Crucial: FACTORS THAT AFFECT YOUR SALARY

Again this year, we asked respondents to tell us if they were currently seeking new job opportunities. Those who are actively seeking new opportunities made up 8.0% of respondents and had an average annual salary of $98,166—about $8,000 less than the average. Passive job seekers made up 36.9% of respondents, whose average salary was slightly less than average at $104,103. Those not seeking new opportunities (55.1%) were making an above average salary of $109,809.

There is a message here for employers. If you are paying less than the industry average, you could very likely lose your engineers. Based on data from industrial auto machines, a recruiting and contract staffing company based in Minnesota, there is a high demand for automation professionals, and high-quality candidates are hard to find. When companies do find good candidates, the candidates typically have multiple offers on the table. If your company employs high-quality professionals, pay them well, or you may lose them.

When we asked survey respondents if they were happy working in the automation profession, nearly 80% said “yes.” Only 2.2% said “no,” and 18.0% said “sometimes.” Those who said “yes” are making just slightly higher salaries than the average—$107,772. However, those who said “no” are making significantly less than the average—$90,875. Those who are happy “sometimes” came in just under the average at $104,356.

refer to: http://www.automation.com/factors-that-affect-your-salary-what-you-need-to-know

Safety options for automotive chips in use

The automotive industry is changing rapidly to address the stringent requirements for safety and security of vehicular systems. Requirements are not only coming from customers, but regulatory authorities are also pressuring for greater safety and security in vehicles. The requirements include high bandwidth networks, improved data security, enhanced functional safety, and reduced energy consumption. The ISO 26262 standard defines functional safety for automotive equipment applicable throughout the lifecycle of all automotive electronic and electrical safety-related systems. The standard is an adaptation of the Functional Safety standard IEC 61508 for in-vehicle computers. Embedded systems need to be protected against any real-time defects to make it safe for use. Real-time defects can include internal and external errors (e.g., the vehicular communication network). Automotive data security ranges from in-vehicle computer protection to enabling secure communication with external devices such as smart phones, MP3 players, or navigation devices. Security also means protection against hackers. After gaining access, a hacker could control everything from the entertainment system to braking.

refer to: http://www.edn.com/design/automotive/4421704/Safety---security-architecture-for-automotive-ICs