Is Engineering - A dead end career ??

[Sparespares]

ke ke ke, not all ang moh companies like that lah....

i fire MBA manager before lor....

[Cavver]

Two of my friends hav sign-on, surrendered their pink card, now happy happy every mth collect $$$ , ride bikes to sch... but is their choice of path ...

[Cavver]

Just imagine, when applying for PT job durin sch vacation, bunch of N,O lvl, JC,NTU NUS guys mixed nationalities come compete with u, for A job. I can said those PRC are veri highly motivated.

[Scoots]

Working as vendor. Mainly in 200mn but also have touched on 150mm and 300mm....

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What type of machine u handle ? Working as a vendor should be good since another 2 more 300mm fab coming out, selling machine to them will keep u busy for sometime liao ...

 

ATM and LPCVD furnaces. But having a job doesn't mean having a career. Company earn money doesn't mean I get a share...

 

Man, I'm reaching some sort of mid life crisis...

 

The ones who are really gonna earn ar the hairnet, gloves, shoe cover vendors ....

Edited February 21, 2008 by Scoots

[Julian]

yes, this is honeymoon period... wait till after their contract finish

[Kent]

Samsung-Siltronic is pretty much a co-operation between a supplier and consumer (one secures wafer substrate supply, one secures a big, long term customer)

 

Bottom line is that there's no new tecnology/products that will drive another upturn.

 

Got a "new" technology where Siltronic-Samsung brings in the Czochralski method, a first outside Japan and Europe.

[Wind30]

On the area of pay, it will depend if you are in a value add area or manufacturing area. A company of IC design (meaning the brains to design how the chip works) with a workforce of less than 500 can have a revenue comparable to a low end manufacturing with workforce of 2000.

 

you in IC design? IC design is more interesting than manufacturing and working in Fab.

 

The pay is probably better than Fab too. I am also in early thirties and dunno what to do with my career. Engineering does pay pretty low compared to other professions... The AVERAGE is around $5-6k for early thirties I think.

[Wind]

ha.. u bring to light another variable.

the ruler to measure what is high or low. you mentioned 5-6k is average. But i can also tell you this is considered high for many.

[Malie]

im going to grad as an ic designer.

 

from what i know the pay is better..but it is more stressful, lots of datelines to meet.

 

The analog or mixed signal ic designers are the one in demand. digital not much.

[Gorilla41]

I had worked in a few semicon companies until now. To say the truth $5-6K is not really high for engineers. My whole family is doing support for semicon for years. For design section $5-6 K is slightly under paid. But if you are in the manufacturing and fab it will be over paid usually they are in the $1.6 - $5K section.

 

Nowdays most of the engineers jump to the subcon as the pay is a lot higher.

Basic around $4K - $8K plus transport,sale,entainment,phone allowance etc. Even the promotion and pay increase is a lot higher.

 

Basically if you work in a semicon the future is not that bright. But if you join a company that support semicon thats another matter but you may need to fly a lot more as you may have to support factory in other countries (more allowances)

Edited February 25, 2008 by Gorilla41

[Wind30]

In the industry we value SMART people more than I would say in Fabrication. That is why the pay is slightly better than fabrication. Also you don't need that many people to do IC design so can afford to give higher pay.

 

I don't think it is more stressful at least not in my company. There is usually only one dateline which is the chip tapeout date. For manufacturing (my wife is in it), the datelines are NUMEROUS.... so many lots, everyone also want super hot lot.... crazy.

 

But you have to be careful with your work. But I think it is the same everywhere. And I think it is better in IC design as you can double check triple check b4 tapeout. Manufacturing, everyday do same thing, one day do wrongly also can cost company a lot of money.

 

I have been working in this field for 7 years, same company, first job.

 

Kind of curious, which are the big IC design centers in Singapore now?

 

I know of Mediatech, Linear Tech, Marvell, Xlinix, Broadcom. anymore?

Edited February 25, 2008 by Wind30

[Gorilla41]

The analog or mixed signal ic designers are the better paid ones. But like another bro said they don't need many. Plus most of the design they are just a modification of the old model.

[Wind30]

:) tell me which design company pays the best leh since you work with so many of them :)

 

Just curious lah, not changing job (in case my boss surf MCF)

[Scoots]

 

Samsung-Siltronic is pretty much a co-operation between a supplier and consumer (one secures wafer substrate supply, one secures a big, long term customer)

 

Bottom line is that there's no new tecnology/products that will drive another upturn.

 

Got a "new" technology where Siltronic-Samsung brings in the Czochralski method, a first outside Japan and Europe.

 

Yeah... but that's in ingot growing. Not the mainstream Fab (bare wafer -> patterned wafer) stuff where I am in

[Hao80]

I would say engineering is a good stepping stone ba. Uni course for engineering is one of the toughest but once you have overcome it, you can benefit from it in the future.

 

After some years of working in engineering field (semicon), I do get kind of bored. Probably tired of receiving more scolding and endless pressure to meet datelines. Seems that every define actions are important. Part and parcel of work I guess. I am not sure whether other engineers felt the same as me..

 

I want to switch to finance sector, (banking etc) but not sure what kind of jobs I can look at to consider for. Not sure anyone of you have done the switch over recently..