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From: Socrates on 2 Jun 2010 15:23
Hello,
I am a third year student, but interested in FPGAs and linking my future
with this area of electronics. To have a point of view of my future, I've
browsed some job search pages using "FPGA" in search field. However almost
all of the offers are for "FPGA seniors", experience not less that ~5
years. How can I gain this experience if it is almost impossible to get
employed?

FPGA course in my uni is only on major degree studies, so I am doing a
"self-education" and learning FPGA design by myself, however PACMAN
implementation or something like that only gives experience on the syntax
itself, but not the real problems encountered every day. I have some
opinions:
- Search for intern programs at various companies that use FPGAs (its also
very hard to find, because many companies ask if You are eligible to work
in USA. If not - chances are minimum (I am from Lithuania, EU)).
- Try to find a job when you get paid by pay-per-module (however, I did not
find anything like this).
- The last chance I think I could do is to contact the company itself, ask
for the ability to work for free, since I need experience and if everything
goes OK, maybe they will employ me in the future. But how long the student
could work qualitatively without being paid if the task is really hard and
takes a long time? The result could end up with nothing: no experience and
no work done.

Tell me Your opinions :)



---------------------------------------
Posted through http://www.FPGARelated.com
From: Rich Webb on 2 Jun 2010 16:38
On Wed, 02 Jun 2010 14:23:11 -0500, "Socrates"
<socconf(a)n_o_s_p_a_m.gmail.com> wrote:

>Hello,
>I am a third year student, but interested in FPGAs and linking my future
>with this area of electronics. To have a point of view of my future, I've
>browsed some job search pages using "FPGA" in search field. However almost
>all of the offers are for "FPGA seniors", experience not less that ~5
>years. How can I gain this experience if it is almost impossible to get
>employed?
>
>FPGA course in my uni is only on major degree studies, so I am doing a
>"self-education" and learning FPGA design by myself, however PACMAN
>implementation or something like that only gives experience on the syntax
>itself, but not the real problems encountered every day. I have some
>opinions:
>- Search for intern programs at various companies that use FPGAs (its also
>very hard to find, because many companies ask if You are eligible to work
>in USA. If not - chances are minimum (I am from Lithuania, EU)).
>- Try to find a job when you get paid by pay-per-module (however, I did not
>find anything like this).
>- The last chance I think I could do is to contact the company itself, ask
>for the ability to work for free, since I need experience and if everything
>goes OK, maybe they will employ me in the future. But how long the student
>could work qualitatively without being paid if the task is really hard and
>takes a long time? The result could end up with nothing: no experience and
>no work done.
>
>Tell me Your opinions :)

Get some development boards and actually build a few things. Over here,
http://digilent.us/ and http://www.knjn.com/ are two sources, although I
see that KNJN does have an EU outlet now, over at
http://www.knjn.com/eu/ShopBoards_USB2.html

At any rate, build a few real things and not just syntax exercises.
Document some of the successes (and problems, with how you solved them!)
on a blog that you could point potential employers to.

As regards experience, yes employers would love to get somebody with a
few years but those folks are not always available. If you enjoy
"playing with" FPGAs enough that you work with them for the fun and the
challenge then that may be enough to get an employer to take a look.

Once you have done a few personal projects, go ahead and apply to some
of those "5 years experience" positions. Be honest about what you've
done and are doing; you're likely to get at least some positive
responses.

--
Rich Webb Norfolk, VA
From: Socrates on 2 Jun 2010 18:08
>Get some development boards and actually build a few things. Over here,
>http://digilent.us/ and http://www.knjn.com/ are two sources, although I
>see that KNJN does have an EU outlet now, over at
>http://www.knjn.com/eu/ShopBoards_USB2.html
>
>At any rate, build a few real things and not just syntax exercises.
>Document some of the successes (and problems, with how you solved them!)
>on a blog that you could point potential employers to.
>
>As regards experience, yes employers would love to get somebody with a
>few years but those folks are not always available. If you enjoy
>"playing with" FPGAs enough that you work with them for the fun and the
>challenge then that may be enough to get an employer to take a look.
>
>Once you have done a few personal projects, go ahead and apply to some
>of those "5 years experience" positions. Be honest about what you've
>done and are doing; you're likely to get at least some positive
>responses.
>
>--
>Rich Webb Norfolk, VA
>

Hello, thanks for response!
I've already got a Spartan-3E kit, now developing my own DDR controller
(since MIG is device dependent) and my next task is to do a MAC for
external PHY on the board then send packets using UDP. I will post my
experiences on my blog surely, but the idea that I could go for the job
that requires 5 years experience really worth taking a try :)
If we look to the future: the student is able to use memory
(sdram,ddram,bram,etc), LAN, VGA, then what? Buy a n-thousand worth
devboard with PCI-E and other useful stuff? It is too expensive then...


