Eithne Fenton

"Eithne is an Analogue Design Engineer, working as part of a team designing products to send and receive data more quickly.For Eithne, sending a design to be manufactured involves a lot of hard work, so being conscientious is a good quality. Sometimes problems are difficult to solve so she needs to be resourceful and persistent, which matches well with the ‘Developer’ and ‘Investigator’ types. It is also important for Eithne to check her designs thoroughly as manufacturing is expensive, so reliability and being methodical are important. She fits the ‘Manager’ profile as she manages herself and her projects to meet her objectives."

"Eithne is an Analogue Design Engineer, working as part of a team designing products to send and receive data at high speeds.As an Analogue Design Engineer, Eithne works mostly at a computer to run simulations to check that the circuits she designs will work properly in a real product. When her designs are finished they get sent off to a factory called a FAB to be manufactured. After that, Eithne and her team test that they work in labs before they are used in the real world. Eithne usually works in the office, using special software to design new circuitry and to test if it works using simulations. She also discusses ideas with colleagues and works with lab engineers to test if previous designs are working. Eithne says it is always exciting when a product she has designed gets used by a customer for the first time. She finds going from the idea stages of a design to a real product really satisfying. She enjoys knowing that the job she does every day has a purpose!"

"Eithne’s school had an outreach programme with a company nearby which ran a FAB (a manufacturing facility for electronics). During sixth form she spent one afternoon a week at the FAB and this got her interested in the design process behind electronics.Eithne studied Electronic Engineering at degree level and then to master’s level. Whilst at university she was sponsored by a company called Socionext through the UK Electronic Skills Foundation, she received paid work experience in design engineering before she applied for the role she is in now.Eithne’s starting salary was £30,000 on completing her master’s degree."

"Eithne enjoys spending time with her family, having days out with her husband and seven-month old daughter. When she gets a chance, she enjoys socialising with friends, going for meals out or doing a pub quiz. In Eithne’s line of work, there are opportunities to progress to more senior engineering and management positions as you get more experience, she will then have more input into the designs and work more directly with customers. In the next few years she wants to gain more experience in the analogue design field so that she can work her way up to a more senior position while balancing this with family life."