I'm working with FPGAs almost exclusively at my job. From what I've seen, you want to choose either Xilinx or Altera and learn their proprietary toolset. Unfort

I'm working with FPGAs almost exclusively at my job. From what I've seen, you want to choose either Xilinx or Altera and learn their proprietary toolset. Unfortunately there aren't many comparable open source synthesis tools that can do what Xilinx/Altera can do on their own hardware. (For example, optimized closed-source IP blocks that use hard silicon instead of pure gate-array logic). Also important is to know the basics about simulation testing and how to set up simulation testbenches. There are a few different software setups for this... I know Xilinx has one built in, and Modelsim/Questa is pretty common. And obviously you want to know VHDL or Verilog really well.