Problems, problems, problems - Simon Grier loves to solve problems. "I designs chips," says the electronic engineer, simply. "Integrated circuits. We're like the architects of the silicon. It's a piece of metal which has the circuit etched on it. All we do here is the design work. We don't have a fabrication or a manufacturing facility."

It all started with Lego long ago when he was a little boy in Glenageary, Co Dublin. "I was always interested in engineering. You have to be good at maths to do engineering. When I was small I was always building things."

Graduating from Lego, he says he got a junior electronic kit. "Then I bought a computer when I was in school and did some programming."

Today he works at Silicon & Software Systems Ltd, based at South County Business Park in Leopardstown, Co Dublin. He went to school in Wesley College where he did all the science subjects - physics, chemistry, applied maths - for his Leaving Cert. And, of course, honours maths which is generally necessary to get a place on engineering degree courses.

"Engineering is all about problem-solving and it's fixing things," he explains. Those thinking of going into electronic engineering should, like himself, "enjoy maths, enjoy solving problems, be inquisitive, question why does that works and how it works. I would have taken radios apart and vacuum cleaners." He was always the one at home who was able and asked to programme the video. Grier started engineering in TCD in 1989. There were 180 students in first year, including about 30 women. Four years later he graduated with an honours bachelor in engineering (BAI) - electronic and computer engineering which is a joint programme.

Students choose their engineering option at the start of third year, he points out. "That ties in very much with what the company does," he explains. In 1992 he worked at Silicon & Software Systems on a summer placement in 1992. When he had completed the degree course, he immediately started work there. "There's such a huge demand for engineering graduates now it would be fair to say that 50 per cent of my class had a job offer at the time of graduation." There are so many jobs out there now that "the classes would have two or three job offers each."

What he loves about his job is "the fact that the engineering industry is racing ahead. There are new challenges all the time. That's what's exciting about it. There's an element of frustration about it in that what you're learning today will not be relevant in a few years time. You have to be constantly on the ball, constantly learning. There are so many disciplines that you can pick up and absorb."

In spite of the mobility that his career offers, Grier hasn't been tempted himself to move to another company. "I really enjoy working here," he says. "The work we do here is very challenging. We work for a great many customers and on a great many projects. You're not committing yourself to one particular project for the rest of your life."

Grier sees it as a matter of "selling an intellectual product. That's our final product, brain power. There's nothing that is shipped out of this building."

The type of projects he's worked on include integrated circuits for mobile phones, items for the car industry such as advanced breaking and speech recognition devices. "We would work with a customer. It could be Phillips, IBM, Siemens. They'll say we want you to design a chip to do x, y, z. We would work with them and come up with a solution.

"We solve problems, that's what engineering is all about. It's never easy. You have to work in a team and you have to ask people questions, every one has their own little niche.

"The chips give us the speed, the software gives you the flexibility."

In the lab, a `set top box' sits on the counter, the current hot development within the industry. They are also working on recordable CDs, hand-held PCs and digital television. "The set top box gives you huge flexibility," says Grier, by way of explanation. "It will not only allow viewers to choose from hundreds of different TV stations but it will also allow us to choose the camera shot and angle. The market is driven by companies who want items which are more and more compact, he explains. "Compacting and shrinking, that's what drives the market."