Best in your field?

[ninjaginga]

What would you do to make yourself become one of the top 10% in PMEL?

[Bryan]

It's not so much what I would do, it's what I have done-just kidding folks.
For a newbie you have something we didn't have in the 80s when I trained-the internet.  There are a ton of articles & papers some very smart people have made available, read up on any topics that interest you, no one is going to come along and spoon feed it to you.  Learn about the equipment you use, some folks turn it on & go with no regard to what setting should be used for best results.  Seek training from reputable sources, oems, NCSL and the like.  If you run automated equipment and are able to observe it, pay attention to how it performs measurments, it may be useful to you if you have to test a similar item manually.  Any monkey can connect a cable & click a mouse, not all monkeys can make the connections properly and develop that "feel"it takes to do it best.  As with life in general don't waste your time with people that gripe & bitch about everything, they'll only hold you back.  "I can't" should not be part of your vocabulary.  Good luck to you

[CalLabSolutions]

Get a degree in Physics.. This industry is all about Physics.  If you want to make a mark get that degree.

Mike

[USMCPMEL]

Drop a bomb on the other 90% 

[metrologygeek]

Why target just the top 10%? Why limit your goals?

[yonker08]

Drop a bomb on the other 90% 

leave it to da Marines:)

[PMEL Whore]

The approach to being the best you can differs depending on your situation and goals.  If you are in the Air Force and are looking to make a career out of it, then my suggestion is to learn all you can not just about the calibrations but also as to what the applications of the item are.  Particularly those pesky green boxes and items out of or in test stations, whaterver kind they are.  Learn from your supervisors and more experienced technicians, take the best parts from each of them and develop your own style which theortically will be better than them because you will add the benefit of the good parts from others.  This strategy will make you a top notch technician and supervisor.  If you are looking to follow the QA path, learn all the "rules".  Learn not only what they are but why they are important.  Read as many AFMECAL reports as you can to see what the audit team is looking at and the direction of PMEL. 

If you are in commercial cal, well that's an entirely different cup of coffee.  I have way more AF and contractor experience than I do commercial but my two cents worth on commercial is, there are way less opportunities for advancement in the commercial world.  I would try to be the best technician I could.  Use the internet and OEM information as posted before to learn as much about the equipment and measurments as possible.  Don't just learn how to do the measurement but why the parameter is important and why it is tested the way it is.  Being a top notch technician will command you better commercial opportunities when you have a few years of experience.  Maybe not in the door immediately but when you can prove yourself to a employer as invaluable raise negotiations are possible.  Having said that, commercial cal in general pays pretty low, especially if you have a bunch of experience and want to be paid for it, when all they really want is a knob turner that can crank out numbers and they can hire a 4 year experinced person to do that, that isn't looking for $30 an hour.  Contract work pays really well, mostly due to unionization, but they abuse you a bit and are still really looking for numbers, but do take quality seriously in most cases.

If you're in something other than the AF or commercial, I would refer to further comment from somebody else.  Beside that don't just take my opinion, I could be wrong.

[Broken_Wings]

I leave work early and you found yourself alone?
Well put.
There are those odd people that prefer quantity over quality but they won't say it out loud. They express it by never firing the warm stamper (they check a few spots). Occasionally they get under the heat lamp and eyeballed real hard but in a few months they are untouchable again.

Also the Whore won't lead you wrong intentionally ... or will he.

[Hawaii596]

Drop a bomb on the other 90% 

That was funny.  I just got back from Nepal with plenty on my plate.  Back to the real world as they say (or perhaps riding bicycle rickshaws in a small city in southeastern Nepal is the real world).  Great trip and can't wait to get back one day.  The most adventurous part was riding on the back of a 100cc motorcycle at night in the rain with no helmet.  I was 250 lbs or so, and it brought my 54 year old heart rate up a little.

To keep on topic, these days, become an expert in uncertainty calculations, lots of physics, become an expert in statistics, understand at an engineer level the principles of RF/microwave/impedance/etc.., The most important is to be a PMEL school graduate (just to start), be a computer expert, understand the underlying principles of every known calibration discipline, be a skilled technical writer, understand how to write programs in Surecal, MetCal, HP Vee and every other known calibration automation software, be an expert at calibration database programming and software maintenance, memorize the specs of at least 10 to 15 thousand models of instruments (plus, always use the procedure), understand methods and techniques for every known calibration discipline (proper cables, environmental considerations, how to select the proper standard to use, etc.),  and so much more.

Most calibration technicians are a product of the disciplines they have had opportunity to work in over the years.  Working in high quality, high volume labs with a lot of disciplines provides a lot of diversity.  So to be the best in your field takes a lot of variety of high quality lab experiences.

[jimmyc]

Ninja, you already started your career working for the best Gy ever!  that was a definite head start.  don't be afraid to pick up new stuff (which also makes this field not get boring) and learn how it works (theory of operation was drilled into my head over and over again by one Bill Bartsch) not just how to push the buttons.

[ninjaginga]

Lol, you guys are tres funny. Thanks for all the sound (and sarcastic, it fits well in the pmel world) advice (^_^)

-G

[Certi-Cal]

If you want to be the best it's all work.  Usually on your own, on your own time, and as one of the posters said, nobody is going to give it to you.

When you perform calibrations, know the instrument, understand the specifications, read the theory of operation, look at the schematics (begin with the block diagram(s)), and put it all together at the detailed schematic level with the calibration procedure side-by-side.

Ask yourself what are they doing, why are they looking for this reading, why did they choose to do things in the order they did, and if you don't understand a circuit --- figure it out or ask questions or BOTH).  The only way you learn what the other 90% won't is to learn how to ask the right questions, and don't give up until you know you have the right answers.

You will find many, many manuals that explain the theory only to a point.  Sometimes even calling the manufacturer's engineering department is useless because big companies (like Fluke, for example) swallow up smaller companies for their product lines and to kill off competition, then let go of the highest paid folks ... the engineering department is a prime candidate.

If you don't get into the discipline of training yourself to advance your skills, frequently you will find that when things go south on you, the answers will be in that 90% bracket ... set it aside and work on something else.  So, learn how to learn, discipline yourself to ask the right questions and dig until you get your answers, use what you learn as building blocks for the rest.  It won't be long before you find yourself in that top 10% but as I said right from the beginning, it's ALL work.