[baybal2]

Close to what I experienced myself.

I spent my teens looking up to microelectronics career, and actually self-studied a year, or two ahead for entrance to Nanyang, or NTU semi.eng. programs.

I almost accidentally met two ex-TSMC engineers who worked for Chang almost since his first days at ITRI, and they were very good mentors, and seriously warned me about "a decade+ grind ahead." In the end it were my parents who stonewalled the idea, and sent me to a business degree mill in Canada. And this is all was when I had 2 early admission letters from both Nanyang, and NTU on my desk...

[dbancajas]

are you earning more than a TSMC engineer now?

[baybal2]

Easily, and I am just doing EEng101/MEng101 level work in an engineering consultancy. The work I do now has nothing to do with actual IC fabrication.

[blackrock]

That's too bad. Working on the cutting edge sounds much more exciting.