Job Success Stories website

Spice Modeling Engineer (Contract)

Success Story

I am Minnie Sudarsanam, Device modeling and characterization engineer in the semiconductor industry. On June 1, I started a 3 1/2 month contract with National Semiconductor as a Spice modeling engineer providing modeling support. It started out as a quest for a regular position but when they chose another candidate for that position, they came back with an offer for a contract.

I thank Promatch(1) for the support they gave me for six months. Though reluctant to join this organization, I am glad I did as I learnt so much and also was able to heal from the hurt of being laid off and to bear the rejections of jobs not coming through and of the silence when nothing happened. Since I had worked for essentially one company for 19 years, AMD and then Spansion (the spun out flash memory division) I had to learn all skills of job hunting. My thanks to all of you who stepped out and lead the classes and also provided feedback and encouragement. And special thanks to my success team, Alfred, Jim, Michele, Aaron, and Barbara for the times when we shared tips on job hunting and also our thoughts about what we were going through. And thanks also to my second success team where we went through some technical questions. And thanks to the Front Desk Team that made Promatch feel like “home”. Finally thanks to Connie, Bob, and Rosie for being there for me and all of us.

The way I got this job was through Linkedin and all the classes I took. The hiring manager saw my profile and forwarded it to the staffing person who called me and told me that the hiring manager would be calling me shortly. Months earlier I had connected to someone I knew through a Promatcher, and I found that this person was connected to the hiring manager and he willingly wrote a recommendation for me to the hiring manager. I went through a telephone interview, informal interview, and then a final interview where I had to give a presentation for 30 minutes (Thanks toastmatchers). PSRs also came in handy as each slide takes about 1 to 2 minutes and could cover a PSR that I had previously prepared.

(1) ProMatch is an interactive career resource center for professionals who are seeking work in Silicon Valley and the greater San Francisco Bay Area

submitted online

Advice for Job Seekers

Attend all the classes on job training that you can as there is something that will strike you in every class that you can pursue.

Keep applying for jobs and when there is inactivity in job postings, accept it but do not take it as a sign to give up.

Keep yourself in the job hunting game by associating with others who are also looking for work. It will keep you mentally in that arena.

Profile
Job Title: 
Spice modeling engineer
Occupation: 
Product Development (Engineering)
Industry: 
Computer (Hi-Tech)
Salary: 
$50K - $99K
Start Date: 
06/2010
Age: 
40-49

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