Make the Most of What You Have
Unless you have been on another planet, or exploring the upper reaches of the Amazon without radio contact for a few months, you have probably been hanging on to the arms of your chair while first Washington and then the Stock Market have taken us on a roller coaster ride.
At the time of writing this article, things have settled down a bit, (maybe), but it is clear that the long awaited recovery is still long awaited. Companies are not hiring as we had hoped, and people are not buying more than the essentials. Unless money has no meaning for them, no one is taking any chances.
Well, now would be a good time to polish up your portfolio. If things get worse, you need to be the person whose job is secure. If things get better, you need to be the one that gets the new responsibilities, or gets the new job offer. Maybe one of the iNARTE certification programs will help you get to that position. Our independent validation of your credentials is a powerful tool in that regard and certification of your knowledge and experience can move your resume from the possible pile to the probable pile, from where you at least get that critical interview.
Let’s take a minute to review the certification options. If you are a qualified Engineer with nine (9) years or more experience, including your post secondary education, in EMC, ESD Control or Product Safety Engineering, then one of our well established programs should match your profile. Similarly, if you are a Technician with six (6) years or more education and work experience in these same areas, we have a program for you too. If you work in any of these areas but have not yet completed the minimum years of experience, we can still get you certified at an Associate level, once you have demonstrated your knowledge of the subject.
Then we have a few new programs that may suit your needs even better. If your EMC experience and career path is more oriented to product design and not so much to EMC testing, then our totally new EMC Design Engineer certificate would be more interesting for you. This is being offered at three different levels, so if you are just starting your career, or if you are more widely experienced, there is a program for you. For the rest of this year we are running a Grandfather scheme in this discipline whereby experienced Design Engineers can apply for certification at the Master level without examination.
We also have the new MIL-STD EMC Specialist certification available for those of you who work in this area and maybe feel that the traditional EMC certifications are too commercially slanted to match your special knowledge and experience.
For ESD Control Engineers and Technicians, we have worked out a mutual recognition program with the ESD Association. Anyone holding an iNARTE ESD certificate can attempt the ESD certification exams without having to attend the ESD training courses. And, anyone who is an ESDA Certified Program Manager can now take a short form iNARTE Certification exam covering areas of ESD control not well represented in the ESDA Program Management test papers, and carry both certifications.
All these programs are better documented on the iNARTE web site, and all these exams are available at the 2011 ESDA and PSES symposiums, as well as at any of almost 200 iNARTE Test Centers.
iNARTE Home – www.narte.org
iNARTE Examination Registration – http://www.narte.org/h/examregform.asp
EOS/ESD 2011 – http://esda.org/symposia.html
PSES 2011 – http://www.psessymposium.org/
iNARTE CERTIFIED INTERNAL LABORATORY AUDITOR (INCLA)
This program is now a couple of years old and until now almost all applicants for this certification have had a quality management or assessment background. However, if you work in a Test or Calibration Laboratory as a test engineer or technician, why not consider adding this extra credential. It will enhance your value and marketability.
Test and Calibration Laboratories seeking accreditation have to demonstrate compliance with ISO 17025. In November, 2000, 36 Laboratory Accreditation Bodies, all members of the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation, (ILAC), signed a mutual recognition arrangement to promote the acceptance of technical test and calibration data for exported goods. The aim of this ILAC Arrangement was to develop a global network of accredited testing and calibration laboratories that can be relied upon to provide accurate results.
Today, 60 Laboratory Accreditation Bodies are signatories to this ILAC Arrangement. Each laboratory that comes forward for assessment should have at least one person designated as the Internal Laboratory Auditor, who must understand the detailed requirements to pass assessment and will have the skills and initiative to ensure that the Laboratory achieves and maintains a Quality Program in accordance with ISO/IEC 17025.
The ANSI-ASQ National Accreditation Board, ACLASS, together with iNARTE jointly offer an iNCLA training and certification course as a 4-day program designed to prepare the attendees to meet several qualifications and competencies toward iNARTE Certification. The next ACLASS-iNARTE course will be in San Diego on October 11th to 14th, but iNARTE examinations for iNCLA may be taken at any time without course attendance. All the details and registration pages are on the iNARTE web site.
REGISTER FOR CERTIFICATION EXAMS
The following events offer candidates a chance to take the iNARTE certification examinations without incurring proctoring fees.
EOS/ESD 2011 – Anaheim, CA. iNARTE examinations on September 16th
IEEE PSES 2011 – San Diego, CA. iNARTE examinations on October 13th
Candidates can register in advance at the iNARTE web site to examine at any of the above events for any of the programs that we offer. At the event, candidates can register until the day before the exam, but only for the discipline related to the event. 
QUESTION OF THE MONTH
Last month we asked:
Select one of the radio frequencies listed below that represents the 19th order intermodulation product frequency for signal frequencies of 3.397 MHz and 12.45 MHz.
(A) 12.903 MHz
(B) 4.606 MHz
(C) 17.002 MHz
(D) None of the above
The correct answer is
(C) 17.002 MHz.
This month’s question is typical of the new EMC Design Engineer questions:
The following figure shows closely arranged square parallel plates having a(m) in length on all sides. When the space between the plates has a relative dielectric constant of 4, and a separation distance of 2mm, what is the lowest resonance frequency between these plates?
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Brian Lawrence began his career in electro-magnetics at Plessey Research Labs, designing “Stealth” materials for the British armed services. In 1973 he moved to the USA and established a new manufacturing plant for Plessey to provide these materials to the US Navy. In 1980 he joined the “Rayproof” organization to develop an RF Anechoic Test Chamber product line. As a result of acquisitions, Rayproof merged into Lindgren RF Enclosures, and later into ETS-Lindgren. Following a career spanning more than 40 years in the electromagnetic compatibility field, Brian Lawrence retired as Managing Director of ETS-Lindgren UK in 2006. Later that year he assumed the position of Executive Director for the National Association of Radio and Telecommunications Engineers, NARTE. Now renamed iNARTE, the Association has expanded its operations and is today an affiliate of RABQSA under the overall banner of the American Society for Quality, ASQ. |
