Imagine being a college graduate, getting a job as a lab technician for the world's most popular cable and accessories company, and eventually becoming responsible for designing new products that millions of people will enjoy? Sounds crazy, but is the true story of David Leung, Monster Project Engineer at Monster Cable. Read on to learn more about David in this all-new Monster Spotlight Interview!

What's your title at Monster Cable? Can you tell us about some of the things you do there?

I am a Monster Project Engineer for our New Product Development division.  What my position basically entails is taking the conception of an idea, defining the specifications, developing feature sets, technologies, etc., by working with our engineering team, manufacturing team, marketing team, sales team, purchasing team, executive team, etc. and turning the idea into a real final consumer good that you would buy in a Best Buy or any other known retailer.   

How long have you worked for Monster Cable, and how did you get started?

I actually had no clue that I would ever be doing what I'm doing now.  I started after I had graduated from Berkeley.  My friend Gernard, who had been working at Monster previously as an intern had landed a job here as a project engineer and asked me if I wanted to make some money instead of idling around.  Naturally, I said yes and started out working as a lab technician, running reports, dissecting prototypes, performing failure analysis, and basically learning a few things about the consumer electronics world.  After getting my feet wet there, I was given a few smaller projects to work on.  Those few projects blew up into a few categories, which now span Monster Performance Car, Monster Apple, Monster Mobile, and Monster Game, just to name a few. 

What would you say it's like to work for Monster?

It's definitely different and more challenging environment than working for a huge corporate company.  We're privately held and the overall dynamic requires you to be very versatile and resourceful.  One moment you can be defining specifications and analyzing testing data, next hour helping to write copy, and the next month working a tradeshow and talking to customers about the very same product.  No day is the same and it definitely keeps you on your feet and makes things interesting.    

When you tell people you work for Monster Cable, what kind of reaction do you typically receive? What are the top questions people ask you about your job there?

Monster as in Monster.com??!  Then I tell them "NO!" and that we are the same "Monster" that "Monster Park" is named after.  They usually reply "oh... I thought that was Monster.com too..."  So, there is confusion a lot of times.  But, people always ask me if I make stuff for the cable companies, if it's fun designing wires, etc..  That's when I have to educate them on the many things that we make and usually they respond to me with things like... "you're like the next Costco!"  That isn't unrare at all.  At the same time, there are some people who know straight off the bat who Monster Cable is and tell me right away how much they love our products. 

What has been your most memorable moment at Monster?

Being in this industry, and having Noel being a consumer electronics world celebrity, we also get to meet our share of celebrities.  During SEMA of 2005 in Las Vegas, Noel and a few of us were invited to have dinner with Carol Shelby.  We got there and ZZ Top was there also.  Also meeting Snoop Dog, and other celebs was pretty cool.

Do you have family at home? Kids?

I'm in my mid 20's right now and probably won't have a family of my own for a bit.  A few more years perhaps.

Do you have any hobbies that occupy your spare time?

I have a lot of things that I like to do.  To list a few: home improvements, motor sports, physical fitness, gardening, music, reading, dancing, television, fishing, shooting, flying planes, skydiving...  There are A LOT of thins I like to do, but it just depends on what I have time for and what I'm in the mood for at a particular point in time.

How many Monster products do you currently have? What are they hooked up to?

I have almost everything we make for iPods: iCarplay 200, iEZClick remote, iSplitter 200, etc..  The joy of using the products you engineer is that you can also do testing and evaluation to help inspire new ideas.    

What would you say your favorite Monster product is? Why?

My absolute favorite right now are my iFreeplay headphones for my Apple Shuffle.  Whenever I go running I can go all out and not worry about dropping my 300+ dollar iPod, tearing out the minijack when the cable catches on something while running, or wrecking my headphones.  Plus, I always have people asking me about them and wanting to find out where they can buy them from. 

What would you say your favorite gadget is?

I think my BlackBerry or iPod are at the top of my list.  One allows you to stay in touch with the world wherever you are and the other lets you listen to your tunes anywhere you go.  I use them both throughout my day.

What do you think of the brand new Monster Community? What are your impressions thus far?
 
I'm excited about it and can't wait to see it grow.

Special thanks out to David for taking the time to share more about himself with the Monster Community. It's because of the hard work and initiative from guys like him that we end up with killer accessories for our most beloved gadgets. The next time you see David conversing in the forums, take a moment to welcome to the new Monster Community!