Wireless Careers

Antenna Engineering Manager –

A highly talented and well respected RF antenna engineering team needs a mature manager who can help the team concentrate on its designs and provide new market insight to antenna requirements.

This opportunity will best attract an experienced antenna engineering manager who sees this as a career closing responsibility or an upwardly challenged engineer manager who wants to be the leader of a globally recognized design team.

While managing the design and testing team of 7 engineers, this hands on antenna engineering manager will not only keep operations running efficiently, but though interfacing with marketing and manufacturing and participation in vendor selection will provide expanded wireless industry knowledge and potential go-forward opportunities to the design team.

Preference is for design experience both in theory and principles with base station antenna, but experience with other antenna in the 30 to 6000 MHz range including those used in RFID and IBS/DAS systems is desirable. Experience with modeling software such as NEC and HFSS is required. The company’s antennas are used in a variety of applications of broadcast, radio, cellular and personal communications systems.

Management experience should include budget forecasting, standards for quality and procedures, project feasibility methods, competitive analysis and customer interface.

The company is prepared to offer an above industry average compensation and a comprehensive relocation to attract an industry leader.

Jack Bourque
President
860-738-5035 ex: 23
www.WirelessCareers.com

LinkedIn profile

Global corporations are examining their carbon footprint and developing leadership programs in sustainable management.

A Bloomberg Businessweek article noted: “In a world beset by economic woes as well as environmental problems– from the scarcity of natural resources to climate change–sustainability represents one of the few potential bright spots.”

If your company is seeking a forward looking and innovative senior level director who will lead your company’s sustainability across a global footprint, I’d like you to meet a special person who might just be the right choice for you.

Although he comes from a background in telecomm/wireless technology his leadership in sustainable management can be applied to any manufacturing corporation.  He’s been employed by his current company for 11 years and for the past 2.5 years has led this multi-billion corporation’s global efforts in carbon measurement and reduction programs throughout its more than 700 sites.  His efforts have reduced the company’s total carbon footprint by more than 250 million metric tons in two years and resulted in savings of more than $25 million in energy and shipping costs.

From his director-level position his leadership has provided workshops and training programs at site levels and brought about better than 20% decrease in the corporation’s travel cost and nearly 50% increase in its video conferencing.

He is a leading industry spokesman in carbon reduction projects and sustainability programs and has brought to his corporation increased revenue, reduced waste, and promoted broader social and environmental awareness.

With an MBA and an advanced education in sustainable management from an executive program of one of the country’s leading business universities, he is a realistic leader who can guide your company in sustainability with methods for revenue increases and waste reduction that shareholders are requiring.

If you have a significant and real opportunity and want to advance your company’s leadership in its sustainability management programs, let’s talk about whether this candidate can be attracted to your corporation.

Call Jack  860-738-5035 ext: 23

~ Installment 7 of Skydiving by Jack Bourque ~

My friend, Vijay, to whom I sent my written experience of sky diving, said the experience I shared with him created such a visual effect for him that he wrote the following poem.

High Act

You have been high

Way way up

Flying like the winged Pegasus

Out in the open azure sky

For your first air dive

Sniffing the dizzying heavens

Squinting at the stars afar

In your (O my God!) free fall

Overcoming the scary of high winds

In your speedy descent like a meteor 

-Exhilarating

And then sliding into smooth gliding

Scanning the calm and serene picturesque horizon

Gracefully hovering over familiar landmarks

Experiencing ecstasy of the setting sun

From perched above

Peaceful cottony cumulous clouds

-Tranquil

Finally swaying like a winged creatures

Gently easing into landing

Elegantly entering its abode

-Beautiful

You may have left the heights behind you

But understandably

The high will live on

-Congratulations!!

About a week after our sky dive, my wife and I were sitting on our deck watching the autumn leaves fall.  And she was moved to write the following:

Drop Zone

Gliding, twisting,

Graceful, quiet.

Open canopies

Approach the ground.

Adventurous descent.

Satisfying completion.

Sky-diving autumn leaves

Color the field.

Installment 6 by Jack Bourque, President of Wireless Careers 

Walt expertly (he told me that he had made thousands of jumps) guides the chute and reminds me of the instructions he gave me about putting my legs out in front of me (like in an “L” shape) so that when we land we can slide along the ground on our bottoms before the chute comes to rest. 

And then it is over.  We are on the ground, softly, and the chute falls to our left.  We are probably 15 feet from the target circle in the center of the landing field.

The camera woman, who I last held hands with at 10,000 feet, is right in front of me taking videos and asking “So how was it.”  I probably said something uncreative, although the 20 minute experience I just had — from the airplane take off to the landing — was everything that I could have imagined it would be.  I was thinking I really should have prepared something bright and witty to say.  But I didn’t, so I said whatever came into my thoughts at that moment.   

