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I worked at the Samsung A2/S2 lines in ATX with a bunch of young Americans back around 2011-2013. I would say they absolutely would. It's a very high-energy pl

I worked at the Samsung A2/S2 lines in ATX with a bunch of young Americans back around 2011-2013. I would say they absolutely would. It's a very high-energy place with more going on than you can ever hope to keep track of. Even if the technology doesn't interest you, the cultural interactions should. You could have some days with Japanese, Koreans and Americans translating 3-ways in a conference room. Opportunities for business travel are probably restricted more now, but when I was there they practically begged us to travel to the Korean sites in hopes that we would learn more faster. Some roles can be far more exciting than others. Someone has to work security and manage the facilities. That said, all the important roles seem to be the compelling ones too. I don't know of anyone who had a hard time getting another super cushy job after time at Samsung, so it's also great for long term career prospects.

dr-detroit 4y ago
gopher_space 4y ago
> Some roles can be far more exciting than others. Someone has to work security and manage the facilities. This would be an interesting employer for many trades.
rudididdjdh 4y ago
cxr 4y ago
I can't corroborate this at all. I come from a CS background. If you leave school and enter the workforce at SAS, you will be at a disadvantage insofar as you are looking for a workplace that you hope to learn something from or one that you hope reinforces good engineering practices. The semiconductor industry, from the vantage point of an experienced systems thinker, reinforces awful engineering practices. All the things that SE folks take for granted—version control, e.g, as a discipline/tool to name one example, for regression analysis—say goodbye to any of these things, along with any expectation of competence from your colleagues. The semiconductor industry sources heavily from the defense sector, and this has deleterious, catastrophic effects. A close friend (from a non-CS engineering background) I know to still be at SAS. We don't talk about finances, but at around 8 years in, I estimate that he just recently (since COVID) crossed the six figure threshold. He's in a fairly senior role. Meanwhile: "What's x86?" — a direct quote from a conversation not too long ago. He has no real professional experience outside of SAS, was not set up in an environment that rewards "extracurricular" experience, so he doesn't have any of that, either, and he's effectively stuck as a result of the "golden" handcuffs that the path at SAS has led him on. Don't work in the semiconductor industry, folks. What you can expect to be is a monkey pressing buttons on a machine (that your supervisor—and their supervisor—doesn't understand, and nor will you; you pass butter). Make no mistake: there's an abundance of low-hanging fruit. But you won't have, as Gerry Weinberg put it, "permission" to pick it. By all means, if your prospects/ambitions look to be something like working for the state/federal government, learning nothing over your career, and cashing mediocre checks for doing mediocre work along the way, then by all means go for it. Otherwise, it is likelier that you'll be hobbled by your time in the industry. And not for no good reason. If I'm evaluating someone and it came up that they'd done any significant time in the world of semiconductors, the net impression it'd have on me (having hash an insider's view of it) would be one worse than if they said that they'd just gotten their degree and had spent the last N years flipping burgers, cf Dan Luu. Don't do semiconductors, folks. PS: sorry, drunk.
- verall 4y ago
  Not every semicon is SAS, I've heard similar things as what your friend has said about them though. No offense but your post comes off as someone who has spent their whole life in software and has no experience in semicon.
  - cxr 4y ago
    Maybe I didn't succeed at getting it across, but my anecdotes about SAS are not only by proxy. (I.e. my friend's experience and that alone.) I worked there.
    - throwaway5959 4y ago
      So you’re critical of others for working at a place you have worked at? How does that work?
      - throwaway5959 4y ago
        I’m talking about the hypocrisy of holding it against someone for having worked somewhere that you yourself have worked at, not the industry itself.
        pts_ 4y ago
        This person should be flagged for bias in interviews.
        lmz 4y ago
        > for having worked somewhere that you yourself have worked at Their friend also stayed there for 8 years while the poster presumably quit sooner.
      - lostlogin 4y ago
        Surely this is the best way to review a workplace? What method is better?
- 4y ago
sillystuff 4y ago
Many years ago, I interviewed at a company that manufactured equipment used by fabs. My impression was of a very stressful environment. Their latest equipment had some issues that were only showing up on production lines, so they wanted engineers to babysit the equipment at the fabs, and write patches on the spot for any issues observed. They repeatedly stressed how much money their customers lost for any downtime, and how there must not be downtime.

