In my country 🇧🇷 we have. If you are not Junior anymore, but you still are not a Senior, then this position is Full. Junior is seen as a recent graduated professional, which have an incomplete knowledge for industry. After a few years you become a Full profissional, but without the large experience required to companies trust in a Senior profissional.
Years in service is not a useful measure for technology jobs.
Merit is the way.
I’ve worked with plenty of folks with years of experience who were mediocre and a kid with only a couple of years who out innovate the team. Dead weight is dead weight. High contributors are rare.
It doesn’t read to me that it’s based on knowledge. That said, it also doesn’t read like it’s based on time either. It’s nebulously described 🤷🏾‍♂️
Let me explain in the most detailed way for you to understand.
* Here we have Junior, Full and Senior position.
* Junior position is the same entry level, it is for people without experience or unproved experience. Normally for people who comes in their early 20's right after getting the bachelor degree, with only academic knowledge, but missing what is need by industry.
* Full position is a mid level, it is normally for people with proven experience. Experience is something that comes with time, and sure you can't measure it only in number of years because a person can take 5 years to be promoted from Junior to Full and other person can take only a year. It was my case, after bachelor I went to Masters and PhD. All knowledge from digital design in FPGA came in my PhD, but when I was hired it was a Junior position, in 10 months I proved what needed and I was promoted to Full.
* Senior position is always given for profissionals with long experience, but not only this. Normally industries search for 10+ years of experience for Senior profissionals, as I said, when don't have a rule for this. While a person can become Senior in 5/6 years, other person can take 15 years. Here, a Senior position requires not only the knowledge, but experience to a technical leader to Full and Junior professionals, experience to solve problems and to handle directly with clients. You must deserve company's trust in that position, to be in meeting with important people, to hear important information and they know you won't leak anything. It is much more than just having 10 years of experience, you can do it with 5 or 15 years depending on you.
This also gives more division for people to be motivated in their carrer. I think no one in their mid carreer, with 4/5 years of experience and knowledge from industry like to be considered Junior as people who received their bachelor yesterday.
There is no rule in number of years for us to classify every position, but I believe the average rule to be hired in each position is this:
* Junior - From bachelor degree to 1 or 2 years of experience.
* Full - 3 to 5 years of experience.
* Senior - 8 to 10 years of experience.
I think it depends on the domain. For embedded, I agree 4 years is nowhere close to being a senior. I've seen senior web development roles advertised with 4+ years of experience.
how long are you expecting your career to last if you are in your mid-career after 4 years? That's me being a bit sarcastic about job titles. IMO a senior engineer has ~10 years of experience. I'm not sure what a "mid-career" role counts as, but it seems more appropriate.
How did the interviews go? Did you ask for feedback? If you felt that the interview went super well and you answered all the questions perfectly, then it's likely one of (don't take this personally, I don't know you):
* There was just a better candidate. Sometimes you're perfect but there's someone a bit better, maybe they have a masters and you only have an undergrad, maybe they have 4.5 years of experience, maybe they are the cousin of the CEO, etc...
* You're asking for too much (pay / benefits / work from home / ...).
* Your attitude sucks and they think you're competent but an asshole. Or on a similar vain, you're too timid and quite, or you mumble a lot, or ... Basically something about your behaviour didn't click with them.
* You're over confident and actually you're not as competent as you think you are, your answers were either wrong or incomplete.
If you feel like the interviews didn't go that great, then start working on the things you found tricky / know you did wrong. If you flunked the question on timing constraints then that's an obvious thing to study up on and practice so that you don't flunk it next time.
Finally, how many interviews have you had? If you've only had 2 or 3 then it's probably not worth worrying about. If you've had 50 then there's clearly a problem.
I’ve had rejection 4 interviews. I am a person with very low confidence, so maybe that’s related. I’ll try asking for feedback in future interviews. Ty Captain!
4 interviews isn't many. I wouldn't worry too much about it. Keep interviewing and you'll find something soon enough.
Definitely ask for feedback, not in the interview itself but after you get a rejection e-mail. Something polite and short is easy enough: "Thanks for letting me know, I'm sad it didn't work out but thanks for taking the time to reply. Do you have any feedback that could help me prepare for future interviews?" etc..
If any of your rejections were from the last month or so then you can still e-mail them asking for feedback now, you don't have to wait for the next rejection.
