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by nurspouse 1227 days ago
Former Intel employee here. This may be true for their design folks, but the largest portion of the company is related to the fab, and there aren't many jobs for those folks. Moreover, the alternatives (TSMC, Samsung, etc) suck as much as Intel.
3 comments
deelowe 1227 days ago
I'm seeing plenty of intel folks move easily into other areas. I don't think this is true. We hired a test automation engineer who worked on the fab side at my last employer. They transitioned pretty well until a PCBA and server integration testing role.
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nurspouse 1227 days ago
If he was a test automation engineer, he likely had transferable skills. Many/most of the fab folks have almost no programming skills, and are PhDs in things like chemistry[1], etc.

Now some of them do take the initiative and learn SW skills, or data analysis properly, and switch due to that. But the majority of them feel stuck. They have a heavy workload and do not feel they have time to learn new skills.

[1] For a long time, and perhaps even now, the fabs only hired either technicians or PhDs. An exemption would be needed to hire someone with "just" an MS. Of course, almost none of these jobs actually need PhD level skills.

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deelowe 1227 days ago
Got it. I agree now, having seen many resumes from former Intel roles that match this pattern.
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midoridensha 1226 days ago
Moreover, those alternatives are generally located in Asia, not the US, so that's probably not a likely job change for most. Maybe they could move to one of the new Samsung/TSMC fabs being built in the US though.
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artisanspam 1227 days ago
I too am ex-Intel. The majority of employment opportunities are in the fab but that’s mostly manufacturing and technicians. It’s not mostly PhDs with no breadth knowledge which is what the original comment was seeming to imply.
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nurspouse 1227 days ago
PTD is almost entirely PhDs.
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artisanspam 1227 days ago
Not denying that, but you previously claimed that “the largest portion of the company is related to the fab.” If you’re saying PTD PhDs are this “largest portion of the company” in terms of engineers, that makes no sense. Intel isn’t hiring more PhDs than Masters/Bachelor – there aren’t enough PhDs out there for that to ever happen.

The majority of Intel employees are directly related to the fab, but those employees are not mostly PhDs without many other job prospects.

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