[mysticpimp]

For the most part, Fab engineering is beyond boring and exploitative. I quit my PhD because it was excruciatingly boring, all you do is click ON/OFF on a big machine that deposits metal, and I realized, that this was what I'd be doing for 100K a year. On paper it sounds like you're doing some genius work manipulating atoms, but really it's actually quite mindless and boring, which is part of the reason the physics departments don't do this work anymore, only EE, since physics does the actual cool stuff. I think it's somewhat related to the fact that these degrees have almost no americans, and are full of foreigners that really need a visa. As an american, it made no sense to do this work, given that there are much more interesting and lucrative options.

But going back to your point, there are certain areas within semiconductor manufacturing that are software engineering jobs. They tend to be closely related to what's called physical design in the design part of making a chip. Or EDA coders. It's a cool area. But the bigger part of semiconductor manufacturing is working in a fab, which is atrocious grueling work, which is quite boring and dangerous.