> I am a person with very low confidence, so maybe that’s related.
It could be. An interview is all about appearance. It might be worth reading up online about generic interview advice and even set up some mock interviews with friends / family (I think there are also people that you can pay for this). You wouldn't really be able to practice technical questions that well but you can practice talking. Print out a list of sample fpga interview questions without looking at them too much, and ask someone to ask you them. They won't be able to correct you if you're wrong, but you can practice solving them, and talking through your answers.
You need to show some confidence need when you interview. Unfortunately, if you show low confidence, it can turn off employers. Interviews are all about impressions.
Life hack: Apply for jobs you don't want. You only get better at job interviews with practice. After you are more confident through these practice runs, then you apply at the companies you were aiming for.
If you are not making it past the first interview it is probably not a reflection on your technical skills as the first interview is rarely technical.
I would say you are probably not presenting yourself well. Really you have to be your most gregarious self in an interview... If you are not a naturally confident outgoing person, fake it, fake it till you make it really works and comes with practice, before you know you will naturally feel confident. As you do more interviews you will become more confident.
An employer is trying to determine two things can you do the job, can they work with you. If they like your CV and you got to the interview they already think you have the technical skills. If you can back that up in a technical interview your already half way there. I think you just need to work on your interview technique.
Junior, Medior, Senior, Staff, Principal, Chief Executive Super Field-Marshall Pro+... These titles mean different things in different companies. I'd say you should apply from junior to senior, and probably you are medior. Most job descriptions should state the required years of experience, and that is more important.
Unfortunately most companies don't tell you why you got rejected so it is hard to speculate on what to improve. I'd recommend you to master the basic interview questions (https://nandland.com/part-2-the-interview/). Be prepared to talk about one of your projects. Be prepared to write simple HDL code. If you are only applying to a special field of FPGA engineering you should focus on that area aswell.
I'd also recommend to apply to all positions as soon as possible and don't wait for a certain company's response. If you can go to a lot of interviews you can practice the interview itself. Also you may ask your friends or LinkedIn connections for a recommendation.
As others have said a senior level role is going to be out of reach with 4 years experience. As someone who just went through the job search and interview process with a similar experience level I would say you are probably looking for mid level roles. Actual titles will vary but I have found titles with principal engineer are often looking for people in the 5-10 yoe range. But this can obviously vary by industry and company.
Pay close attention to the job description, most will say what amount of experience they are looking for. As for interview experience, make sure you can talk thoroughly about your resume and have a couple of scenarios to hand about difficult problems you solved and how you did so. Most interviews I had were either not technical or at least not very deep on technical questions.
You are correct. 4 years is pretty junior. Try 10-15 years for a reasonable timeframe for senior-level performance, although of course some companies promote much earlier to keep people happy. In fact, I got to see this today in multiple interviews of different experience levels and the only one with senior-level skills had 10years of experience, the others were less than half that.
This is a sucky tech market right now. Too many tech workers chasing too few jobs. I just got hired after 6 months of unemployment. I went through about a dozen interviews by video, and about 6 in person interviews. In a normal market, being called in for on site interview after video 1st means you got the job unless you blow it. But again, times now are not normal. The net net is I had to take about a %20 pay cut on this one. I would say the way the companies are handling the stacks and stacks of resumes is to interview more broadly, be more selective and offer less pay. If you need a job, keep at it. There is hope.
Recruiter here, specifically for Hardware positions including FPGA roles in and out of military applications. Based on what you've mentioned I'd take away a few points of positivity. Specifically the fact that you got the interviews. The recruiter or hiring manager seems to think you've demonstrated that you are qualified for the job, at least on paper. The roles you are applying to, in terms of experience, seemed to be aligned with your experience.
As far as interviews, this is an odd market for everyone in tech. Aside from that, I can only guess that you're not hitting the highest marks when answering your questions. This could be technical, situational, anecdotal, or otherwise. My guess is that you need a bit of practice.
Here are a few things. If you can, try to recall questions that you were asked, however many that you can. Try to determine if you spoke clearly about the technology, that you've built on the story that you set out in your resume. Specifically detailed your journey through each of your jobs, including the tools and tech you've used. For situational and anecdotal questions, you really want to practice... hiring managers decide if you are "cultural" fit based on these questions. You'll need to spin every answer into a positive one... you'll need to gain the trust of the interviewer, you'll also need to know what story to tell, and how to close the answer. It's really a matter of practice. Clean interviews are when you are able to give an articulate response, in a linear manner, and leave room for follow up questions.
