Labview related career advice needed. Please help!

[mzu]

I am a graduate student, doing my PhD in experimental physics. I am finishing my PhD in ~4 month, but I became disappointed in academic career.

My PhD is a experimental one, so 

•  several scientific apparatuses were built, and Labview was used in many.
  
• most of them distributed (many instruments (20+), several computers (2-3.)
  
• many required precise synchronization between different instruments
  
• including real-time feedback based on image processing
  
• software development culture was maintained:
  

          all code kept in source control (subversion was used),

          requirements of specifications were composed for each project,

          technical documentation was properly maintained for each project.

• Projects consisted of 500+ VIs, including multiple state machines communicating by sophisticated protocols.
  
• enjoyed every step from development of architecture development to implementation,
  
• many pieces of software became standards de-facto for the lab
  
• supervised development of couple less complex projects in academic environment.
  

What else?

Around 6 years ago had a job, where I developed number of kernel drivers for Linux and Windows.

Had some taste of embedded development (C, C++, asm for MIPS R4000) for VxWorks like operating system. Developed network card driver and implemented a special purpose low level protocol. Was responsible for quality assurance on one of the projects. Was responsible for communicating with hardware engineers on another one. Debugged multiple hardware-software issues.

During last ~8 years knowledge of C, C++, and general Windows/Linux architecture allowed me to connect multiple (20+) devices to Labview which did not have native driver (different flavors of cameras, nano-positioners, special controllers, raster output device, etc)

Just for the fun of it I took CLAD certification and will take CLD next week. From what I read about CLA, I think I can master CLA as well – just not sure this is the right move for me now.

I even have an article on Labview accepted for the last (unpublished) volume of Labview Technical Resourse. (have a pdf draft with editors corrections)

I think all the above makes a strong continuation point in Labview career.

The question is what kind of job matches my qualifications? Does it qualify for Senior Software Developer?

Does taking CLA make me stand any better? Or something else should be done before getting back on the wagon. Any advice, please?

[LAVA 1.0 Content]

QUOTE (mzu @ Jun 30 2008, 12:06 PM)

I am a graduate student, doing my PhD in experimental physics. I am finishing my PhD in ~4 month, but I became disappointed in academic career.

My PhD is a experimental one, so

• several scientific apparatuses were built, and Labview was used in many.
  
• most of them distributed (many instruments (20+), several computers (2-3.)
  
• many required precise synchronization between different instruments
  
• including real-time feedback based on image processing
  
• software development culture was maintained:
  

all code kept in source control (subversion was used),

requirements of specifications were composed for each project,

technical documentation was properly maintained for each project.

• Projects consisted of 500+ VIs, including multiple state machines communicating by sophisticated protocols.
  
• enjoyed every step from development of architecture development to implementation,
  
• many pieces of software became standards de-facto for the lab
  
• supervised development of couple less complex projects in academic environment.
  

What else?

Around 6 years ago had a job, where I developed number of kernel drivers for Linux and Windows.

Had some taste of embedded development (C, C++, asm for MIPS R4000) for VxWorks like operating system. Developed network card driver and implemented a special purpose low level protocol. Was responsible for quality assurance on one of the projects. Was responsible for communicating with hardware engineers on another one. Debugged multiple hardware-software issues.

During last ~8 years knowledge of C, C++, and general Windows/Linux architecture allowed me to connect multiple (20+) devices to Labview which did not have native driver (different flavors of cameras, nano-positioners, special controllers, raster output device, etc)

Just for the fun of it I took CLAD certification and will take CLD next week. From what I read about CLA, I think I can master CLA as well – just not sure this is the right move for me now.

I even have an article on Labview accepted for the last (unpublished) volume of Labview Technical Resourse. (have a pdf draft with editors corrections)

I think all the above makes a strong continuation point in Labview career.

The question is what kind of job matches my qualifications? Does it qualify for Senior Software Developer?

Does taking CLA make me stand any better? Or something else should be done before getting back on the wagon. Any advice, please?

Check out

DSAutomation.com

CLA will help with us. We have seven CLAs at teh moment and picking up an eigth will be a bonus fo us (We'll have the most in the world, unless bloomy does antoher one).

Are you as US citizen?

If you apply, tell them "Ben" sent you.

Ben

[Jim Kring]

At JKI, we look for great people who are and passionate about LabVIEW and have a minimum of CLD (CLA preferred), a history of significant contributions to the LabVIEW community (LAVA, OpenG, etc.), and a desire to make an impact on the world.