Hardware Engineering

There's a joke circulating across the Internet that goes: "A software engineer, a hardware engineer, and a departmental manager were driving down a steep mountain road when suddenly the brakes on their car failed. The car careened out of control down the road, bouncing off the mountainside. The car's occupants, shaken but unhurt, discussed what to do next.

The departmental manager said, 'Let's have a meeting, propose a vision, formulate a mission statement, define a set of goals, and by a process of continuous improvement, find a solution to the critical problems, and then we can be on our way.'

'No, no,' said the hardware engineer, 'That will take far too long, and besides, that method has never worked before. I've got my Swiss Army knife with me, and in no time at all I can strip down the car's braking system, isolate the fault, fix it, and we can be on our way.'

'Well,' said the software engineer, 'Before we do anything, I think we should push the car back onto the road and see if it happens again.'"

While that joke may not be particularly flattering to engineers, it does shed some light on the nature of the hardware engineer's function. Generally, they are concerned with the design, development and testing or debugging of computer hardware-the nuts and bolts of a system. As the hardware engineer in the joke displayed, technical professionals in this capacity like to strip a problem down to the wires and fix it fast.

Employers can range from computer manufacturers to universities to any company that uses computer networks. When hiring hardware engineers, all look for qualities such as the ability to ensure hardware reliability, isolate problems quickly and improve the computer development process.

Sound like abilities you possess? If so, you might be interested in this dynamic field, which attracts technical professionals from electrical, systems and programming backgrounds. The day-to-day pace is varied and the challenges are numerous, but for the right candidates, the rewards are no joke.