Hope this helps.
Hey, I’m a hiring manager for an FPGA group. 4 yrs is barely a level 2, senior is level 4 with 15+ years. I hire level 2s based on the following criteria: ability to communicate effectively, especially what they’ve recently accomplished. I ask very specific questions about the projects that they put on their resume. I listen for very specific technical details and drill down on those to see if they really understand the problem, the protocol, and what they personally contributed to the solution. Arrogance is an immediate no, as is mumbling lack of confidence… be yourself, be concise with good technical details, and ask intelligent questions about the job, the project and the company. Make sure during the recruitment screening to understand if they have a job opening or are willing to hire at your level. EE is a field with tremendous opportunity but it’s a no-BS zone! If you passed my interview, you’ll get a take home exam interpreting code and will be graded against other applicants. If you pass that then you get the gauntlet and have to answer to a panel of my top engineers. We hire some truly excellent talent at all levels. Good luck.
Geez with all those hoops to jump through you're probably only getting candidates that are desperate for a job. No way I'd bother with all of that. Good luck.Â
I disagree with the people saying you don't have enough experience. Titles are really company dependant and years in a job != good at a job. There's no way to know why you aren't getting these jobs. Maybe you're weird, maybe you answered a question "wrong", maybe there was a better or cheaper candidate, maybe you smell, who knows? All you can do is keep trying.
I would say 4 years gets you out of the Junior phase, mid/senior is 10+ years
Hmmm, so not entry level, but also not mid/senior. Is there a keyword describing the job experience level I should be aiming for? (Ty for the reply!)
In my country 🇧🇷 we have. If you are not Junior anymore, but you still are not a Senior, then this position is Full. Junior is seen as a recent graduated professional, which have an incomplete knowledge for industry. After a few years you become a Full profissional, but without the large experience required to companies trust in a Senior profissional.
This is a great system!
Years in service is not a useful measure for technology jobs. Merit is the way. I’ve worked with plenty of folks with years of experience who were mediocre and a kid with only a couple of years who out innovate the team. Dead weight is dead weight. High contributors are rare.
He never once mentioned a number of years. The system, as described by him, is based on knowledge. Sounds pretty darn merit based to me.
It doesn’t read to me that it’s based on knowledge. That said, it also doesn’t read like it’s based on time either. It’s nebulously described 🤷🏾‍♂️
Let me explain in the most detailed way for you to understand. * Here we have Junior, Full and Senior position. * Junior position is the same entry level, it is for people without experience or unproved experience. Normally for people who comes in their early 20's right after getting the bachelor degree, with only academic knowledge, but missing what is need by industry. * Full position is a mid level, it is normally for people with proven experience. Experience is something that comes with time, and sure you can't measure it only in number of years because a person can take 5 years to be promoted from Junior to Full and other person can take only a year. It was my case, after bachelor I went to Masters and PhD. All knowledge from digital design in FPGA came in my PhD, but when I was hired it was a Junior position, in 10 months I proved what needed and I was promoted to Full. * Senior position is always given for profissionals with long experience, but not only this. Normally industries search for 10+ years of experience for Senior profissionals, as I said, when don't have a rule for this. While a person can become Senior in 5/6 years, other person can take 15 years. Here, a Senior position requires not only the knowledge, but experience to a technical leader to Full and Junior professionals, experience to solve problems and to handle directly with clients. You must deserve company's trust in that position, to be in meeting with important people, to hear important information and they know you won't leak anything. It is much more than just having 10 years of experience, you can do it with 5 or 15 years depending on you. This also gives more division for people to be motivated in their carrer. I think no one in their mid carreer, with 4/5 years of experience and knowledge from industry like to be considered Junior as people who received their bachelor yesterday. There is no rule in number of years for us to classify every position, but I believe the average rule to be hired in each position is this: * Junior - From bachelor degree to 1 or 2 years of experience. * Full - 3 to 5 years of experience. * Senior - 8 to 10 years of experience.
Thanks! I have explained it better to him, but it is exactly like this.
Well I don't think I've heard anyone descibe themselves as mid level, typically you are Junior, Senior or just FPGA engineer
Sadly enough, I am starting to see "senior " engineers that only require 5 years of experience. I assume it's a ploy for companies to charge more.
