https://jobs.mattel.com/en/job/el-segun ... 6938954384

Hello everyone! I had this funny idea a few days ago. You know, what we do is (plus or minus) 'electronic toy making'. So I went looking at toy manufacturers and seeing what types of jobs they had available. This one popped up after minimal searching.

From the job description, here is a list of "things they are looking for":

- BS in Electrical Engineering is strongly preferred

They want to know that you are who you say you are?

- At least 2-3 years hands-on experience in design, prototyping, and troubleshooting analog and digital electronic circuits.

Standard year-count for entry level position? That way they can not have to pay you the full salary promised?

- Ability to effectively pitch toy concepts to peers and upper management

Engineer: "100101001010001" Executive: "Your fired."

- Experience in product development within the toy industry

Standard blah blah for something like this?

- Experience with China-based vendors

JLCPCB!

- Familiar with plastics

3D Printers?

- Building prototypes based on input from non-technical partners

Executive: "We want a dinosaur that goes, 'Roar!'" Engineer: "... Ok."

- Mechatronic / Animatronic system design

Huh? Moving parts?

- TFT / OLED Displays

Ok, fairly easy.

- MEMS motion sensors & microphones

Arduino and Adafruit attachments!

- Wireless ICs (BT, WiFi, 2.4G)

I own a cellphone so I'm good here, right?

- Microprocessors and Peripherals

That's us!

- The vision and perseverance to take ideas from concept through development and into production

Can you prove that you can actually finish a job?

- Self-starter, self-motivating, self- directing, and self-managing and a strong team player
- Project management skills; the ability to lead, multi-task and handle several projects simultaneously

Normal blah blah.

- Familiarity with any of the following: ARM, C, C++, Embedded Systems, or Audio/ Visual Assets

Do you actually type on a keyboard with all 10 fingers?

- Experience with electromechanical systems

How vague.

- Proficiency with software development for embedded systems both with Assembly code and higher-level language a must

Notepad++ right?

- Ability to work cross-functionally with Design, Project Management, and Packaging, etc

Again just blah blah.

- Basic understanding of mechanical systems is highly desirable

Um, duh?

- Demonstrated a growth mindset by staying curious and continuously learning, embracing challenges, and improving themselves

Blah blah!

Am I reading this wrong? Is there something I'm missing? I feel I could *totally* do this job, and probably get promoted within a year or two.

I'm not thinking of taking this job, I'm just using this as an example. Is this something do-able for a math teacher who is an electronics hobbyist on the weekends?

I haven't really ever applied for a job outside of my college, so any insight would be well received! Thank you!

Chad

You totally can take this job. Toys are extremely cost sensitive, so they’ll want one chip to do everything and on 2-layer pc board. The schedule is very short, design cycle is few months with Christmas sale as the end point. You need reverse engineering skill because taking apart other brands of toys is a big part of “research and development“. You need diverse skills; software, hardware, board assembly, debugging, tester, production experiences. Communication skill is extremely important; strong self motivation is paramount and do more with less is essential. Very few engineers graduated from universities have these skill set, so you won’t have much competition for the job.
Bill

And as an added bonus, that's the sort of skill set we're looking for at our place in the UK, and have great difficulty finding. Lots of electronic theorists, lots of higher level programmers, lots of Arduino programmers, but very few jack-of-all-trades. Hobbyists who can take a bunch of chips and stick them together into something working are the types they need.

Don't worry if you don't have _all_ the skills they're looking for; they want the bulk of them but they're a big enough company that they will have, for example, specialists in dealing with Chinese suppliers (which won't be just JLC or LCSC I'm afraid; they want you to be able to specify the complete build, down to specific part numbers - so A104K15X7RH5UAAP rather than 100nF 0603 - but also to be able to deal when said company buggers up your build by substituting a cheaper part. Or organising prototype, and complaining when they don't work...)

Plastics are essential, and 3-d prototyping is the common way to do it, but it's a specialist skill. I doubt they'd expect you to be a plastics designer; it's a full time job in itself, particularly where toys are concerned; there are a lot of safety regulations you'd have to be aware of and comply with. Generally, as long as you can talk a designer through your rough sketch, you're half-way there.

But those are skills you will learn on the job. The basic things they're looking for there are: do you have interesting ideas? Can you implement them? Can you build them for twopence?

If you watch some of BigCliveDotCom's youtube videos, you'll get an idea of the corners that are cut in this sort of engineering... remember that toys only have to last until the next birthday; you're not sending a mission to Jupiter.

On this sort of job interview, definitely take along some samples of your work!

Neil

Edit: in the four years since I officially retired, they still haven't found a replacement. Which gets me new paragliders from time to time...

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x86?  We ain't got no x86.  We don't NEED no stinking x86!

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x86?  We ain't got no x86.  We don't NEED no stinking x86!

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http://WilsonMinesCo.com/ lots of 6502 resources
The "second front page" is http://wilsonminesco.com/links.html .
What's an additional VIA among friends, anyhow?

Oh, I had some thoughts on this. But I see the tone has gone down the drain. Never mind.

Bill, you know my skills best I'd say, so thank you for the confidence.



Thank you for the analysis! I wouldn't want to boast, but I do think I am a jack of all trades since I'm having to do everything all by myself for so many years. Finally there is a payoff for that? :/



Totally true BDD. I saw that and was actually really discouraged: Are all electronic-based jobs so low paying? Did I find an expensive hobby that cannot pay back for the time I put into it? I don't think so, but confirmation that this indeed is an outlier would be nice to know.



That's great news Its a start at least! Did you just walk in to the place unannounced, "I'd like to see the owner of this place." Haha! Love it, that's how it should be done!



I don't know what you mean Ed? I'm willing to listen.

Thank you all!

Chad

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x86?  We ain't got no x86.  We don't NEED no stinking x86!

Where's the job advert? That's just the sort of thing I'd slot into, but all the jobs I apply for I get rejected by the automatic processing, along with the "entry level, must have 300 years' experience" malarky. I'm fed up doing minimum wage furniture removal that's described as "IT" because it involves taking computers out of boxes and putting them on desks.

That's exactly the sort of thing I end up doing. I'm currently digging into some PDP11 FloatToString code wondering where I've lost the accuracy with numbers larger than 999999999. I need to get around to updating my portfolio with some of the hardware projects I've done, which requires getting proper photos of them.

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JGH - http://mdfs.net

Definitely not. Any hobby is the value of the enjoyment you get out of it. If you can convert it to paid employment, that is a bonus. I started making making battery/bulb circuits at about age 8, then a breadboarded radio, then got a soldering iron and was making small circuits, amplifiers, radio, digital electronics, a 8-seg LED counter/timer thingy before discovering computers and programming/interfacing them.

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JGH - http://mdfs.net

JGH, you have mail.

No doubt you went through the common stage where radios oscillators, oscillators amplified, and amplifiers picked up the local AM radio?

Neil