A senior engineer who has worked at TSMC for more than ten years and is already in charge of the R&D department said that he often heard some young engineers tell him that he was confused, and did not know where to go in the future or how to make a good electronics. engineer.
In fact, there are so many opportunities in society now, just for fear that you will not work hard. The other key is to grasp the direction. After all, people cannot change society, but can only adapt to society. We will cultivate in this direction for what kind of people the society needs.
What is an electronic engineer
Electronic engineers refer to senior engineering and technical personnel engaged in various electronic equipment and information system research, teaching, product design, scientific and technological development, production and management.
Generally divided into hardware engineers and software engineers.
The hardware engineer is the hardware circuit schematic diagram, PCB design, hardware circuit testing, etc.; the software engineer is responsible for the writing and testing of embedded software programs, or the development and testing of PC-side host computer programs.
Problems encountered by young engineers
Haughtiness, confusion, complaints, etc. are the most common problems of young engineers.
And as we get older and more frustrated in their careers, many people gradually lose their minds, become pessimistic, and even just want to eat.
Mentality and character determine fate! Knowledge and skills may only be second.
Just like the selection of talents in a company, first is his personality, whether he is open and tolerant, whether he is good at communicating with others, whether he can focus, whether he is good at self-summarizing, whether he has no symptoms of paranoia, etc., but the level of skills is second.
Looking at the path new engineers have to take through TSMC’s corporate culture
The main reason why TSMC is about to catch up with Intel lies in its corporate culture.
Two years ago, TSMC began to recruit "Nighthawks" in order to develop the 10-nanometer process, which means that even the R&D (R&D department) must be in three shifts.
This is also the strength of TSMC. TSMC’s competitiveness is based on this very strong investment of manpower and time. Now it is to enlarge its strengths by 1.5 times and 2 times longer than others to catch up.
In the past, every employee, especially R&D, had serious overtime work.
A few years ago, the chairman called out the goal of 50 hours a week, and the R&D work style is difficult to achieve the goal. Therefore, one of the goals of the Nighthawk Plan is to rationalize and institutionalize R&D working hours, but the main reason Let part of the R&D work continue more smoothly.
For example, a person has been working for more than ten hours today and is very tired, but the experiment is not finished yet, what should I do? So I hope to transfer part of the work to the night shift and complete the work through relay.
But frankly speaking, R&D work is very difficult to handover. After more than a year of operation and improvement, it is still difficult to solve the R&D overtime situation, because R&D has different ideas and logics, and will design different experiments. How do relayers know you during the day? How to do these experiments? What are you thinking about? It is helpful, but the help is limited.
And there is no other team to communicate at night, so Nighthawks try their best to be conservative and maintain the status quo. The design of R&D experiments and meetings and communication with process personnel can only be carried out during the day. R&D during the day is still the focus.
Many young people have not been here for long, and feel that they do not have the value of doing things, but they have to do so long hours and spend so much energy.
Because there are too many people in the company, everyone’s work is subdivided into only a certain part of a screw. The value that really sees may be the vice president or a certain position, even the head of the program. , I only know my program. Employees sometimes feel that they are just doing a very hard work.
The TSMC people’s in-depth understanding of one thing is definitely better than the competition. For example, if you give your boss a glass of water, he asks you why the color is yellow, and you answer that maybe you have some tea, and it's over when someone asks, but the supervisor of TSMC will always ask, where does the tea come from? Why did you get it? In what process did you get it? How do we improve and so on, we are very used to using this model to study a problem.
This is culture. In many cases, even if it doesn't make much sense, it's just a humble screw. You have to work hard here, and in any humble work, you have to learn to review and trace the source.
It is difficult for new engineers to see the bright road if they fail to see the meaning of doing these things and can't survive these difficulties.
Answer some questions of young engineers
(1) The contradictory mentality of "nothing to do, no one to teach, and no technical content for work" of electronic novices
Novice electronic engineers are often impetuous, refuse to make progress, refuse to settle, and fear shame. Electronic engineers need not be afraid of shame: remember everyone who makes you shame, they are your nobles.
(2) Where do you need to go for electronic engineers in big cities and small cities?
Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen are the four most concentrated cities in the electronics industry. There are many job opportunities. Many multinational companies have R&D centers or headquarters in these four cities. In big cities, housing prices are expensive, transportation costs are high, work pace is fast, and pressure is high, but there are plenty of options. In addition to work, small cities are more suitable for life. So any choice has pros and cons, just find a place that suits you better.
(3) How do you choose between electronic engineers for large companies and small companies?
Novice electronic engineers try to choose large companies when they first start working. Large companies are stable, and there are many electronics masters in the area. There are more opportunities to learn technology and learn their ways of being in the world. If you can enter a foreign company and stay for 3 to 5 years, it is better. A complete work process and a distinctive corporate culture can shape your good habits and benefit you infinitely throughout your life.
However, if you have a certain level of personal ability, you may be able to go to a small company, and that will be another sky.
You can choose to go to a big company first, and when you grow up, you can try to go to a small company or start a business, and do something big on your own.
(4) Which electronic engineer who prefers hardware or software is better?
Generally speaking, for the same long working year, the salary of software-oriented jobs is slightly higher than that of hardware-oriented jobs; in terms of quantity, software-oriented jobs will be more than hardware-oriented jobs; software-oriented jobs will have more industry experience accumulation. Affects the transition of the position; the long-term development of hardware is more promising, it is more convenient to change careers in the future, and you can find more fun; real masters are both soft and hard.
So both are actually very important. The key depends on where you are interested, and whether you are good at software engineering or hardware engineering. This is the most important thing. If you find what you are good at and interested in, you can work with ease. Full of fun.
