Ben Kerr has been chosen as De Montfort University Leicester’s (DMU) Alumnus of the Month for September. A hardware engineer whose career has spanned numerous technology companies in the UK and United States, Ben now works as a Physical Design Engineer at Google's headquarters in California.
Ben started at Leicester Polytechnic in 1991 prior to its transition into DMU, electing to study there for his Bachelor of Engineering due to the electronic specialisation offered by the degree programme. He worked on a variety of electronics projects during his studies and participated in the Leicester Polytechnic Amateur Radio Society, becoming licensed to use radio equipment to communicate with people around the world in a time before widespread internet usage.
Discussing his time at university and subsequent career choices, he said: "I loved my time in Leicester, I had always been fascinated by the workings of electronic equipment and my degree gave me the chance to expand my knowledge and pursue my passion. Compared to what we have access to now, the technology I was working with was still in very early stages of development. I experienced a lot of change with both the university and the subject of my studies. Although I started learning in the Hawthorn Building of Leicester Polytechnic in 1991, by the time I was in my final year I was working in the Queen's Building at the newly converted De Montfort University.
"My degree took four years, due to my year spent on an industrial placement at the UK offices of 3COM, a US company specialising in computer hardware for Local Area Network (LAN) equipment. I was fortunate to be offered a job there upon graduating and I feel that gaining that practical work experience during my degree was invaluable to my post-graduation employment prospects.
"By 1997 I was strongly considering making the move to live and work in America, where the technology sector was much more established at the time. A friend had recently made the decision to relocate and offered me a job working with him at a start-up in Spokane, Washington during the height of the dot-com boom years. They managed to make the most of the enthusiasm for technology at the time and the company was sold two years later in 1999, after which I returned to the UK.
"I didn't have any plans to go back to the US at this time and I spent the next few years working for several UK technology companies designing new silicon chips for mobile phones, hard-disk drives and the RaspberryPi, whilst settling down with my family. It was incredible to see the rapid improvements in the power and size of processors over this period and I am proud to have played a part in that, designing 10 unique chips and acquiring 12 patents over my career.
"Unfortunately, as the dot-com bubble burst during these years I was made redundant on several occasions, but I was able to gain valuable experience and persevere to find a new job each time. As I worked across the UK sector, I was increasingly conscious of the rise of burgeoning technology giants such as Apple and Google.
"Although I hadn't originally planned on going back to the US, I decided to submit a CV to Google in 2018 and promptly forgot about it for around six months until I received a call from a recruiter asking me to interview for a position with the company. I got the role and I now contribute to a team of engineers working on a range of products at the Google campus in Silicon Valley, California.
"It's a very different experience going to work for a major corporation as opposed to a start-up. When I was working at smaller, start-up businesses, the focus would be on one specific product around which the entire success or failure of the company was hung on. Now I have much greater resources within a company employing over 100,000 people who work on a huge range of products. However, I still have the comfort of working in a innovative, focused team who are passionate about examining and solving problems in unique ways.
"Although it has been something of a culture shock moving to the San Francisco Bay Area, I love where I live now. Despite the recent impact of the wildfires and COVID-19, working for a major technology company has enabled me to switch to working from home and video conferencing without much detriment to my work.
"I really have to credit my degree from DMU for opening the door to my dream career, without which I would not have been able to easily secure the working visa I required. Despite the imposing stature of huge companies like Google, a career with them is within your reach, they are truly global businesses and look for talent all around the world. I'd encourage young alumni to take a chance, give things a go and be determined in acquiring the experience to get the job they want.
"I've been lucky to have had a career that has taken me all over the world from Taiwan to Romania, Sweden to Bangalore, Ireland and the United States. I'm incredibly proud that my work on hardware innovations and collaborating with international companies on technological standards means that people from around the globe can now connect with one another more than ever before."
Posted on Wednesday 23 September 2020