Saturday, April 12, 2014

5 Reasons: VLSI Industry Not For You


5 Reasons: VLSI Industry Not For You.

 

I am sure, you may be surprised that why this topic! But point is everyone tells you why to join semiconductor industry, what’s good in this industry but no one tells you why this is not good for you. Or Say why it’s specific to certain type of people not for everyone.

Here are 5 reason of not joining VLSI industry if you…

  1. Want “Huge Money in Short time”:
    • There was a time when Semiconductor industry was on boom and that was the time when this industry was hiring a lot and paying a lot. But now this industry becomes matured.
    • That’s the reason, with almost zero experience or at fresher level; it’s difficult for a candidate to start with high package.
    • There are few exceptions in case of your graduate college is at rank 1 or 2, but that the something you can’t take as reference for all people.
    • Now-a-days, 20%-25% Hike in India and 4%-5% Hike in US annually is on higher side, so if you will start with low package, then it will be difficult for you to earn huge money in short time in this Industry.
  2. Are “Not Passionate about Electronics
    • VLSI has the base of electronics. So if you are not passionate about digital circuits / gates / holes /electrons / current / voltage all other electronics terminology, then you will face a lot of problem in this field.
    • You may be in the EDA industry and toward the R&D side, where you have to work mostly on software side, but believe me if you have base of electronics then it will be easy for you to grow in that profile also. Else one day you will realize that this industry is not for you.
    • Think in this way that if everyone around you will talk in terms of gates / Metals / Diffusion / Power / area , and you don’t have dam idea what are these things, then how you feel!
  3. Want to “Sit back and relax in long run”.
    • If you think that you will learn one technology, few basics, some electronics fundamental, some scripting language and that’s all. Now you can sit back and relax. It’s not possible in this field.
    • Let me give you an example - every 3 month there is a new technology in the market. It will take 3 months to mature, further 3 month for everyone to adopt it. Finally, in next 3 month you will notice a lot of product in the market on the basis of new technology and in another 3 month, it’s going to replace old technology completely. So over all the life time of a technology in today’s world is approximate 1 year.
    • So if you know something, you can easily survive for 1 year or max 2 year on the basis of that. But after that someone will replace you if you will not update yourself. And this update also takes approx 6 months. So effectively, you have to upgrade yourself after every 6-9 months.
    • So in short – No Time to sit back and relax.
    • Yes, that’s the different thing, that as you gain experience, you will be automatically updated because base is there and you know how to update yourself.
  4. Want to “Start your own (business) with zero investment”:
    • If you have somewhere in your mind that, later you will start your own business or say independent work in this industry, then you have to think seriously.
    • In this industry, most of the tools are still not available in market free of cost. And if you want to purchase, then you have to invest a lot.
    • Another thing- as I have mentioned previously, technology is changing very fast, so you have to upgrade yourself also. And there is upgradation cost.
    • So basically, it’s not a piece of cake which anyone can eat. You have to invest a lot for starting your own work/business in this field.
  5. Are “Not Interested In coding/automation”:
    • If you don’t want to do any sort of coding / programming / scripting /automation, then this field is not for you. 90% work of this industry is based on scripting and automation.
    • Whatever be your profile, Customer support Engineer/ EDA Engineer / CAD Engineer /R&D Engineer / Designer Engineer… etc but scripting and automation is necessary and requirement of every profile.
    • It may be different that working language or scripting may be different for different people like C/C++ , Java scripting, Perl/TCL scripting , ksh/sh or other unix scripting language , VHDL/Verilog/SystemC/RTL coding etc. But everyone has to spend most of their time with coding or automation.
So before joining this industry, think about these points and then plan your future. There is a know probe – “The Grass Is Always Greener On The Other Side” J

24 comments:

  1. Posting a comment by one of my friend on FB.. it will help a lot of people ...

    By Debashis Banerjee:

    "1) from having worked in India and also seen (some) industry situation in US I can see that India does not get to work on the best parts of the project....of course there are certain groups in India which are extremely good and do really cutting edge stuff......but the more interesting parts of a project usually end up being done in US office........
    2) In general semiconductor is going through a lot of consolidation.......when FB buys Whatsap for 19 Billion and a giant like Sony is worth 17 billion there could be only 3 reasons a) This is a software bubble b) Semiconductors do not add that much value c) both of the above
    3) There is another niche part of semiconductor business i.e. the analog side.....people who do not want to code are welcome here.....analog designers seldom code"

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  2. That is a fact about VLSI industry.
    Thanks for upload this information

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  3. Hello Sir, Nice information. I want to tell you something about me in terms of those above mentioned 5 reasons....

