Dear Team,

This is not related to any circuit design.I need your opinion.My question is given below.

I am a hardware board design engineer, and I want to move to Analog IC design. Will a part-time PhD help me in this?

May I know whether industry consider part time PhD holders.

Regards
H

 

What's a "part-time PhD"?

 

What's a "part-time PhD"?

A part-time PhD would enable you to acquire your doctorate degree while pursuing a full-time job. It is of a longer duration spanning around 6 to 8 years while a regular doctoral degree might be somewhere between 3 to 5 years.

 

MOD NOTE: Moved to Jobs and Career Advising (from Analog and Mixed-Signal Design).

 

You need to be a bit careful in deciding whether or not to get a PhD in industry. Many employers looking to higher engineers will not consider those that hold a PhD, or at least consider them less favorably. There is a pretty wide perception that a person with a PhD is going to be expecting a much higher salary and is stove piped very deep in one narrow area of focus, so unless they happen to be looking for an expert in an area tightly aligned with your dissertation topic, they may not consider your application seriously. This is certainly not to say that every employer feels that way, but it is pretty commonplace.

As far as part-time versus full-time, that's a nonissue. Once you have a degree, hardly anyone is going to care how long it took you to get it.

The best way to get analog IC design experience is by designing analog ICs. Look for companies that do that work and apply to them. You don't need to already be an analog IC designer -- they are used to not being able to find people with experience in that area and so they know that you will need to gain experience and come up to speed while on the job. Certainly, the more analog experience you have, even as a hobbyist, the better. Small companies tend to be better than big companies for getting experience quickly -- at a large company you can get trapped in a niche where you become the guy that designs a particular type of filter day in and day out, while at a small company you end up doing whatever is needed on the current project.

 

I would say no, since a PhD is mostly suited to those who wish to pursue a career in academia. There are exceptions, but that is the general trend. A better approach IMHO is to get a masters degree in EE with an emphasis on analog circuits.

 

A part-time PhD would enable you to acquire your doctorate degree while pursuing a full-time job.

Until you get your PhD, you're considered masters level.

80-90% of the people in my last group had PhD's. Someone with an associates degree, intelligence, and experience could have done most of the jobs. The problem is that most recruiters (in large companies) won't consider anyone with less than a masters degree.

 

I would say no, since a PhD is mostly suited to those who wish to pursue a career in academia. There are exceptions, but that is the general trend. A better approach IMHO is to get a masters degree in EE with an emphasis on analog circuits.

Thank you.
Why I thought of PhD is mainly for career change and obviously I am interested in Analog IC design.

For the past 10 years I am working as Hardware Board design engineer.I have good experience in analog board level design.(Design using Opamps,ADC's,MOS,DC-DC etc).

I tried to move to analog ic design domain,but companies are not ready to accept beacuse my past experience is in Hardware board design.(This is the situation in my country)

So I thought of doing PhD in Analog IC design and move to that area.

 

@huyyoth: There's no need to reply multiple times with the same response.

 

I tried to move to analog ic design domain,but companies are not ready to accept beacuse my past experience is in Hardware board design.(This is the situation in my country)

The situations are different in different countries -- and you give no indication of what country "my country" refers to.

Identify company's that do what you want to do try to identify a few people there that make these kinds of hiring decisions. The get in touch with them and see what their advice is.

 

The situations are different in different countries -- and you give no indication of what country "my country" refers to.

Identify company's that do what you want to do try to identify a few people there that make these kinds of hiring decisions. The get in touch with them and see what their advice is.

Definitely ,I will contact some hiring managers.
I am from India

 

Interview some, make an offer if you see somebody who looks promising, but you should also be thinking about whether his career needs can be filled by your company when he gets his PhD.

I have worked with several PhD’s in industry and many of them moved into management for the money (at least in my way of thinking) as quickly as they could. One went on to be a valuable consultant, which worked out well because he specialized knowledge that I didn't need all that often.