My daughters, unharnessed from their chute nearby in the field, come over to me and then my wife who was just off of the landing field.

We unite in a family hug, smiles on each of our faces.  My first skydive is over in its action but not in its effect. 

Back at the office and equipment area, I climb out of the harness and peel out of the blue jump suit.  And we gather and share our experiences.  Walt hands me a tandem jump certificate for 14,000 feet.  It is now posted in my office so whoever comes in can see it. 

Most people I know have never done this; most of them all wish that they had.

The experience will long continue in thoughts, in videos, in pictures, and clearly will be relived in my mind whenever anyone says “skydiving.”

.

a shared experience - Jack & family, safely landed.

.

(Continued in Sky Diving – installment 7)

Installment 5 by Jack Bourque, President of Wireless Careers

Down we float, the farmers’ fields that surround the Ellington Airport coming more into view, and now the backyards and the homes in the nearby village. Over there I can see what appears to be a swimming pool closed for the winter and in another backyard what appears to be a swing set. If there are any people moving in these yards I can’t tell.  Is that because I can’t see them from this height or is it because it is a brisk 60 degrees on a late Sunday afternoon and they are firmly on the ground and, unlike me, safe in their homes.

I wonder if they watch the sky and see us parachuting down and have unfulfilled wishes about skydiving as I once did.  I know I will never have that feeling again.

While on the ground before our take off, Walt had told me how we would be connected in the jump and that the chute actually would be latched to my harness and he would be latched between it and me.  In the airplane a minute or so before we were about to jump, he connected us together by having me sit on his lap as he tighten each strap – I think there were four at least. These were the straps that held Walt and I as we floated and came closer to the ground.

Now we were over the airport and the manifest office of Connecticut Parachutists, Inc.  I can see my wife standing near the landing zone waving.  I wave back and yell something – probably just a “hi.” Maybe I should have said “I love you” because we still hadn’t landed and from what I had read while parachuting might be the first great thrill, landing is the second.

Jack coming in for the landing...

 .

(Continued in Sky Diving – installment 6)

To my left and overhead I see the tandem chute with one of my daughters and through the distance I wave and yell “Hey.”  The two instructors move us closer together – we nearly touch parachutes together.  She says something about awesome and we separate.  I didn’t see her again until we landed.

As we float downward, Walt points out the skyline of Springfield about 25 miles to the North; we make out the skyline of Hartford about as far away to the South but partially obscured in an overcast. Between the two cities I can make out the dual traffic lanes of I-91 and the Connecticut River paralleling the interstate.

To the West the sun is setting – it is nearly 5 pm on a mid-October day, and the sky is brilliant red. There are only a few clouds. I try looking as far West as possible to see if I can make out any of the familiar western Connecticut hills where we live.  I see the formations but can’t distinguish one area from another.

Maybe if we had more time.  But there is no way we can stay aloft for long, Walt says, even though I ask him to keep us up as long as he can.  Parachutes eventually have to come down, he says.  If we can catch an unusual thermal uplift can we stay up a little longer and that only happens rarely, he says.

Walt asks if I want to hold the cords that direct the canopy and I decline.  I am content just to feel the directional changes he makes – though afterwards I am disappointed with myself that I didn’t take control.  Next time, and there will be a next time, I will take the controls when offered.

I catch a glimpse of a large lake to the East and wonder where it is and think that maybe I’ll come back to the area and look around at this beautiful eastern part of Connecticut where I have spent very little time exploring.

.

~ free floating ~

.

(Continued in Sky Diving – installment 5)

Jessie, the camera woman who jumped moments before us, catches up to me filming as we drop.  She reaches out her hands to me and I take them both and we spin and drop.  She waves and I wave. And we drop.  The wind is loud.  The earth, I realize, is coming closer and closer.  And … 

Jack's tandem dive - free falling

Then, poof, the canopy opens above us – there is no sudden jerk, it is all very smooth — and Walt says assuringly, “We have a full canopy.” And we begin our float under this rectangular shaped parachute at about 6,000 feet.  We had just dropped 8,000 feet in less than a minute (Walt says it was about 58 seconds).  And now there is silence.

I apologize to Walt for delaying our jump and not moving both feet at the same time in the plane and he tells me that we couldn’t have waited any longer because one of my daughters who was behind us and the last to leave the plane with her tandem instructor was getting further away from the drop zone. (I really didn’t need to hear that just then — that one of my four daughters who was helping me check off this item on my bucket list might have been in danger.) But now the two daughters who were able to make this jump and I are all floating under our parachutes heading down. I can’t see them but Walt says everything is good.

