 Notice. New forum software under development. It's going to miss a few functions and look a bit ugly for a while, but I'm working on it full time now as the old forum was too unstable. Couple days, all good. If you notice any issues, please contact me. |
Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : How to look for an apprentice....
| Author | Message | ||||
Grogster Admin Group  Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9905 |
Hello everyone.  I am currently 52, and looking towards my retirement come 65, and with that in mind, I have lots of things installed in many places, where I HAVE documented all the technical stuff, but I am now looking to perhaps train up an apprentice, who could take over from me, in the next 10-15 years. I have a really excellent candidate in mind, who is FEMALE - a teenager currently - but she shows very excellent ability with code, understanding PCB layouts, and fundamental comprehension of the systems as they currently sit. This is cos she has accompanied me for a few days now, as "Work Experience" in the field. She has kinda dazzled me in terms of how well she understands things, and yes - I have linked her to this forum. She is only 17 though, so very young, and so I am wondering HOW I should evaluate her at a technical level. I am 52, so old enough to be her father, so I have ZERO interest there, but I really admire her technical abilities. What members here have had experience with training apprentices? GIRLS specifically. I feel she is a good candidate, but I have no idea what I am doing in terms of training an apprentice, and the USUAL process is BOYS go into this field more then girls do. I plan to give her some code from some of the systems I work with, and then get her to explain to ME.....how she thinks the code works. Here is the simple code I plan to present her with, and have her tell me WHAT it is doing: ' OPTION EXPLICIT OPTION DEFAULT NONE DIM B%(19)=(00,02,10,09,15,16,17,22,21,23,24,25,07,26,18,06,05,04,03,14) DIM X% FOR X%=1 TO 19 SETPIN B%(X%),DOUT NEXT X% DO FOR X%=1 TO 19 PIN (B%(X%))=1 PAUSE 200 PIN (B%(X%))=0 PAUSE 200 NEXT X% LOOP This code simply sets all the I/O pins as outputs, then sequences through them, to check that all the connections from the PIC32 chip are intact using LED's on a test rig. Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
||||
Mixtel90 Guru  Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 8662 |
If she is sufficiently interested then you have an easy life. Young people soak up information like a sponge, all you need to do is to demonstrate the skills and she'll pick them up purely because she is interested. The ability to program and knowing how to program in a particular language are two different things though. SCRATCH will teach programming as it develops reasoning skills. After that, using MMBasic to implement those skills is a possible next step. Engineering of all kinds isn't just for the lads and hasn't been for some time now. She'll very likely be an excellent apprentice. :) Mick Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs |
||||
Geoffg Guru Joined: 06/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 3348 |
One thing that you do need to do is keep her on a good salary with frequent increases, even if they hurt you. Young people accelerate rapidly and you don't want to lose her to a well paying job after all the training and effort that you put in. Geoff Geoff Graham - http://geoffg.net |
||||
| matherp Guru Joined: 11/12/2012 Location: United KingdomPosts: 11039 |
Also, if she is only 17 and joining direct from school, consider continuing education - day release or whatever works in NZ to get her some formal qualifications. |
||||
| JohnS Guru Joined: 18/11/2011 Location: United KingdomPosts: 4281 |
As it's work experience I guess she's still in school (or college)? If appropriate in NZ, is university something she can do / want? If so, she'll have to realise she may be bored due to knowing stuff others don't - depending on the course. If she might go into business instead, she'll "just" need practical business skills to go with computer stuff. Probably too soon to have any definite answers to the above but maybe she'll enjoy thinking about them. John |
||||
| PhenixRising Guru Joined: 07/11/2023 Location: United KingdomPosts: 1787 |
What's not been addressed, thus far, is that right from the get-go, she's in-line to be captain of the ship. This is huge because working under a bunch of idiot managers totally sucks and so she won't be enticed away. My experience with female employees has been very positive. I hired a young lady, Mel, to build control panels and talk about fast and neat and surprised me when she wanted to know what these things did. I agreed to hire her two female cousins and they were the same. When it came time to power-up a new machine, there were three of us who could handle the debug and setup of the servos. Mel would observe, ask all the right questions and proceeded to take over  I promoted her to service tech and out of six techs, she was the only female. If I had call-out to a machine that was under warranty, Mel was the first choice because she liked to analyze the root cause and would never just randomly swap-out components, in the hope that the problem would go away (unlike the guys). The only down-side was that she was a mother and more and more manufacturing was shifting to Mexico where everything happens in slow motion and so a day-trip would easily turn into a week. |
||||
| Volhout Guru Joined: 05/03/2018 Location: NetherlandsPosts: 5768 |
Maybe I am stupid, but I would aks her what her vision is. That will be a teenager vision, and yes, it can change in a whimp when there is a lover on the horizon.. Not unlikely for a 17 year old... Just talk about your age, and the possibility for her to grow to finaly take over the business. You think she has it in her, and discuss the way to get there in 10 years. And yes, if she is interested, the moment (in 5-7 years) she becomes in the lead will hurt you. But I see that as "growing up", as all people at age will experience. The student surpasses the master. You are sooo lucky to have found someone to continue your business. Many are forced to stop without succession. Volhout Edited 2026-03-11 21:32 by Volhout PicomiteVGA PETSCII ROBOTS |
||||
| zeitfest Guru Joined: 31/07/2019 Location: AustraliaPosts: 662 |
SAAS (software as a service) is already the commercial norm now. And AI is going to quickly revolutionise both IT and higher education delivery, no matter what. She would be better to do some uni comp sci and then some internship at a large IT corp, at least for two or three years while the air clears. Apprenticeships have gruellingly low wages for a long time. A school leaver/uni student with aptitude is going to learn fast [and will learn more IT in a course] and is not going to use/tolerate MMBasic for long. Edited 2026-03-12 04:38 by zeitfest |
||||
| dddns Guru Joined: 20/09/2024 Location: GermanyPosts: 792 |
My older daughter did a very short internship at the age of 17, got her bachelor's degree at 20, and her master's degree in biomechatronics at the end of 23. I can't tell her anything anymore. She only understands MMbasic by looking at it. So make use of the short time you have :D |
||||
 Print this page |
 |
The Back Shed's forum code is written, and hosted, in Australia. | © JAQ Software 2026 |
