[hw_engineer]

Thank you for your answer. This is the kind of info I'm looking for.

Maybe you got my background wrong: I do not design ICs currently, I was wondering if I should. I do design boards (high speed digital and analog RF in the higher end) and do FPGA programming to make them work. CPU design is an area of interest, but way to niche for my current field of work to accommodate.

Which areas a PhD could leverage both computing and my hardware design experience? Also, any ideas of skills or tools set required for getting into one of the big 4s?

[gautamb0]

I don’t have a PhD. In my opinion, if you don’t have a decent idea about what you want to get yours in, you probably should be thinking twice about getting one at all. There’s a huge opportunity cost, and the job market will probably change in non-trivial ways by the time you’re done. Only do it if you’re certain you want to become an expert in something specific. Microsoft and Google in particular are doing a lot of work with FPGAs. (Though, admittedly, the most interesting of these are probably research positions where relevant PhD’s are the norm) Apple does the full stack when it comes to hardware, and I’d expect them to have plenty of analog people. The best route might be to tell the right story based on your past experience and pair it with relevant positions at the bigcos. How to get their attention is unfortunately a topic that literally plenty of books have been written on, and I’m as far from an expert at it as possible. :p

[hw_engineer]

Thank you. I'm finishing my masters while working and thinking a lot if I should or not get a PhD. The tendency is not to.