No longer is there the rush of wind.  It is quiet. Peaceful. Beautiful. Fulfilling.

As I am hanging in front of Walt, he points out the airport below, and adjusts one of the harness straps on my right leg to make it more comfortable.

And we float.

.

(Continued in Sky Diving – installment 4)

Installment 2 …

Head back, feet curled, is the banana form you and your sky diving tandem instructor will take as you exit into the sky.  Can you do that, you are asked on the ground during the pre-flight instructions.  “Oh, yeah I can do that” is easy to say while on the ground during the instructions.

But now at 14,000 feet with nothing in front of me, it is quite different.  My right foot easily releases from the plane and curls under his legs, but not my left.  Something about facing the drop of 14,000 feet and not having anything to stand on. I want to yell something about some glue that is holding my foot to the floor. And then I think: that’s a stupid thing to say.

Two, maybe three times, Walt, my tandem instructor, yells “get your feet under me and off the floor.” Stuck there in a semi-freeze he shakes me and then as soon as the toes of my left foot rise above the floor out we go and into the sky.

The rush of wind in my ears is deafening.  Without the goggles provided for my eyes the view would have been obscure, but the earth below is green and filled with autumn colors and we fall face forward.  From that height everything below is flat.  There are no hills or valleys.  And I am thinking; “I am really doing this.” I catch my breath and we continue to fall face down and spin.

- ready to dive

.
(Continued in Sky Diving – installment 3)

Installment 1.  

Standing at the edge of an open airplane door at 14,000 feet above the ground there are several thoughts quickly moving through my brain. 

“Wow, am I really ready to jump,” is the first one. I can just make out the land forms, fields, and roads.  And then all of the “What ifs,” blur by just as does the land below.

Of course I shouldn’t have been so surprised at the height or of my impending jump.  I knew how high we were because as the airplane climbed I could look out the window and see the ground getting farther and farther away.  And the altimeter on the nearby instructor kept moving into the jump zone as we climbed.  A couple of times in the plane I had to cough, kind of gagging a little, to ensure I was OK. 

Sitting on one of the benches that lined the walls of the plane, I looked across to my two daughters who were smiling and giving me a “thumbs up” sign over the drone of the aircraft’s engines. My daughters were here and ready to jump and my wife already had completed her jump and was on the ground.  She even had a chance to kiss me good bye before I boarded the plane almost in the same spot on the ground as I kissed her before she boarded her flight 30 minutes before.

Sitting in the plane before the door opened I presumed I still had choices.

But now I am at the open side door at the rear of the plane. The air is rushing by and the tandem instructor attached to my back tells me, just as he told me he would, to hold onto my harness with my hands and curl my feet under me and between his legs so that I will be hanging on him entirely just before we jumped.

This article is one in a series by Jack Bourque, president of Wireless Careers. 

There are two major compensation questions involved when a company seeks to acquire talent:

• What does a candidate need to be attracted to a career opportunity with another company?

  and 

• What will a candidate accept if the opportunity and challenge are right for his/her career?

I have found through 26 years of attracting candidates for client companies that these questions, when asked professionally and answered honestly are the only compensation questions that really matter.

What the candidate is currently earning or what he/she earned in the past have little meaning if the first two questions are not properly developed and explored.

When I recruit a candidate who has the skills and interest matching a specific search, I ask these compensation questions.  Only when I am convinced that the honesty of the answers fits within the compensation range I’ve been given about the specific assignment do I present the candidate for potential acquisition to the client.

In the past three years I have notice that there has been a major compensation adjustment shift particularly in candidates who hit high earnings in the boom of the early 2000 and even more so with candidates who have had life-style adjustments. 

This last group usually represents candidates who are now interested in less travel, or no longer interested in climbing a corporate ladder, or prefer to re-focus their careers on what they really like doing as opposed to what might be consider a “normal career track.”  This group also includes candidates who have cashed-in stock options, taken early retirement benefits, have completed the goal of education for their children, and many times those whose significant other also have a career that provides for a financially healthy life.

One other real time consideration has emerged during the last three years: reality.

Many candidates today understand that the area of high and frequent pay increases they received in the late 1990s and early 2000s is gone.  Most people today understand that salary ranges are stabilizing and that significant high level paying positions are not available without serious life style considerations or relocations.

Companies that understand these considerations and are open to take advantage of them find that they can attract significant talent at compensation ranges that years ago would have been impossible.

Candidates that are willing to look realistically at opportunity and compensation will continue to have career choices that will be challenging and rewarding.

In the end it’s all about a fair and equitable compensation for the responsibility required.