    1) Not able to get any VLSI job, I am currently working as a Graduate Trainee in Bharat Electronics Ltd., Bangalore with a so less stipend that I have to take some extra money from my parents to cover up my PG accomodation fees. For me it's not about Huge Money in Short Time....It's about passion.
    2) I have been passionate to Electronics since I was in 12th standard. Because of this passion towards Electronics, I had to be choosy while picking my B Tech Institution with lot of struggle & pain. I didn't go for some other jobs and still am getting stuck to this electronics internship with negligible stipend, because of this passion to electronics only. Though I am doing my internship in this electronics company, but It's not related to VLSI, so I am getting it very hard to concentrate on my sub-standard works. The bottom line is ..... I can be happy only if I get a VLSI job.
    3) I am not liking my current job because it's a kind of "sit back & relax" kind of job. I want to be among inventions, discoveries, new technologies with a great paced dynamic work culture.
    4) I would like to innovate, design & research rather than to go for a business.
    5) If I don't code/design anything, I feel like I did nothing today.

    These are my real facts. But still not getting any opportunity in VLSI industry. Also other alternatives are not even opening up for me.......don't know what will happen to me........(any suggestions are always WELCOME)

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    Replies
    1. Hi Koushik,

      all points which you have mentioned nice to hear .. but You haven't share anything about your knowledge. No one will hire you just because you have these feelings or state of mind but ya they can reject you on the basis of this.
      So a part of all above mentioned things ... develop the right skills (most important thing of this industry).

      Delete
    2. Hello,Koushik how are you doing...hope everything is fine.

      I have seen myself while reading your comments above ...

      I'm too facing similar situation,Any suggestion would be helpful .

      Thank you.

      - Srikanth Avouti

      Delete
  4. Last point doesn't apply for Analog guys. Most of the time they don't do coding.

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  5. Comment about technology changing in every 3 months is not correct. I am working on 28 from last 5 years. And most of companies are still not ready invest in 16-finfet as its not cheap. And still package are more in semiconductor product companies compared to IT companies. But still i would say semiconductor product companies are not growing in India at the same pace as IT sector is growing. So new jobs are not created at the same pace at which electronics engineers are produced in India. So most of the electronics engineers end up joining IT sectors or go for MBA/other courses.

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  6. thank u funeet. yes these r the very imfortant instructions for to get the job in vlsi industry............i am thinking for my future ...........

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  7. Hi Everyone
    I am passionate about Analog Design. Can anyone tell me what will be the future of this analog field. I am struggling to get an interview. Please tel me the how the the future analog design field will be......

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  8. thanks... thats all i can say...

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  9. in my opinion, vlsi industry is not in good situation.
    more automation->less dependence on human work
    more acquisition/mergers-> less no of companies to change
    cost reduction, many companies are closing some of their groups.

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  10. I am passionate about Analog Design. Can anyone tell me what will be the NEAR future of this analog field.

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  11. A unique platform to learn VLSI Concepts and discuss the doubts with Industrial expertise.

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  17. This artical is posted right when I finished my postgraduate study in 2014. Quite late to know about this. But still useful.

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  19. Is VLSI industry at a dead end?? Now industry has moved to few nm lengths.. like 10nm and 7nm.. and the size of silicon atom is 0.2nm. so how can there be more technology nodes possible in the future? If this is the case, do the VLSI employees face a very big recission in near future?

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  20. Hie sir my name is Akhil.I completed my engineering in electronics and I have on internship on Samsung 14nm technology till synthesis stage and some my project on DDRPHY related to data transfer till placement and routing stage (I'm not perfect till placement and routing due to time given by the company on hands on was not long).so can u give me suggestions how should I proceed further in my career.

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  21. hi sir, I am Kamlesh and working as a assistant professor in a university, it has been three years in teaching and I am not getting much salary hike so should I leave the job and move to industry but problem is that I am not updated to industrial level as all of you know how academic works, so what should I do, please provide me suggestions

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