For 3, I think you're likely needing a bachelor's in EE or more these days. I have some friends who do this and a lot of the hand layouts are for standard cells

For 3, I think you're likely needing a bachelor's in EE or more these days. I have some friends who do this and a lot of the hand layouts are for standard cells or high speed analog parts where you need the EE knowledge to understand what you're laying out. Depending on where OP is located and where they want to go to school, internships are a good route. I went to the University of Toronto where there's an optional 16 month co-op program [0]. AMD for example, hires lots of students (I did this many years ago on a team doing analog circuit design). 0. https://engineeringcareers.utoronto.ca/work-experience-programs/professional-experience-year-co-op-program-pey-co-op/ https://engineeringcareers.utoronto.ca/work-experience-progr...