Tell me little about yourself.

My name is Rafiul Hossain. I was born in Bangladesh. I have completed my education up to

undergraduate level from Bangladesh. I had my Bachelor’s degree in Electrical and Electronic
Engineering from Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology. After that I went to USA for my
higher study and I have completed my Master’s degree in Computer Engineering from University of
Central Florida. I worked as a Senior Application Engineer in Cadence Design System for about a year.
After that I went back to Bangladesh and worked as an Assistant Professor in the department of
Electrical Engineering. After obtaining immigration to Canada on 2012 I have decided to come here and
completed my Master degree in Electrical Engineering from Carleton University this year.

Tell me about your previous experience in this kind of work. / Why you are interested for this particular
job?

During my work as a faculty of Electrical Engineering I conducted the courses and laboratories related to
Digital and Analog Electronics. I have supervised some undergraduate project works related to VLSI
design. I also have some front end digital design experience during my work in Cadence Design System.

Recently I have completed some detail projects related to RF IC design, Analog Electronics and signal
integrity during my graduate study in Carleton University. For example, I have designed some major
components of RF stage of super-heterodyne transceiver such as Low Noise Amplifier (LNA), Double
Balanced Mixer, VCO and Class AB Power Amplifier. I have also designed a classical two-stage op-
amusing 90 nm CMOS technology. I also worked on a project related to signal integrity issues in high
speed complex IC. As a faculty of Electrical Engineering I also have experiences of conducting courses
and labs related to analog and digital electronics. I looked at the skills and experiences required for this
position. The first requirement is strong knowledge of analog, rf and signal integrity principles which is a
perfect match with my project works. The other requirement like using lab equipment, knowledge of
device specs and parameters, pc architecture and board level design. I am confident that I have required
skills and experiences in those area. So my theoretical knowledge about analog, mixed signal design and
signal integrity together with hands-on experience in this field is my main inspiration for this particular
job.

Describe two things that you have done well?

I would mention the two project works related to RF IC design and Analog Electronics. These are
individual and detail oriented projects with industry standard specifications and implemented using
industry standard CAD tools. The initial design estimations are done with hand calculations according to
the given specifications. After that schematic capture is done to do the simulation. The simulated results
are compared with the specifications. In case of discrepancy, we need find out the possible reasons and
revised the calculation accordingly. The specs are rechecked from the simulation results with modified
circuit parameters. Physical implementations are also done for some designs with similar design
iterations.
But you have to characterize the device using lab equipments instead of practical design, what do you
think about it?

I would say it is a very good opportunity. There is a difference between working in academic level and
industry level. In academic level often time detail device characterizations are ignored in a sense that it
uses lot of assumptions and speculations. But in real life we may not ignore them for many real
applications. So I think this is a great opportunity to work extensively with practical device
characterizations that I missed in the design works at academic level. If I have an in-depth experience in
this area it will be definite asset for working as a design engineer in future.

What are your strengths?

I have a very good learning curve – I can learn thing fast, I can hard work and able to work under
pressure, I have excellent commitment and passion for the assigned job and get it done on time, I am
polite and cooperative with my co- workers.

What are your weaknesses?

Sometimes I work to a depth more than the requirement which may not bring me the expected return.
At the end of the day it is the efficiency that matters. So I feel like I should be more careful when I put
much effort and think seriously whether it is worthy or not.

I cannot say a straightforward no when somebody request me to do some job for him. Helping is good if
I have spare time for it but it may not worthy if it hampers my own works. Saying no is not bad if there is
a genuine reason for it. But sometime I just forget it make the situation harder for me.