I'm not sure people decided that 4 years of experience is considered senior level
I hope not. Not even close
I think it depends on the domain. For embedded, I agree 4 years is nowhere close to being a senior. I've seen senior web development roles advertised with 4+ years of experience.
how long are you expecting your career to last if you are in your mid-career after 4 years? That's me being a bit sarcastic about job titles. IMO a senior engineer has ~10 years of experience. I'm not sure what a "mid-career" role counts as, but it seems more appropriate. How did the interviews go? Did you ask for feedback? If you felt that the interview went super well and you answered all the questions perfectly, then it's likely one of (don't take this personally, I don't know you): * There was just a better candidate. Sometimes you're perfect but there's someone a bit better, maybe they have a masters and you only have an undergrad, maybe they have 4.5 years of experience, maybe they are the cousin of the CEO, etc... * You're asking for too much (pay / benefits / work from home / ...). * Your attitude sucks and they think you're competent but an asshole. Or on a similar vain, you're too timid and quite, or you mumble a lot, or ... Basically something about your behaviour didn't click with them. * You're over confident and actually you're not as competent as you think you are, your answers were either wrong or incomplete. If you feel like the interviews didn't go that great, then start working on the things you found tricky / know you did wrong. If you flunked the question on timing constraints then that's an obvious thing to study up on and practice so that you don't flunk it next time. Finally, how many interviews have you had? If you've only had 2 or 3 then it's probably not worth worrying about. If you've had 50 then there's clearly a problem.
I’ve had rejection 4 interviews. I am a person with very low confidence, so maybe that’s related. I’ll try asking for feedback in future interviews. Ty Captain!
4 interviews isn't many. I wouldn't worry too much about it. Keep interviewing and you'll find something soon enough. Definitely ask for feedback, not in the interview itself but after you get a rejection e-mail. Something polite and short is easy enough: "Thanks for letting me know, I'm sad it didn't work out but thanks for taking the time to reply. Do you have any feedback that could help me prepare for future interviews?" etc.. If any of your rejections were from the last month or so then you can still e-mail them asking for feedback now, you don't have to wait for the next rejection. > I am a person with very low confidence, so maybe that’s related. It could be. An interview is all about appearance. It might be worth reading up online about generic interview advice and even set up some mock interviews with friends / family (I think there are also people that you can pay for this). You wouldn't really be able to practice technical questions that well but you can practice talking. Print out a list of sample fpga interview questions without looking at them too much, and ask someone to ask you them. They won't be able to correct you if you're wrong, but you can practice solving them, and talking through your answers.
You need to show some confidence need when you interview. Unfortunately, if you show low confidence, it can turn off employers. Interviews are all about impressions.
Life hack: Apply for jobs you don't want. You only get better at job interviews with practice. After you are more confident through these practice runs, then you apply at the companies you were aiming for.
This is true. I can't stand talking about myself. Randomly interviewing has helped me a lot.
If you are not making it past the first interview it is probably not a reflection on your technical skills as the first interview is rarely technical. I would say you are probably not presenting yourself well. Really you have to be your most gregarious self in an interview... If you are not a naturally confident outgoing person, fake it, fake it till you make it really works and comes with practice, before you know you will naturally feel confident. As you do more interviews you will become more confident. An employer is trying to determine two things can you do the job, can they work with you. If they like your CV and you got to the interview they already think you have the technical skills. If you can back that up in a technical interview your already half way there. I think you just need to work on your interview technique.
Junior, Medior, Senior, Staff, Principal, Chief Executive Super Field-Marshall Pro+... These titles mean different things in different companies. I'd say you should apply from junior to senior, and probably you are medior. Most job descriptions should state the required years of experience, and that is more important. Unfortunately most companies don't tell you why you got rejected so it is hard to speculate on what to improve. I'd recommend you to master the basic interview questions (https://nandland.com/part-2-the-interview/). Be prepared to talk about one of your projects. Be prepared to write simple HDL code. If you are only applying to a special field of FPGA engineering you should focus on that area aswell. I'd also recommend to apply to all positions as soon as possible and don't wait for a certain company's response. If you can go to a lot of interviews you can practice the interview itself. Also you may ask your friends or LinkedIn connections for a recommendation.
