Alpha Eritrean Engineers Community

February 2011

JOURNEY OF SUCCESS
SURPASSED MY OWN EXPECTATIONS

VALUABLE LESSON
REACHING OUT
LIST OF COMPANIES HIRING

e AEEC
 CONTENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS EDITORS
JOURNY OF SUCCSUS
BY A NDAI T ESFAI SABLE GEBREMEDHIN, M.S. IN PSYCHOLOGY

SURPASSED MY OWN EXPECTATIONS ADIAM WOLDEGERGISH, PH.D

BY K IBROM H AILU
YOHANNES GHEBREAB, B.A. IN
VALUABLE LESSON MANAGEMENT
BY F ITSUM C HIFFA
SAMSON GONNETZ, C.E. AND
REACHING OUT
YOSIEF WOLDEMARIAM, E.E.
BY Y ARED N EGUSSIE

LIST OF COMPANIES OR GOVERNMENTAL AGENCIES

CURRENTLY HIRING

AEEC | February 2010 2

 Journey of success
When I came to USA many advised me to not waste my
time to go to college as they thought my gigantic dreams
were beyond my reach and if in case I make it would be
hard at the professional level to compete with American
people hence my academic success would back fire at me to
cause frustration than help me win life. For many the most
feasible option is the short cut to easily make money but
my senses told me success is the result of relentless hard
work and is attainable thus I decided to start my studies
immediate after my arrival. The beginning was not easy
mainly because I have long been disassociated from school
as I completed high school back at home eight years before
I moved to USA.
In 1992 I joined Santa Rosa Junior College (SRJC) and to
support my living I worked inside the camp particularly in
the cafeteria ground and tutoring math. Before I completed
the preliminary courses in electronics I was fortunate to gettested for two years. Although I was working as a contractor
an assembly job at Hewlett Packard (HP) through a
temporary agency (Man Power). Working at HP gave me
greater insight and inspiration to push harder in my
education hence right away I was enrolled in Electronic
Certificate Program at the same college. Before my final
semester in the program, HP offered me a permanent job as
Electronic Technician in Micro Wave Accessories From my experience I would like to advise all prospective
department. The job was challenging but for the first time I professionals the following keys to success:
felt optimistic because the transition from the assembly line
to the technical post signaled me progress is possible with
time. There I was calibrating and verifying 8510 Network
Analyzers to perform troubleshooting and testing different
Wave Guides, Coax accessories, Radio Frequency (RF),
Integrated Circuits and Electronic Calibration Modules that
varies from DC all the way to 1GHz. I used those
opportunities positively to upgrade my technical skills in
trouble shooting, operating different types of electronic
equipments, writing test and assembly documentations etc.
After two years of hard work as Electronic Technician I
joined the Research and Development (R&D) department as
R&D Engineering Technician. The department was staffed
with senior engineers who possess life long experience with
tremendous theoretical and practical skills. My hard work in
my previous job paid me off as my new job as R&D
Engineering Technician went on smooth and I was learning
very fast. At the R&D department I worked for three years
until I got laid off on October 2001 because of the
economical crises followed September 11 unfortunate
incident. The impact of my layoff was hammering but the
AEEC | February 2010
lesson I got both from school and work had permanent
impact in my life so I proceeded forward without deviating
from the right direction. I searched for a job for six months,
but I never had luck to find any.
Finally, I went back to school and earned BS in Electrical
Engineering from San Francisco State University. After
graduation I was hired as a contractor at TOSHIBA in
Mixed Signal Development Group (MSD) in San Jose as
Test Engineer through temporary hiring agency called
VOLT. I was testing new Integrated Circuit Chips using
different equipments such as Oscilloscopes, Network
Analyzers, HP Pulse/Pattern Generators, Tektronix Digital
Sampling Oscilloscopes, Agilent (HP) ParBERT,
Programmable Power Supply, Function Generators, Digital
Multi-meter, and Temperature Control etc. I wrote Bench
Test Procedures and final report for every new IC Chips I
I never stopped from exploring other opportunities and in
2009 I joined a new company called Virident in Milpitas
and still working there as R&D Lab Manager. As a new
company we went through all ups and downs, but finally we
made it. Please see www.virident.com.
 Have clear vision in life
 Gather as much information as possible regarding
the field of study you want to study specially from
seniors in the same discipline
 Do not change your major
 Find right universities where you can get part time
job or internship programs related to your major,
For example: San Jose State University in Silicon
Valley for Electrical Engineering majors
 Try to find an assembly job at early age while you
are at High school
 Try your best to upgrade your skills
 Expand your networking system with people
(related to your field) and add your own
For valid reasons each one of us chose our own unique path
towards success. Some prefer the short cuts and others the
long journey as I did to accomplish my mission. The good
thing is I achieved my goal though with heavy sacrifices.
~ Andai Tesfai, E.E.
3
 Comments & Suggestions
Page

