet"
"We'd like to bring you here to have an interview. What you are going to do is to go to our job-website, search for job ID#12345, submit your information and resume over there, then someone will arrange it for you."
"Oh...that's great! Thanks!...but when is it?"
"How about June 25?"
"No, I will have a conference that week, how about June 28?"
"No problem. So it's Monday, June 28. I will send you an email to give your my contact information."
"Ok. Thanks, byebye"

放下电话我简直不敢相信自己的耳朵!ON-SITE就这么来了??!!不管怎么说, 赶快去网上看 看, 一查,怎么没有这个JOB ID呀? 是不是搞错了? 再查查, 还没有. 吃了晚饭再查, 啊, 出来了!难道这是临时才加的不成? 管它三七二十一, 先照他说的做了再说.果然第二天HR 的人就来联系有关事宜了.

一进去MANAGER就问有没有带TRANSCRIPT.哎哟, 我不知道你要看这个."OK, can you write down the courses you have taken?"赶紧找张纸写下, 他拿去复印了给每人一份. 然后就做PRESENTATION,face-to-face talk.

第一个人是个VCO专家, 说你知道你的VCO有 什么问题吗? 我说我不知道呀."OK, the noise from power supply will blah blah blah, the varactor will have large current if forward-biased, ..." "What will happen if we get rid of the tail current source?" "Large power dissipation ". "What's the advantage of your architecture over this architecture?" " Double output swing, and better performance against variation"...跟他谈完后, 他送我出来, 拍着我肩膀说,"Take it easy, just relax, you will be all right..."

第二个是个韩国小个子, 他倒是一本正经正经的拿了个小本本,密密麻麻地写了好几页问 题. "OK, let's start...the first question is ...." "Pardon?" "xxtedgasdg" "Pardon?" 他说的什么我实在是听不清楚, 费好半天劲才搞懂, 结果30分钟的时间就问了 两三个问题, 其中一个是for the flicker noise on the input of a common source LNA, how will it affect the output? 另一个是what's the input impedance of a common gate amplifier? and its advantage compared with common source one? 第 三个问题记不得了, 我回答 I don't know, 他说I don't know either, 然后隔了两秒钟 ,我们相视大笑.

接下来的几个人也问了几个问题,主要是有关mixer 和VCO的, 但更多的时间都在声讨公司 以前的一个EVALUATION的政策:the last 10% in yearly evaluation automatically got fired (他们问:do you have any questions? 我总是把这个放在第一位:what's the evaluation system at your company?).

到下午快完的时候Manager说我们头想跟你谈谈. 是个很和蔼的老头,先介绍了整个公司 的结构, 问了一下我的AVAILABILITY的情况, 然后问我what kind of job would you like? 我说,"I want to continue what I am doing at school in LNA and mixer design, and to sharpen my skills in RF front-end design, then I want to involve in other areas like VCO, PLL. Overall, I hope I can get professional recognition in company-wide and industry-wide through my hard work". "Do you have any questions?" 又来了...what do you think of the competitity of this company compared with other companies like Intel, Motorola, TI, RFMD, Analog, Broadcom and others?" 然后他就画了个表, 把这些公司的领域一一列出加以打分, 又猛 解释了一通.这样二十分钟很快就过去了.

最后是Manager.原以为他要问几个技术问题, 结果没有.他就问when can you come to work? Do you have any questions? 我有问了一遍之后, 突然想起还有一个问题:"When can I expect a response?" "The HR person will be on vacation since Thursday (JUly 1), we'll definitely get feedback to you before that..." Then, as I just sent out the thank-you letter to him on Tuesday afternoon, my home phone rings. It's the HR lady...

我估计这个Manager是从他们的内部网上看到我的简历的, 因为从他们的job website上交 的是plain text的简历, 而我看到他拿的是我的WORD格式的简历, 是我在两个月前请刚到 他们公司的一位朋友转的. 整个来说我觉得那几个找工作的网站对找entry level的IC design 帮助不大, 有人在公司内部帮你递RESUME让MANAGER直接看到的希望最大, 对一些 中小公司,直接CHECK它们的网站也很有帮助(Monster never shows the positions of the several companies which called me).这个网站:http://www.globalspec.com/列出 了所有生产相关产品的公司, 我觉得挺有用的.

Fuding Ge的这个网站:http://www.oocities.org/fudingge/JobGuide.html, 我认为对 准备IC DESIGN的INTERVIEW帮助很大, 你可以对着上面的问题来看你是不是都搞懂了. 还 有好多INTERVIEW QUESTIONS可供一练身手. 我有幸能得到Fuding的帮助, 在此先谢过了.还有其他各位帮过忙的朋友们, 也先道个谢了!

到现在为止那根红带子我都随身拴着, 和和.