 Geoffrey Fernald
Manager, Advanced Development
Hardware Design
Acuson Corporation
Mountain View, CA
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 B.S. -
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
M.S. -
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of
California at Berkeley |
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Senior Vice
President of Engineering, managing hardware design engineers and
in such applications as mechanical engineering, analog and
digital electronic design, and power systems design. |
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"I recommend
everybody get a Master's degree in order to strengthen the final
stages of their technical development, put themselves a little
ahead of the masses with Bachelor's." |
Fernald:
"A bachelor's degree puts you too much in the sea of technical people. I
recommend everybody get a Master's degree in order to strengthen the final
stages of their technical development, put themselves a little ahead of
the masses with Bachelor's in EE and it gives you a sense of being poised,
not having to be afraid that you don't know enough. You can ask anybody a
question, even a Ph.D."
Fernald:
"In most small companies, you're at the center of their achievement. You
can see very concretely the results of your work, and in a fairly short
time. The disadvantage in most small companies is that they are run by a
despot. And, you either get along with the despot or don't."
Geoffrey Fernald of Acuson Corporation speaks from years of experience. As
a manager, he looks for "a drive to understand the technical issues" when
hiring new engineers. And that drive has to combine with perseverance even
for experienced engineers. "It took me four years to even understand how
the ultrasound systems work. There's tremendous breadth and depth, and so
that's kind of fun."
Fernald points out that a career goes through several stages. "In the
first phases of your career, you have to be interested. There has to be
enough knowledge and fun happening, and you have to be useful. After ten
years in a job, you begin to become a contributor in the field. You change
the way the work is done." Fernald, himself, is going through new
challenges. Having managed a team that designed a completely new system,
he needs to motivate people to take the next step. "How do you manage the
group through a transition? That's both fun and difficult."
Through these stages, Geoff Fernald counsels young engineers to look
within and stay in touch with themselves. He finds that "people's lack of
job satisfaction and feeling that others are holding them back" are,
actually, "characteristics in them that are preventing them from being
successful making the contributions they can." The solution, he says, is
to "pay attention to yourself, figure out what it is in you that's holding
you back, and try to make changes that allow you to move yourself
forward."
One way to reflect and refresh oneself is to take a sabbatical. "Twice in
my career, I have taken fourteen months off without pay and the companies
have never endorsed the length of the sabbaticals, so I've always had to
quit to do this," Fernald says. But the rewards are well worth the risks.
A sabbatical "creates a great deal of perspective for you in relation to
your work and gives you a comfort in your life about moving around more
fluidly and not feeling confined and trapped."
Fernald spent his first sabbatical traveling through Europe and "learned a
tremendous amount; gained some understanding of people, languages, art,
architecture, history that have been valuable the rest of my life." He
spent his second sabbatical in New Hampshire. "There were tremendous
learning experiences. And the perspective is unbelievably powerful. It
also gave me a break. I was getting a little burned out in the steady
pressure of the environment. In that sabbatical, I got a rebirth of
intensity."
There was no need to worry about finding a job afterwards. "You just out
and put it on your resume: Sabbatical, fourteen months driving around
Europe. Nobody ever held that against me. In fact, in most cases, they saw
it as a strength and I usually got three to four job offers in about two
to three months."
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