Wow…, what a great job!!! I am really proud of you guys. I

just got the email and start reading it, it sounds really good.
Thank you for your hard work and making it happen. Great
job!!!
Engineer Mekonen Hadgu

It is really nice to see the project issuing its first output.

A Great work and keep it up. Hope it will inspire lots of
Eritrean Engineers and may be it will be a venue for
E attaining engineering carries for a lot of young Eritrean and
the like.
E Engineer Filipos Abreha
C
Bravo. This is really wonderful and your effort and those of
others is much appreciated and needed. I hope the best for
the future of AEEC and its members. I also want to thank
you for your kind words in the 1st edition. I am very
humbled and honored. I believe that if we are in a position
to lend a helping hand to our fellow people, then the fruits
of that simple effort are enjoyed by many.
Engineer Daniel Woldeselasie

AEEC | February 2010 4

 Surpassed my own expectations
First, I am honored to write an article for the Eritrean
Engineers Community (AEEC) magazine & because
this magazine targets prospective engineers as well, I
will focus on ways and means of succeeding in
professional field of engineering. Certainly there are
many elements to success but I believe the most
important traits students in college should acquire right
from the start are discipline, hard work and ethics.
School is the perfect time to learn the techniques
necessary to be successful academically and advance
into labor market in the respective fields of study. In
order to succeed both as a student and professional, I
recommend for students to constantly seek out and
participate in project that interests them- that way they
can better get prepared for what is ahead. Trying to
solve a problem and get engaged in challenging project
is a clue and part of the process towards success which
many of my friends and colleagues are fully aware of.
It is very important to utilize every resources and
opportunity available. I still to this day remember my
first year at the university was mostly spent trying to
keep up with the demands in my classes. However,
during the second semester, I became more aware of
the meetings and events that were being held for
engineering majors. Once I had learned how to manage
my time better, I felt like I could tap into those
wonderful resources and opportunities. I went on to
graduate in May of 2009 from San Francisco State
University with a Bachelors Sciences degree in
Electrical engineering. I am currently working for a
consulting firm as an Electrical Designer in areas of
communication, security, power and fire safety
systems.
As you go to school or even after you become a
professional, I strongly urge you to be a member of
professional association. As for me, with the support
of the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), I
surpassed my own expectations and achieved many
AEEC | February 2010
goals in preparation to become professional by
attending several workshops. Amongst these
workshops were ways to prepare professional resumes
etc, it equipped me with important skill to win my
studies and employment opportunities. NSBE was
primarily formed by students and offered great