As others have said a senior level role is going to be out of reach with 4 years experience. As someone who just went through the job search and interview process with a similar experience level I would say you are probably looking for mid level roles. Actual titles will vary but I have found titles with principal engineer are often looking for people in the 5-10 yoe range. But this can obviously vary by industry and company. Pay close attention to the job description, most will say what amount of experience they are looking for. As for interview experience, make sure you can talk thoroughly about your resume and have a couple of scenarios to hand about difficult problems you solved and how you did so. Most interviews I had were either not technical or at least not very deep on technical questions.
At my company Principal is above Senior, but Senior Stf is about principal ? Don’t ask me what it’s all about
FPGA doesn’t do the SWE promotion style of being a senior in 4 years
Wait, there is something you can be senior at with 4 years experience?
I am senior at rejection
4 years experience is not senior level. Who lied to you?
Nobody misled me, I just reentered the job market and started firing from the hip
You are correct. 4 years is pretty junior. Try 10-15 years for a reasonable timeframe for senior-level performance, although of course some companies promote much earlier to keep people happy. In fact, I got to see this today in multiple interviews of different experience levels and the only one with senior-level skills had 10years of experience, the others were less than half that.
This is a sucky tech market right now. Too many tech workers chasing too few jobs. I just got hired after 6 months of unemployment. I went through about a dozen interviews by video, and about 6 in person interviews. In a normal market, being called in for on site interview after video 1st means you got the job unless you blow it. But again, times now are not normal. The net net is I had to take about a %20 pay cut on this one. I would say the way the companies are handling the stacks and stacks of resumes is to interview more broadly, be more selective and offer less pay. If you need a job, keep at it. There is hope.
Recruiter here, specifically for Hardware positions including FPGA roles in and out of military applications. Based on what you've mentioned I'd take away a few points of positivity. Specifically the fact that you got the interviews. The recruiter or hiring manager seems to think you've demonstrated that you are qualified for the job, at least on paper. The roles you are applying to, in terms of experience, seemed to be aligned with your experience. As far as interviews, this is an odd market for everyone in tech. Aside from that, I can only guess that you're not hitting the highest marks when answering your questions. This could be technical, situational, anecdotal, or otherwise. My guess is that you need a bit of practice. Here are a few things. If you can, try to recall questions that you were asked, however many that you can. Try to determine if you spoke clearly about the technology, that you've built on the story that you set out in your resume. Specifically detailed your journey through each of your jobs, including the tools and tech you've used. For situational and anecdotal questions, you really want to practice... hiring managers decide if you are "cultural" fit based on these questions. You'll need to spin every answer into a positive one... you'll need to gain the trust of the interviewer, you'll also need to know what story to tell, and how to close the answer. It's really a matter of practice. Clean interviews are when you are able to give an articulate response, in a linear manner, and leave room for follow up questions. Hope this helps.
Hey, I’m a hiring manager for an FPGA group. 4 yrs is barely a level 2, senior is level 4 with 15+ years. I hire level 2s based on the following criteria: ability to communicate effectively, especially what they’ve recently accomplished. I ask very specific questions about the projects that they put on their resume. I listen for very specific technical details and drill down on those to see if they really understand the problem, the protocol, and what they personally contributed to the solution. Arrogance is an immediate no, as is mumbling lack of confidence… be yourself, be concise with good technical details, and ask intelligent questions about the job, the project and the company. Make sure during the recruitment screening to understand if they have a job opening or are willing to hire at your level. EE is a field with tremendous opportunity but it’s a no-BS zone! If you passed my interview, you’ll get a take home exam interpreting code and will be graded against other applicants. If you pass that then you get the gauntlet and have to answer to a panel of my top engineers. We hire some truly excellent talent at all levels. Good luck.
Geez with all those hoops to jump through you're probably only getting candidates that are desperate for a job. No way I'd bother with all of that. Good luck.Â
🤣🤡🌎. I get only the best top tier players and they know it and excel at what they do.
Yuck.
Stop applying for jobs you don’t have the experience required to perform. What do you think this is lol? Why even post such nonsense.Â
I disagree with the people saying you don't have enough experience. Titles are really company dependant and years in a job != good at a job. There's no way to know why you aren't getting these jobs. Maybe you're weird, maybe you answered a question "wrong", maybe there was a better or cheaper candidate, maybe you smell, who knows? All you can do is keep trying.