TL;DR — If you’re struggling to make ends meet, go get a Semiconductor Technician job ASAP. There are tons of jobs, on-the-job training is common, there’s (almost) no pay ceiling if you’re a go-getter, and entry-level opportunities pay well and require very few (if any) qualifications. The industry is also exploding domestically with both government and private investments and thousands of new jobs are expected to be added all over the country. The author has personally earned wages of $60k-$140k/year without a degree and is on track to make more (as well as on track to earn a college degree with no money out of pocket). [See below for details]
Author’s Note: No one paid me to write this, but my life was changed because of this industry and I want to share with others who may be struggling to find a career like I once was.
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Everyone’s saying it these days:
“WE NEED MORE TRADE SCHOOLS!”
”Most kids shouldn’t go to college, they should go to trade school!”
”A college degree isn’t a guarantee like it used to be! Go be an electrician!”
….and you know what? Those voices aren’t wrong.
The unfortunately truth is that the average college degree has become increasingly irrelevant as the job market has become saturated with highly-educated applicants. What used to be a guarantee of a better life, has just become a slight advantage on some job applications (if any), and certainly not a guarantee of better pay. Many are saying it: A bachelor’s degree is the new high school diploma.
Now, I want you to hear me loud and clear: I DON’T think college is (always) a waste of time. I’m enrolled in an engineering program right now, for my bachelor’s degree. It seems clear, however, that most college degrees don’t automatically land you a good job like they used to, and they often end up costing you years of time and debt to achieve. For a large portion of Americans, other paths may be much more lucrative, stimulating, and feasible.
In light of this reality, I’m here to tell you how I stumbled upon a non-traditional career path four years ago that changed my life.
Maybe you’re one of those kids who went to college and got saddled with debt, only to land a job making $45k a year doing something you really hate. Maybe you’re someone who never got a degree at all, bouncing from bad job to bad job as you watch your life slip through your fingers. (Too dramatic?) If you fit the bill: 1) broke and 2) dissatisfied with your career: I think you should read this.
My background:
Until 2019, I was a combination of those two scenarios: Broke, and dissatisfied with my career. In 2010, I’d attended college for engineering straight out of high school, but lacked motivation, purpose, finances, and study habits. I ended up dropping out after making very little progress (just about a year’s worth of coursework). During that time, I tried my hand at various jobs to pay the bills: landscaping, fast food, boutique coffee shop barista. In 2013, I eventually settled into a role making $10/hour assembling surgical instruments. The world of manufacturing had been opened to me: I learned how to run CNC machines, and I learned about various data-driven manufacturing tools like Lean Six Sigma and SPC. I was in love with manufacturing and I ate up every learning opportunity I could. I made it my goal to understand every process at my company and produce the best work possible. But still, I felt stagnant. After two years of impressive growth at my company, where I’d been promoted from assembler to CNC operator, had become responsible for developing new process controls, and had developed work instructions for multiple product lines; I was given a raise of less than $0.50/hour.
I remember dumbfoundedly staring at the manager during my review meeting. I told him I appreciated his time, but I was insulted by the raise and would have rather they hadn’t given me one at all. He floundered a bit before telling me, “It’s not meant to be insulting: most people don’t get this high of a percentage increase!” I realized in that moment how the game is played—Stay at a company too long: and you’re gambling with your compensation. Most companies recognize that the average employee is too scared or too comfortable to leave, and they strategize to provide minimal pay raises each year. Sure, a few top performers get promoted once in a while…But even top performers are often underpaid.
Realizing this, I began job-hopping for pay raises and experience, taking more advanced roles at different companies but still never getting the promotions I felt I deserved. My best year ever, I made just about $40k doing extremely technical engineering work for a metal forging company, for which I felt I should have been paid twice that much. In 2017, I switched gears entirely. I moved out of the state and started selling cars. Why not, I thought? I had nothing to lose. $40k/year isn’t paying anyone’s bills in Southern California.
Car sales was frankly, terrible. I did make decent money (just about $60k my first year), but I was working 6 or 7 days a week and stressed out every month trying to hit my numbers. On the one hand, I’m thankful I did sales: It made me confident and comfortable with negotiation. On the other hand, you couldn’t pay me enough to go back. By the time I left the industry, I was scraping by on what was essentially minimum wage and was stressed about paying rent every month.