resources to increasing contacts and networks. My
membership with NSBE played a crucial role in
meeting fellow engineering students and professionals
in the field. Each year, NSBE holds national and
regional conferences where they invite companies
from all over the country to recruit for potential future
employees. As a member of NSBE, I was able to travel
to different cities throughout the country to attend
conferences, workshops, and seminars that enriched
my knowledge. I highly recommend students to get
involved with such organizations to facilitate the
opportunities and services for future career planning.
Additionally, in this bad economy when
unemployment is high, it’s good to look for
alternatives on finding a job. Students rarely use
networking directly with professional society in their
area of interest in finding a job. Most of these
professional organizations encourage students to join
them and attend their meeting and conferences. The
following quote sometimes makes sense and as
individuals we should utilize, “it’s who you know, not
what you know“ to better ourselves professionally..By
attending these professional organization’s events, you
will be able to build personal relation face to face and
allow you to let companies know what you are looking
for and/or interested in professionally during breaks
and networking time. What better way is there for
students to have access to perhaps potential employer
than meeting them in person! By doing so, you might
have slighter edge than those who submit their resume
via email.
For instance, for electrical Engineering major students,
joining IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronic
Engineer), the world’s largest professional
organization is a wise step in networking with
5
professionals. IEEE has local chapters that will direct you to get more information. http://www.e-
professionals hold meetings at least once a month. grid.net/
Here in the Bay Area for example, e-GRID is the local ~ Kibrom Hailu, EE
chapter for IEEE. e-Grid holds monthly Meetings, Interested in knowing more about e-Grid, link below
Classes & Conferences in all over the bay area. When I will direct you to get more information. http://www.e-
was a student, my schoolmates (who were also Hard
grt e-Grid, linkto below
reach doesn’t have toyou
will direct mean
to hard to do
get mor ~ Km
electrical engineering majors) and I used to go to e- Hailu, EE
Grid’s monthly meetings in which we had a chance to
meet and get associated with professionals and A
managers in the fields of our interest. Spending a few
hours in such places is worthwhile to create wider E
social connection. I personally knew students who
were offered jobs from some of the firms through those E
meetings we attended.
C
I cannot express enough the importance of preparing
yourself for the engineering field as early as possible. It
is also very crucial to engage yourself in organizations
available at your schools and communities to better
prepare yourself for the field and to have a smooth Bringing the best and the brightest together
transition after finishing college. Should you be
interested in knowing more about e-Grid, link below

