PMC Sierra
Panel of Speakers:
Marc
Hiring Manager
Jeff
IC Design
Jim
IC verification
What is PMC Sierra?
PMC Sierra is a fabless telecommunications semiconductor company. ‘Fabless’ means they manufacture their designs through someone else.
Topics:
Job Hunting
Degrees
Coursework and related skills
Experience
Interviews
From Student to Full-time Employee
Job Hunting:
• Job boards are good but post carefully
• Networking is very important
People to contact or keep in contact with (every 6 months at least):
Professors
Classmates
Industry people that you might meet at job fairs or at IEEE meetings
• Recruiters are not recommended for new grads
Recruiters take 10% of your first years salary
Recruiters are helpful if you have been out in the work force for awhile
• When putting resume online:
Say what kind of job you are looking for. Be specific!
Don’t over do it, just write down a brief summary of skills.
Use specific words related to the field you are attempting to get a job in so they will show up in searches, but don’t overdo it.
Degrees:
• Majors – CS, EE, CpE
• Minors
These do not make that much difference when the hiring process comes around.
• Dual Majors
These are very good career wise.
• MS
Gives you more marketable skills.
An MS allows you to specialize more.
You will benefit from this.
• PhD
This is basically a research degree.
You won’t always benefit from this degree.
This degree doesn’t always pay for itself.
• Part time grad degrees
This is very tough if you are working and going to grad school.
It is better to get a grad degree before you enter the work force.
Coursework and related skills:
• Choosing the right specialization
Make sure you choose classes, which pertain to the field you are most interested in.
• Basic Skills
Basic PC and Unix (Emacs – text editor to evaluate code)
Makefile
Perl, sed, and grep (Unix facilities)
• IC Courses
Logic courses
Experience:
• Summer jobs
• Internships/co-ops
• Mecop
Job experience is very valuable
Try to get internships even if they do seem simple.
Interviews:
• Types of interviews
Phone screen
Campus interview
On site interview
Last 4-8 hours
Might have 4-6 people
• Questions aimed to gauge
Technical competency
Communication skills
Prior Experience
(Brush up on courses you think hiring managers might quiz you on.)
• If you get a technical question which you don’t know how to solve right away:
Take a deep breath
Talk to them about it they will give you hints.
Example question: (this is for a job doing IC design)
Describe a schematic diagram for a CMOS NAND gate
• It is very good to research the company before you have an interview with them.
The offer:
• Salary and Bonus
Check the going salary rate for your field.
If you do a lock-in signing bonus, make sure the ‘leaving the company early’ payback is prorated.
Companies may offer to pay your previous job-related debts (ex: payback on a signing bonus)
• Benefits
• Relocation
• Role
Find out what type of work you will be doing exactly before you sign up with the company. It is hard to get out of a role you don’t like.
• Selecting
Asking for more decision time is ok, but realize that they have the personnel budget now and are interested in hiring fairly quickly.
Salary negotiation works best when you have a second, higher offer.
From Student to Full-time Employee:
• Locating housing
• Work schedule
• Social life
• Activities
• School to work transition
• It is good to take some time off between school and your new job because you rarely have long breaks from a job once you start.
•Make sure you have insurance between the different jobs. Most insurance stops the last day of work at the old job and starts the first day of your new job.
Career
• Salary will keep increasing for a while and then top off.
• To keep advancing, you should start managing your career after 3 to 5 years.
• Two Tracks: Technical Track (Architecture, Research, Vision), Management Track – definite branching point 7 to 9 years.
• The value of a senior engineer is his/her ability to mentor young engineers and manage teams.