UTAR Alumni

DECEMBER 2011

Career in Research and Development

Marcus Tan Chee Tiong

ENGINEERING (HONS) ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONIC ENGINEERING

August 2010 Convocation Class

After four years of hard work plus the memorable moments that I spent in Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, I have finally graduated with a bachelor?s degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering. Upon completion of the bachelor degree, looking for a job was the first thing that came into my mind. Looking at the long listing of job vacancies in the newspapers and websites, I started to filter them according to my preference of job responsibility and the organization.

I have to say, it was indeed tough to decide where to apply to by just looking at the long list of options that was available for applications. Fortunately, I have already started planning my career earlier compliments to the industrial training programme I underwent during my third year of study which gave me great opportunity to survey and explore the industry that I may be stationed in for many years.

I was lucky that I had an opportunity to work in a reputable multinational organization during my internship in which I was exposed the job responsibilities in different departments of the organization. Having had the working experiences with the seniors from different departments, some formal and informal interviews with the senior members, experience exchanges with peers that are doing their internship in other companies and departments, I managed to gather a lot of information on different professions in different organizations and departments.

Based on the experiences and information gathered, I realized that R&D was my field of interest. I divided the related field of study into three categories, which were electronic, electrical and power supply. Upon graduating I started to look for a R&D engineer position in the electrical field. After attending a few interviews, I was finally attached to an electrical product manufacturing company in the R&D department as a design engineer.

Since then, I have been in my current position for a year now and working in R&D is very interesting and exciting, as one often get to learn and deal with new things. It is a position where one has to input new knowledge and update latest technology inexhaustibly. It is a field where a solution will never be the best and there will always be a space for improvement.

My job responsible is to design circuit, and the job scope includes parts selection and evaluation, system design and evaluation, circuit design maintenance and improvement as well as circuit performance evaluation. Drafting the main idea of the circuit design may seem brief and simple, but what it takes to support, mitigate and prove the original core idea requires a lot of effort from the design engineers.

A design engineer has to be innovative in designing as well as in problem solving. Familiarity and sound understanding on the system is a pre- requisite before a design engineer can begin to design a circuit. As a junior engineer, I get to design testing tools independently. As for the circuit design of the mainstream product, I am working with the senior members in the design team and being supervised by my immediate second level. Working with the senior members of the design team is enjoyable and it is where I learn the most. It is undeniable that knowledge that I have gained during my studies have helped me a lot in my current position.

The fundamentals and theories that are taught in the university enabled me to communicate well with the senior members and perform my job responsibilities. Although there are many things that are new to me and may not have seen in the university, the academic foundation provided by the university syllabus had well prepared me to pick up the new knowledge. It is undeniable that sometimes I will need to flip back the reference books and some lecture notes when I face some challenges at work, however I admit that it is much more exciting and interesting than flipping the books and notes for the sake of passing examinations.

As a graduate in engineering, I am inspired to contribute to the society by creating a better living of the society with technologies that can bring much ease and comfort. With the advancement of technologies today, what seems to be impossible in the older days has been made possible, and I believe, what seems to be impossible today will also be possible in future. Thats what motivates me in my career.