Advice for a test engineer who's unemployed?

[SrinivasanSethuraman]

Hello All,

To introduce myself, I am Srinivasan Sethuraman, and I attended the most recent BALUG meeting in order to network. I got terminated from my job in mid-April, and I've been networking to get another one.

Here's the tl;dr for you all: I am trying to figure out what self-study skills I should be focusing on during my time off, and to what extent those should be centered around LabVIEW.

• I can be unemployed for a full year (or more) if need be
• My data acquisition languages have been C# and LabVIEW (most recent job used C#)
• Am learning Python (which seems to be as close to a necessity as there is these days)
• Don't have access to test equipment, but could consider buying some if people think I should (maybe FPGA stuff? oscilloscope and breadboard?)
• Worked in MEMS and photonics, some time going ASIC validation (for a MEMS product)

Actually, I don't know that I have much more to add to those bullet points. The last time I was unemployed, I considered paying for the NI LabVIEW classes. As it happened, I didn't get around to it (got a job first).

I guess what I'd want to ask of all of you is this: put yourself in my shoes. I am a test engineer with more than a decade of work experience, a middling coder who has worked with LabVIEW in the past, but it's been 5 years. I am fresher with C#, and am studying Python (because that's more or less a necessity). I am NOT a developer or software engineer.

I have enough in my checking account to last me a year, but I certainly don't want to be without a proper job for that long. However, I could certainly see it being worthwhile to spend several months in self-study if that was a worthwhile investment of time.

The thing is, though, it's not obvious what someone can do to develop test engineering skills specifically. Now, if people here say, "You absolutely can take the LabVIEW classes, and you should. You should use some of your funds to buy [insert specific test equipment item here] and learn coding with respect to [specific test equipment item]." then I would.

Anyway, what do you all think?

[Edit: added 'then I would']

[Brian_RTI]

Hi Srinivasan, I presented at the meeting you attended, good to meet you.  Asking this group about LabVIEW training is a little bit like asking a roofer if your house needs a new roof, so I might add a contrarian perspective.  I found myself - though still employed - searching for my next thing a few years ago.  Some [somewhat scattered] thoughts...

I started my career developing embedded software.  It was there I learned about LabVIEW, and I loved it!  I then spent over a decade at NI.  Upon my exit, I really learned the importance of a multi-dimension skillset.  Being an expert in LabVIEW and NI hardware simply wasn't enough.  Domain/industry knowledge is equally important.  If you only have single-dimension skills (e.g. LabVIEW), you don't have many options to pivot.  With knowledge in multiple dimensions (e.g. LabVIEW and semiconductors), you have a lot of options.  So...think about the other dimensions (including non-technical) you have expertise in, maybe that's the pivot for you.  

I had lunch last summer with a really close NI colleague who left shortly after me, and is now an FAE at R&S.  He said he uses Python daily and rarely touches LabVIEW.  That is probably a proxy for the test industry as a whole.  If you are going to hitch your career wagon to NI (now a part of Emerson...can't forget that part) it's a simple fact that you are taking on more career risk.  Just think of the community sentiment around LabVIEW even a month ago - there were legitimate concerns about the future of LabVIEW.  I didn't see the NIConnect keynotes, but from what I can surmise, it sounds like they made a lot of really great announcements that eased many concerns.

Personally, I decided to decouple my career from NI a few years back and, coincidentally, am back in embedded.  I still love LabVIEW and will maintain my CLD as long as I am able, but decoupling from NI has vastly expanded my career options.  I recommend that you start by deciding what you want.  If you decide LabVIEW is right for you, I highly recommend you reach out to the NI FAE, as they'll be plugged in to who's looking to hire.  Back in the National Instruments days, they had like a 3-month and 6-month training membership where you could take unlimited online classes and you could take one certification exam.  Don't know if NI (now a part of Emerson) still has that, but that's worth looking into.

[CaseyM]

As far as training for LabVIEW, I'd highly recommend checking out the Community Training Initiative:
https://gcentral.org/cti/

It's free for the software/VM and there's minimal cost (Raspberry Pi's, etc.) for the (optional) hardware. 

They don't have a page on the NI Forums, but they do have a Discord server to chat with the organizers and other members:
https://discord.gg/yxhQSrS2