“The beautiful thing about learning is nobody can take it away from you.” ~ B.B. King

~ Vince Lombardi

AEEC | February 2010 6

 Valuable Lesson
Taking any subject in higher education is not easy,
especially engineering courses with Professor Franco.
Taking his classes required a lot of my time and
energy. By the same token, life here in America is not
effortless either. For me, integrating school, living in
the states and trying to balance it all was a challenge
which I had to cope with every semester. However,
since I had strong desire to become an engineer which
I have had since childhood helped me overcome the
challenges of balancing work and school. To overcome
my challenges I had to sacrifice my sleep time when I
needed it the most, decrease quality family time and
minimize my socializing time with my friends and
loved ones. Even with my sacrifices, I honestly
believe, the time I spent at school was some of the
most enjoyable, productive and abundantly memorable
experiences. Some of my wonderful experiences
included enjoying and building my friendship with my
classmates and having the opportunity to creating an
arithmetic calculator and microcontroller.
I attended a university in the very popular city of San
Francisco, where parking is rare to find, especially
within the surrounding of the university I attended.
Also, due to distance and traffic congestion I decided
to carpool. When I started carpooling, I was fortunate
enough to find Eritreans going to the same school and
had a great time with them while commuting to school.
As time went by, our relationship became stronger and
we ended up being good friends. Even though, I never
had time to socialize, carpooling became a way of
make great friends and having memorable experiences
while attending school. Looking back, I am thankful I
made the decision early to participate in carpooling.
Due to my carpool experience I have created best
friends whom I still keep in touch with and continue to
create the most enjoyable and memorable time.
While attending school, I was very fortunate to have
Professors like Holton and Franco amongst many as
my instructors.
AEEC | February 2010
Each of the professors I had are exceptionally qualified
and demonstrated wisdom and authority in their field
of expertise. I truly believe each of my classes were
thought-provoking which made my educational
experiences meaningful. I also acquired a great deal of
knowledge and experience which ultimately helped me
and two of my classmates be able to design amongst
many things, a arithmetic Computer (calculator) in the
school lab. This calculator, which we created was a
kind that had a basic function (adds, subtracts, divides
and multiplies) as well as a resistor, capacitors, gates
(XOR, OR, AND NAND etc.) and a 7-segment LED to
display the numbers and microcontroller program. The
calculator was a combination of software and
hardware. Creating this calculator was an exciting, fun
and challenging experience. What I mean by that is at
the beginning stage of our development, a few chips
were burned out because of design mistakes, however
we learned from our mistake and overcame all the
obstacles and achieve the desire result. The ultimate
result of this lab exercise was to see our final product
on the program display.
The lab experiment, which I did with two of my
classmates, paved the way for a much more
challenging experiment in making a microprocessor
during my senior project lasting two semesters. Work
on a single project for two semesters in a group of
three was another challenge by itself. As a team, each
member had to make his/her schedule work to
accommodate all of us. Dealing with individuals who
have entirely different cultural background as well as
social life was equally challenging in making the
microprocessor. However, although the experience was
tough at that moment, it taught me a valuable lesson
which helped me when I started working in the real
world. My college experience and interaction with my
peers and professor has helped me work with diverse
people across many cultural boundaries. While
working with my classmates, it was a great
achievement to put our difference aside in order to
7
attain a common goal, learn each other’s personalities extraordinaryand
extraordinary and extremely
extremely rewarding,
rewarding, even eventhough
though
and create better friendships while learning from each the process of becoming an engineer was very
the process of becoming an engineer was very
other. This has helped me now that I am working and challengingand
challenging andininmymycase
case required
required a lot
a lot of social
of social and
will continue to help me for the rest of my life when I and financial scarifies. By making such
financial scarifies. By making such sacrifice and sacrifice and
meet and interact with different people. At work becomingan
becoming anengineer
engineer II have
have more
moreopportunities
opportunitiesand and
presently I am working with various groups dealing without it I could not imagine having it
without it I could not imagine having it at all. Now I at all. Now
with contractors and people who have different I have
have thethe opportunity
opportunity andand choice
choice to togogototothetheoffice
officeto
background. If it wasn’t for my senior project’s dotomydo work.
my work. If not
If I do I dogonot go to
to the the Ioffice
office I can
can perform
experience it would have been difficult to handle the perform my job anywhere, so long as I have
my job anywhere, so long as I have internet access and internet
experiences I encounter daily the way I do now. amaccess
able and am able tomy
to complete complete
work onmytime. work Ultimately,
on time.
my hard work and scarifies has paid off at last.paid off
Ultimately, my hard work and scarifies has
The pleasure of working as an engineer now is at last.
~ Fitsum Chiffa, E. E.
~ Fitsum Chiffa, E.
E.

To read without reflecting is

like eating without digesting.