---------------------------------------
Posted through http://www.FPGARelated.com
From: Peter Alfke on 2 Jun 2010 18:33
On Jun 2, 3:08 pm, "Socrates"
<socconf(a)n_o_s_p_a_m.n_o_s_p_a_m.gmail.com> wrote:
> >Get some development boards and actually build a few things. Over here,
> >http://digilent.us/andhttp://www.knjn.com/are two sources, although I
> >see that KNJN does have an EU outlet now, over at
> >http://www.knjn.com/eu/ShopBoards_USB2.html
>
> >At any rate, build a few real things and not just syntax exercises.
> >Document some of the successes (and problems, with how you solved them!)
> >on a blog that you could point potential employers to.
>
> >As regards experience, yes employers would love to get somebody with a
> >few years but those folks are not always available. If you enjoy
> >"playing with" FPGAs enough that you work with them for the fun and the
> >challenge then that may be enough to get an employer to take a look.
>
> >Once you have done a few personal projects, go ahead and apply to some
> >of those "5 years experience" positions. Be honest about what you've
> >done and are doing; you're likely to get at least some positive
> >responses.
>
> >--
> >Rich Webb     Norfolk, VA
>
> Hello, thanks for response!
> I've already got a Spartan-3E kit, now developing my own DDR controller
> (since MIG is device dependent) and my next task is to do a MAC for
> external PHY on the board then send packets using UDP. I will post my
> experiences on my blog surely, but the idea that I could go for the job
> that requires 5 years experience really worth taking a try :)
> If we look to the future: the student is able to use memory
> (sdram,ddram,bram,etc), LAN, VGA, then what? Buy a n-thousand worth
> devboard with PCI-E and other useful stuff? It is too expensive then...  
>
> ---------------------------------------        
> Posted throughhttp://www.FPGARelated.com

Do not restrict your search to the US market. Getting the appropriate
visa is extremely difficult, borderline impossible.
But as a citizen of the EU, you can try in many countries: Germany,
Scandinavia, Netherlands, and the UK (most of which accept English as
a working language.
US Immigration has put up an enormous hurdle, but luckily, FPGAs are
being used all over the world, as you can detect in this newsgroup.
Good luck!
Peter Alfke
From: glen herrmannsfeldt on 2 Jun 2010 18:40
Socrates <socconf(a)n_o_s_p_a_m.n_o_s_p_a_m.gmail.com> wrote:
>>Get some development boards and actually build a few things. Over here,
>>http://digilent.us/ and http://www.knjn.com/ are two sources, although I
>>see that KNJN does have an EU outlet now, over at
>>http://www.knjn.com/eu/ShopBoards_USB2.html
(snip)

> Hello, thanks for response!
> I've already got a Spartan-3E kit, now developing my own DDR controller
> (since MIG is device dependent) and my next task is to do a MAC for
> external PHY on the board then send packets using UDP. I will post my
> experiences on my blog surely, but the idea that I could go for the job
> that requires 5 years experience really worth taking a try :)

If you do those projects, you should be ready to apply for some
FPGA related positions. Maybe not for one that requires the
five years experience, but maybe as an assistent to such a
position. Then after a few years, you will have enough experience
and the company will know you well.

> If we look to the future: the student is able to use memory
> (sdram,ddram,bram,etc), LAN, VGA, then what? Buy a n-thousand worth
> devboard with PCI-E and other useful stuff? It is too expensive then...

If you develop the DDR and MAC from scratch you should be in
good shape. I believe that there are some around that could be
adapted for use with a little less work than starting from nothing.

Most important is to learn to think in terms of hardware, and
not as software.

-- glen
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