[nwiswell]

> Downside of this field is that there are very few job opportunities without relocating. If you're in the US, you can work at Intel... or Intel. Unless you're willing to move to Taiwan and work at TSMC.

Only if we're talking specifically about cutting edge logic. There's Texas Instruments and GlobalFoundries in the US on the trailing edge for logic. In memory, where the fabrication techniques are similar, there's Micron, IMFT in Utah, and Samsung in Texas. Not to mention that TSMC is building a leading edge logic fab in Arizona.

And then of course there are all of the capital equipment suppliers, where the US punches way above its weight. Applied Materials, Lam Research, and KLA are all headquartered in California and employ a lot of the same talent that Intel does.

[rubylark]

I was a bit hyperbolic in my statement, mainly because I was parroting some dinner table conversations. However your list is still fairly short and few are in the same location. If you say, get a PhD in the Midwest in EE specializing in novel transistor fabrication techniques, you likely will have to move states to get a job in the area of your expertise. And if you are unhappy in your job for any reason, you will have to move again to work for a different "big name" company.

I guess the point I was trying to make in my trite (and I admit, inaccurate) statement was that it's not as accessible of a career path as, say, coding. It's more like becoming a rocket scientist: there are very few companies to pick from in that field. And they're not typically in the same place geographically.