~Edmund Burke

AEEC | February 2010 8

 Reaching Out
In today's job market and economy, the saying “it is not
what you know, it is who you know” rings true to many
peoples' ear. The economy is creeping up slowly, yet the
unemployment numbers are troubling. Many talented
people are unemployed, not because they lack skills, but
because they don't have the “right connections”.
My company recently hired 13 new graduate associate
software engineers. I thought this might mean jobs are
opening every corner and people are going to be hired,
but on my way back from work, the report on radio was
just the opposite. I run across of people who have been
victims of the current economic situation. They all say
how many countless resumes and cover letters they
have sent. They are in the brink of giving up, and some
considering a career change. They wonder if their
resumes are even being looked at – the sad truth is that,
their resumes might not have been looked because
someone who knows someone at XYZ Company had his
resume reviewed before everyone else.
Career coaches and speakers at every meeting advise
everyone to network. Networking is extremely
important in today's competitive job market. Finding
someone who will give your resume a look in the midst
of piles of resumes corporations are receiving in a daily
basis is important.
Knowing how to network is a skill in itself that can land
Eritreans who are currently looking for Engineering/Technical jobs
Name Degree Experience
Samson Gonets Civil Engineer One Year
Thomas Araya Computer Science Seven ears
Simon Haile Electrical Engineer One year
AEEC | February 2010
you a great job, or land your feet in the door step – as
many like to say. There are many ways to network,
online and off line. Networking sites like Linkedin.com
are great places to start networking and job hunt.
Another major place for networking is associations.
Professional associations like AEEC play great role in
connecting the right candidate with the right job. It is
true that AEEC is new organization that is growing;
however, its inception was based on networking
Eritrean engineers from all over. Staying connected will
allow us to flourish in our numbers and knowledge.
Organizations, like AEEC, are conduit for what is
happening in the industry and job market.
Understanding the crucial function we can play, we have
compiled few very talented Eritreans who are currently
seeking jobs. We hope, this will lead to having others
step forward and share positions that might be available
in their respective employment. We are each other’s
assets. The information we share can change someone's
life forever. There is nothing as pleasing as impacting
others in positive way. As the gap of unemployment
period widens, we all know the chances of getting jobs
are getting slimmer. In my opinion, the length of
unemployment gap is inversely proportional to chance
of getting hired. We can help by mentoring and
providing information about various job opportunities
that we know of, to this people.
~ Yared Negussie, Computer Engineer
Email Phone Number
samigonnetz@yahoo.com (510) 495-4538
thomasaraya@yahoo.com (510) 757-7352
dhaile8@gmail.com (678) 982-0147
9
 Current Job Opportunities
Closing
Companies or Government Jobs Field
Date
http://www.calopps.org/ViewAgencyJob.cfm?ID=9523 Engineering Continuous

http://www.calopps.org/ViewAgencyJob.cfm?ID=9398 Engineer - Civil Until Filled

March 11,
http://www.calopps.org/ViewAgencyJob.cfm?ID=9562 Engineer – Civil
2011

http://www.boeing.com/careers/jobsEvents.html Software Engineer (4/5) 6J7BP4 Until Filled

http://www.boeing.com/careers/jobsEvents.html Software Engineer (4/5) 6J7BP4 Until Filled

Mechanical System Design & Analysis

http://www.boeing.com/careers/jobsEvents.html Until Filled
Engineer (3/4) 6G5BP3

http://www.calopps.org/ViewAgencyJob.cfm?ID=9562 Elec. Electronics Engineer Mgr K 6B1AMK Until Filled

Wire Design & Install Engineer (3/4)

http://www.boeing.com/careers/jobsEvents.html Until Filled
6B1CP3

Wire Design & Install Engineer (4/5)

http://www.boeing.com/careers/jobsEvents.html Until Filled
6B1CP4

AEEC | February 2010 10

 About the authors
Andai Tesfai (wereba1991@yahoo.com) earned
his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from San
Francisco State University. Currently he is
working with Virident as R&D Lab Manager. Got an Engineering experiences to share?
Kibrom Hailu (knhkib@gmail.com) earned his
All you need to do is put them in writing
B.S. in Electrical Engineering from San
Francisco State University. Currently he is with not less than 250 and not more than
working with FW Associates Engineering 650 words. We will put them on
Counsalting Firm as designer. subsequent issues.
Fitsum Ghiffa (fitsumchiffa@yahoo.com) holds
B.S. in Electrical Engineering from San Send them to:
Francisco State University. Currently he is <Alpha0909@gmail.com>
working with AT&T as field engineer.

Yared Nugssie (negussie@gmail.com) received

his B.S. in Computer Engineering from Chico
California State University and he currently is
working with Pearson..

AEEC BE PART OF IT

IT CONNECTS

IT INFORMS

IT SHARES EXPERIENCES

AEEC | February 2010 11