career advice(Europe): Chip industry or Automotive electronic industry?

Thread Starter

TarikElec

Joined Oct 17, 2019
115
Hello guys,
I am about to choose between two companies in Europe with total different field which both are interesting. I am not asking you to choose for me but tips to get out of this dilemma I am. the trick I get two offers and both of them want me to decide very soon and I have no time to make my choice.
I have two offers. one from a semiconductor company that I have to be a kind of product designer where I need to make concepts for mixed IC chips but not the implementation. they offered me even training and I like it.of course I do not like the place where it is but I cannot have everything in life.
the second, is system level design where I have to develop circuit where there is a faulty design in automotive circuit for electrical vehicle.
as I think, if I choose one of them ,it means I have to stick for the field for the rest of life . especially for the chip design where I feel the chance will never get back to me as I will be older and no one want to have old engineer to start in new industry.
the system level position has all the good life balance but less technically attractive then chip one.
the chip one has better technical attractiveness to me but the place where it is scares me and I will be so far from my family and also bad connections to big cities.
I can choose the automotive one but worried I will regret it whole my life as I am always loved that physics/tiny things.
the chip one is good but I know i will regret the place where I will be living and I have seen it already.


I would like your tips on how to steer my thoughts since I have never been so stressed as now and I feel my brain is exploding.
Please accept my apologies if I am asking too much
 

dl324

Joined Mar 30, 2015
16,839
as I think, if I choose one of them ,it means I have to stick for the field for the rest of life . especially for the chip design where I feel the chance will never get back to me as I will be older and no one want to have old engineer to start in new industry.
Staying with the same company for your entire, or most of your, career has gone out of style. I recently read an article that said 10 years is the longest you should stay.

At my last job, a company that I worked at for more than 30 years, the recent college graduates with PhD's were being told by their professors to only work at the company for 5 years (because they were known to provide excellent on the job training) and then move on because they'd have more marketable skills after having had that training.

You interests and long term career objectives are more important than our opinions of whether you should work for a semiconductor or automotive company. Personally, I'd find the automotive industry too limiting (though some would really benefit if they had some people with common sense when it comes to designing dashboard displays).

Even though I worked at the same semiconductor company for more than 3 decades, I worked with computers (system administrator for CAD systems), I did tapeouts where planning for throughput time was critical as that was the last design step, I managed a software development team, I became a software developer after I became disillusioned with management, I got involved with design automation for layout verification on bleeding edge process technologies, I developed programs to find and correct layout topologies that were causing yield loss, I wrote a program to synthesize MIM caps for 22nm and 14nm designs, and I worked in a group that wrote design rule checkers.

During that 3 decades, I had a year and a half gap where I worked at a startup (that was the thing to do back then). Saw the writing on the wall and finally went back (after being talked out of resigning once). Even though I took a few percent salary cut took to go back, I had increased my salary by about 30% in 18 months and the job was less hectic and more stable.
 

Thread Starter

TarikElec

Joined Oct 17, 2019
115
Hi Dennis,
Thank you very much for your helpful inputs.
Semiconductor is priority number one for me and I have to sacrifice the other conditions in the future for me.
Unfortunately I had to decline the chip offer for the time being due to health conditions.
I hope I will have chances in the future to work on chi industry. for the moment I can do private online courses on chip design as a preparation
 

Papabravo

Joined Feb 24, 2006
21,158
Hi Dennis,
Thank you very much for your helpful inputs.
Semiconductor is priority number one for me and I have to sacrifice the other conditions in the future for me.
Unfortunately I had to decline the chip offer for the time being due to health conditions.
I hope I will have chances in the future to work on chi industry. for the moment I can do private online courses on chip design as a preparation
My short answer is that you will find greater diversity of things to work on in the automotive industry if you want to design circuits, write code (VHDL or Verilog) for ASICs, write code for microcontrollers and processors.
The chip industry will appeal to you if you are a process engineer or a materials guy.
 

Thread Starter

TarikElec

Joined Oct 17, 2019
115
My short answer is that you will find greater diversity of things to work on in the automotive industry if you want to design circuits, write code (VHDL or Verilog) for ASICs, write code for microcontrollers and processors.
The chip industry will appeal to you if you are a process engineer or a materials guy.
I am not really a process engineer but I like the conception thing where mixed signal and dsp is involved.
In Automotive, as you said, the job is very wide and I like that. I have kind a strong lean towards things that involves maths, concept, circuit ,.
 

DickCappels

Joined Aug 21, 2008
10,153
A long time ago I was talking to a couple of engineers at National Semiconductor about an opening they had. The subject came around to lay-offs in the semiconductor industry. The interview then wrapped up quickly.

If you have or plan to have a family to support consider which industry will give you the best chance of living up to your family responsibility.
 

WBahn

Joined Mar 31, 2012
29,976
Don't worry too much about your first job out of college defining the only job(s) you can work the rest of your life. A fairly high priority in your thinking should be which job will give you the greatest opportunities to grow your engineering problem solving skills. If it turns out you don't like the specific work you're doing, then you can develop your skills in an area better suited to your liking, as a hobby, if needed, and make a move while still a very young engineer.
 

Thread Starter

TarikElec

Joined Oct 17, 2019
115
A long time ago I was talking to a couple of engineers at National Semiconductor about an opening they had. The subject came around to lay-offs in the semiconductor industry. The interview then wrapped up quickly.

If you have or plan to have a family to support consider which industry will give you the best chance of living up to your family responsibility.
absoluteyl a strong point you made here. thinking for the long term worth to think twice about which industry is more stable
 

Thread Starter

TarikElec

Joined Oct 17, 2019
115
Don't worry too much about your first job out of college defining the only job(s) you can work the rest of your life. A fairly high priority in your thinking should be which job will give you the greatest opportunities to grow your engineering problem solving skills. If it turns out you don't like the specific work you're doing, then you can develop your skills in an area better suited to your liking, as a hobby, if needed, and make a move while still a very young engineer.
I agree
 
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