Joseph LaRosa: I've Never Been Interviewed Before

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

Meet Joseph LaRosa, a young application engineer at Omron who is passionate about robotics and automation. I recently interviewed Joseph (his first one) about his choice to work in the electronics industry and his advice for others looking for a career path. I really admire Joseph’s ambitious nature and drive to be the best at what he does. If you’re going to do it, you might as well be the best at it, he says.

Barry Matties Let’s start with your position at Omron.

Joseph LaRosa: I am an application engineer trainee, and I focus on robotics. In the future, I will be working with account managers and customers in both pre- and post-sale. My job is to help them learn that robotics is feasible and how this technology works with their application.

Matties: I'm curious—why did you choose a career with Omron?

LaRosa: I always wanted to be involved with industrial automation. Right out of school I got a job as a technician at Novo Nordisk. They package insulin pens and I was a line tech. The vision systems used at Novo Nordisk were from OMRON. The system would inspect the pens and find problems with labels—maybe they were crooked, too high, too low, or it wasn’t positioned correctly.

Initially, I thought Omron was only about vision systems. While pursuing new opportunities in engineering, I went to LinkedIn and found Omron. They have everything—robotics, vision, motion, safety, industrial automation, and more. As a young engineer, I thought, “Okay, that's perfect. I can learn everything.” I had an interview with Carrie Lee (who’s now my manager), and then an interview with the vice president of sales. Those were great conversations. I knew it would be a great place to work, and it has been. All the engineers said that it's a great place to be. I believed them. It's been almost a year now and it's true.

Matties: Obviously, the electronics industry is going through a transformation into more robotics, and this is an exciting time. It’s a good time for you to be launching your career in this area. Are you seeing a lot of interest in robotics?

LaRosa: For sure. A robot can replace repetitive tasks with accuracy and repeatability; that's really where they shine.

Matties: What advice do you give a customer who wants to bring more robotics into their factory?

LaRosa: When you hear robotics, you might think there are a lot of crazy equations to figure out, like, “How would that motion work?” But it's not as tough as you might think. There is a learning curve, of course, but in my experience, it's not terribly hard to pick up.

To read this entire conversation, which appeared in the June 2023 issue of PCB007 Magazine, click here.