Those "A" school electronics by Tony Green

A few weeks ago I had an interview for technical trainer position at a manufacturer of medical equipment used to non-intrusively treat tumors inside the body.

The normal interview consists of a question and answer session with the hiring manager, human resources and other selected staff. For a this sort of interview the interviewees are also interested see how well you can create and organized lesson plan and present information in a lecture atmosphere.

Many companies use training equipment to train the attendees of the classes which are held. There are some occasions the trainers are responsible for maintenance the systems. In this case, the interviewee would want to want to check technical competency of any one they hire. This is in the event the equipment may malfunction and engineer or technician may not be readily available.

I am aware this sounds like a lot requirements for one trainer job. In any case, the interviewer asked me three questions as part of my technical assessment. The function of the following three pieces of electronic equipment: NAND gate, voltage divider and PNP Transistor.

I answered all questions, correctly of the top of head at 8:00 A.M. in the morning of the Monday after the Christmas holidays. Not bad, especially since I had not thought about electronics for at least fifteen years.

I thought to myself later that I did not major in electronics while in college. I learned about the electronics during my time in the Navy 15 years ago at Nuclear Field “A” Electronics School in Orlando, Florida. (Before it closed and the school moved to South Carolina)

My presentation went well so I believed I had a good shot to receive an offer. But no one interviews in a vacuum as one of the gentlemen I they had interviewed had over 10 years in technical training at a week known company for its strong training department and I had none. Therefore, I was not offered the position.

I was disappointed at first but later I felt good about my performance. My friend told me later I ranked second out of the four interviewers and two of the other interviewers were currently technical trainers! I guess I received some pretty quality training while attending in “A” school. I wish I could remember who my instructors were…