|
Semiconductor Workforce
Demands and Opportunities
by Paul Kostek
Understanding industry's needs is
a major challenge for engineers in today’s marketplace. Nothing is
more frustrating for qualified, out-of-work engineers than
reading about companies that can't find the people they
need to fill hi-tech positions. And for engineering students and
prospective engineering students, predicting where the jobs will
be when they graduate can be tougher to predict than where
a late-season hurricane will make landfall.
While unemployment is down in the
United States, so too is the overall
number of employed electrical engineers, meaning that more
and more skilled and educated individuals are leaving the
profession. Also troubling is the fact that enrollments in electrical
engineering and computer science are beginning to drop. According
to the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), the premier
trade association representing the U.S. semiconductor industry, enrollments declined
between one and five percent in 2004 compared to 2003. Moreover,
the retention rate for students enrolled in EE majors is below
40 percent.
Too frequently, reports of
shortages come without key specifics, such as what types of
engineers and skill sets are in demand. In keeping with its
mission to educate and recruit a highly skilled workforce for
the future, SIA's
Workforce Committee compiles a list of "Hard-to-Find Skills"
in the U.S. chip-making industry — an $80
billion a year economic driver — by asking member companies what
skills and skilled positions they are having difficulty filling.
Because the semiconductor and microelectronics industries rely
heavily on electrical engineers and computer scientists, SIA was
willing to share its list of "Hard-to-Find Skills" (see Figure
1)
with U.S. IEEE members. This partnership is on that we hope will lead to
gainful employment for IEEE members and provide a workforce
resource for SIA member companies.
|
Figure 1. Hard-to-Find Skills |
|
|
Average Reported
Value
(5 = Most
Difficult to find
1 = Least Difficult to find) |
|
Positions |
|
Mask Design/Layout Tech
Technician
Operators
|
3.00
1.73
1.73 |
|
Engineering Discipline |
|
Electrical
Computer
Software
Chemical
Computer Science
Materials
Mechanical
|
3.91
3.00
2.80
2.71
2.44
2.29
2.00 |
|
Engineering Specialty |
|
Analog
Mixed Signal
Digital Signal Processing (DSP)
|
4.36
4.27
4.10 |
|
Other Desirables |
|
Design (Analog/Mix-Sig)
Test (Analog/Mix-Sig)
Applications (Analog/Mix-Sig)
African-American Technicals
Applications Engineers
Memory Controller
Signal Integrity
NAND-Experienced Engineers
Female Technicals
Ph.D.'s
Test Engineers
PCI Express, PCI
ASIC to FPGA Conversion
Characterization
Product Engineers
Technical Marketing Engineers
Field Applications Engineers
Product (Analog/Mix Sig)
Marketing (Analog/Mix-Sig)
Business Marketing Engineers
Embedded Software
Packaging w/ Signal Integrity
|
5.00
5.00
5.00
5.00
5.00
5.00
5.00
5.00
4.00
4.00
4.00
4.00
4.00
4.00
4.00
4.00
4.00
3.00
3.00
3.00
3.00
3.00 |
|
Source: SIA |
What should an engineer interested in pursuing opportunities in
the semiconductor industry do with this information? First, assess
your current skill set against the identified skills. Do you possess
any of the identified skills? Do you have any relevant experience? If yes, then you
should develop a resume that highlights how those skills and
experience
will satisfy a given need. If you don’t yet have the skills or
experience, but you are interested in the
industry, then you need to plot a course for acquiring those
in-demand skills.
Even after mastering the required skills, gaining and demonstrating experience will
remain a challenge. By leveraging previous experience, you may
be able to overcome that obstacle. If you’re a student,
the intern route can be your pathway to gaining the necessary experience.
Your next step is to
identify desirable
employers — a multiple-step process. Visit Web sites and
learn as much as you can about the companies you are interested
in; see if you match up
well with any of the present openings; and network with people that are
employed at your target companies.
Use IEEE
Resources
To aid your job
search, utilize
IEEE-USA's career resources, including
information on
resume writing,
interviewing and
networking.
Register on the IEEE Job
Site and create a profile of your ideal job. Investigate training resources from
IEEE Educational Activities and local colleges. Use
your local
IEEE Section, or the Section where you’d like to move to
assist with making contacts with employers. And consider temporary (contract)
work or consulting to get some initial work and experience
in the field.
Paul Kostek is an
independent contractor/consultant, and principal at Air Direct
Solutions in Seattle, Washington. He has served as chair of the
American Association of Engineering Societies (AAES); president
of the IEEE Aerospace & Electronic Systems Society; IEEE-USA
President; and Region 6 PACE Coordinator. He is currently chair
of IEEE-USA's Career and Workforce Policy Committee.
Comments may
be submitted to
todaysengineer@ieee.org.
|
E-mail
this page