From Power Supplies to Spy
For 19 years, I have worked in the power supply industry. It is difficult for me to explain the complexity of the technology in a way that non-power people would understand. When friends would ask my wife and family what I did for a living, they struggled to find a good answer. The best explanation my wife could give 
was to tell people that I sold extension cords. So glamorous! As our kids got older, I succeeded in convincing them I was an undercover spy, off saving the world whenever I had to travel for work. I would smile and say to my wife, “Yeah, saving the world one extension cord at a time.”
I have learned that whenever I start explaining the ins and outs of the power supply industry, people’s eyes glaze over and they nod politely looking for the quickest way out of the conversation. I’ve tried to simplify the story and tell people that I work with electronics. Now they walk away thinking I sell stereo or TV equipment. Perhaps this is at least a little more glamorous than an extension cord salesman?
But for those of us who live neck-deep in the industry, we love talking about the technicalities of figuring out complex power conversion. Does nobody else enjoy the thermal challenges of making every system work to its maximum potential? Us power people need to hang out more.
Working at Phasium gives me the opportunity to design with world-class engineers and give the customer a winning price. Maybe someday I’ll find a social situation that allows me to chat about resonate topologies…but probably not. Until then, I’ll stick to my super spy cover story. Now if you excuse me, I need to go save the world. One power supply at a time.