dr-detroit 4y ago

gopher_space 4y ago

> Some roles can be far more exciting than others. Someone has to work security and manage the facilities. This would be an interesting employer for many trades.

rudididdjdh 4y ago

cxr 4y ago

I can't corroborate this at all. I come from a CS background. If you leave school and enter the workforce at SAS, you will be at a disadvantage insofar as you are looking for a workplace that you hope to learn something from or one that you hope reinforces good engineering practices. The semiconductor industry, from the vantage point of an experienced systems thinker, reinforces awful engineering practices. All the things that SE folks take for granted—version control, e.g, as a discipline/tool to name one example, for regression analysis—say goodbye to any of these things, along with any expectation of competence from your colleagues. The semiconductor industry sources heavily from the defense sector, and this has deleterious, catastrophic effects. A close friend (from a non-CS engineering background) I know to still be at SAS. We don't talk about finances, but at around 8 years in, I estimate that he just recently (since COVID) crossed the six figure threshold. He's in a fairly senior role. Meanwhile: "What's x86?" — a direct quote from a conversation not too long ago. He has no real professional experience outside of SAS, was not set up in an environment that rewards "extracurricular" experience, so he doesn't have any of that, either, and he's effectively stuck as a result of the "golden" handcuffs that the path at SAS has led him on. Don't work in the semiconductor industry, folks. What you can expect to be is a monkey pressing buttons on a machine (that your supervisor—and their supervisor—doesn't understand, and nor will you; you pass butter). Make no mistake: there's an abundance of low-hanging fruit. But you won't have, as Gerry Weinberg put it, "permission" to pick it. By all means, if your prospects/ambitions look to be something like working for the state/federal government, learning nothing over your career, and cashing mediocre checks for doing mediocre work along the way, then by all means go for it. Otherwise, it is likelier that you'll be hobbled by your time in the industry. And not for no good reason. If I'm evaluating someone and it came up that they'd done any significant time in the world of semiconductors, the net impression it'd have on me (having hash an insider's view of it) would be one worse than if they said that they'd just gotten their degree and had spent the last N years flipping burgers, cf Dan Luu. Don't do semiconductors, folks. PS: sorry, drunk.

verall 4y ago
Not every semicon is SAS, I've heard similar things as what your friend has said about them though. No offense but your post comes off as someone who has spent their whole life in software and has no experience in semicon.
- cxr 4y ago
  Maybe I didn't succeed at getting it across, but my anecdotes about SAS are not only by proxy. (I.e. my friend's experience and that alone.) I worked there.
  - throwaway5959 4y ago
    So you’re critical of others for working at a place you have worked at? How does that work?
    - throwaway5959 4y ago
      I’m talking about the hypocrisy of holding it against someone for having worked somewhere that you yourself have worked at, not the industry itself.
      - pts_ 4y ago
        This person should be flagged for bias in interviews.
      - lmz 4y ago
        > for having worked somewhere that you yourself have worked at Their friend also stayed there for 8 years while the poster presumably quit sooner.
    - lostlogin 4y ago
      Surely this is the best way to review a workplace? What method is better?
4y ago

sillystuff 4y ago

Many years ago, I interviewed at a company that manufactured equipment used by fabs. My impression was of a very stressful environment. Their latest equipment had some issues that were only showing up on production lines, so they wanted engineers to babysit the equipment at the fabs, and write patches on the spot for any issues observed. They repeatedly stressed how much money their customers lost for any downtime, and how there must not be downtime.