Build a Circuit. Get a job!

 Build a Circuit. Get a job!

During my M.Sc. (Electronic Science) at University of Delhi, South Campus - thanks to the enthusiasm of Professor GP Srivastava, who used Prof. Ramesh Gaonkar's 8085 book to teach, I learned about 8085. After my M.Sc. I landed a job at SGTB Khalsa College as a lecturer and built an 8085 based Morse Trainer (due to my interest in Ham Radio and as a licensed radio operator). Someone forced me to sell it to them, I have no pictures or records.

Soon in 1990, I learned about (8051) microcontrollers - thanks to a workshop organized by GoI's Department of Electronics' MAEP (Microprocessor Application Engineering Program), which was conducted by Sarat Chandra Babu Nelaturu and his team. I used that knowledge to build an 8051 based Morse Trainer System (pictured below). Before that, I built a Parallel Port based EPROM emulator (described in my "Programming the Parallel Port: Interfacing the PC for Data Acquisition and Process Control" book) to finalize the 8051 code.

MAEP invited me to talk about it during a "Microcontroller Based System Design" workshop they organized at Delhi Institute of Technology (DIT - forerunner of NSIT) in 1991.

Later in 1992, I applied for a job at IUCAA for the position of a Scientific Officer. For the interview, I took this 8051 gadget to show them. I got selected, although I do not know if this gadget had any role to play in my selection, but my would be boss - Professor Shyam Narayan Tandon was intrigued and asked me to open the enclosure and show the innards.

Fast forward to my life as a faculty at NSIT/NSUT and directing the CEDT/TI-CEPD labs. Lot of students built projects and would take their project to the job interviews and get the job!

Being able to build a working prototype of a gadget or an instrument is a great skill. If you can build it and defend the design and build process, no one can deny you a job!

I am told (by Ashish Hari) that lot of students bring such gadgets (even if they have not built it) to interviews to swing the job in their favor... :D