Day in the Life
Sandeep
Product Engineering Manager
"Our customers are doing great things with our products, which means we're doing great things. Helping the planet, saving lives – I take a lot of pride in that."
What does Sandeep have to say about working at FEI?
I feel I should warn those who are considering coming to work at FEI that there's a good chance you’ll become addicted to this company, to the people who work here, and to the solutions we’re creating. This is a pretty unique place. We’re a global company and we’re making instruments that are of great importance to humankind and to the planet. But we’re still small enough that if you work hard, people notice and they appreciate your contribution. That’s a compelling mix!
My goal was to find a job that provided an ideal combination of technical specialist and managerial generalist. I came to the right place. Our products are extremely complex, so it takes a lot of collaboration from a lot of people to design, build and support them. I started as a software support engineer, then worked my way into product engineering and system architecture. Now I’m managing a team of technical specialists. I get to focus on aligning people, skills and processes, which I really enjoy. I also have an influence on technical issues and decisions, so it’s the best of both worlds as far as I’m concerned.
If you want to succeed at FEI, you need to be able to learn as you go. At one point, I was involved in the development and launch of an extremely high resolution instrument. I was able to contribute with my knowledge and effort, which was great. I also had to learn and develop my technical and managerial skills along the way. We went from the initial R&D concept to a released product to regular customer deliveries in a very short time. It was both a challenge and an opportunity, and that kind of thing tends to happen a lot here. You’ll have plenty of opportunities to use the knowledge and experience you bring with you, but you’ll need to be open and keep learning as you go.