”Get to the point, Nathan! I just want to learn how to make money in semiconductor (whatever that is…)”
Okay, okay.
Just a bittttt more story. THEN the point.
…One day when I was selling cars, I met a guy riding a Onewheel around the car lot. For the uninitiated: a Onewheel is a self-balancing electric skateboard with a big go-cart tire in the middle. I really wanted to sell a car that day, so I struck up a conversation with the guy riding. Not only did I fail to sell him a car, but he ended up convincing me to buy an extra Onewheel he had. My coworkers at the dealership made fun of me for being “the worst salesman ever” because I had been SOLD on something rather than selling a potential customer on something.
It’s true, I WAS the worst salesman ever. But, critically: I’d also made a new friend. We stayed in touch. Dave and I occasionally went on excursions to the local park to ride trails with our Onewheels, and I tried (unsuccessfully) to sell him a car for months. It turned out, however, that Dave wasn’t just a cool guy with an electric skateboard...He was also a cool guy who worked at Intel.
You’ve probably heard of Intel, even if you don’t know what they are. (That is a clickable link, by the way.) Here’s a quick rundown for the uninitiated: Intel is a US-based company that manufactures computer chips, which are the tiny squares of silicon (NOT SILICONE) that do all the fancy math in your computer to make it work. It’s almost certain you’ve used a computer with an Intel chip inside. “Intel Inside” after all, was their tagline for many years. Computer chips are the “brains” of your computer, and in our increasingly “smart” world, computer chips are the brains of almost everything else around us. Your car has chips. Your telephone has chips. Your dishwasher has chips. EVERY electronic device in your house either has, or WILL SOON HAVE, chips. The entire internet runs on chips. You’re reading this article on a device powered by chips, where it’s being stored and served to you from a datacenter full of chips. Chip manufacturing is part of an industry colloquially known as “Semiconductors”. (The word encompasses other things too, like camera sensors and solar panels, and comes from the kinds of materials required to make these things function.)
In 2022, Congress passed the CHIPS Act. “Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors”. We don’t have to get into the weeds here, but this was huge. The CHIPS act is designed to kickstart domestic (American) investment into semiconductors, in a bid to regain global superiority. (Currently, the most advanced chips in the world are created by a Taiwanese company called TSMC.) The CHIPS Act allocates $280 BILLION dollars over the next ten years to encourage companies to build factories (called “fabs”) in the US to manufacture chips.
Nearly every semiconductor company in the US is planning huge developments because of this funding. (Most were already investing heavily before this, too, but who was gonna say no to $280 billion?) Thousands and thousands of jobs will be created in multiple locations across the country, and there are no signs of slowing in the next decade. The world is hungry for semiconductors, and we need people to make them.
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So…let’s talk about semiconductor jobs. First, I’m going to give you an extremely Detailed breakdown of my experience in the industry and what you can expect if you enter. Later, I’ll talk about how to get in.
My first role:
In 2019, after talking to my friend Dave, I applied to Intel and accepted an entry-level role as a “manufacturing equipment technician”, grade 55. My pay was $25.46/hr. The grade level was positioned for an “entry-level technical graduate”, but they accepted “hands-on” or “military” experience in lieu of a degree. My experience in machine shops was enough to get me the role, but I’ve had several friends who have landed similar roles with just hobby-level experience doing home projects. The industry NEEDS workers right now, and they can’t get enough. At the time I started, there were multiple grade levels on both sides of the 55-level, (I had several friends who started at a lower grade level, but received similar pay to me. Don’t ask me how that works, I assume the corporate bean-counters have their reasons.)
What IS a manufacturing equipment technician? At least at the Intel site: this meant one of two things: a) someone who monitored equipment remotely via computer and performed various system tests, or b) someone who did PMs (preventative maintenance) on the equipment. In my experience, most roles in the industry are similar to these.
The equipment in a fab is extremely complicated, full of powerful electronics, robots, lasers, and chemical delivery systems. (Check out this video tour). The equipment is divided up into large multi-million dollar units called “tools”, which perform specific processes in the chip-making journey.
This probably sounds out-of-reach or overwhelming for some of you. Let me set your mind at ease: It’s not hard. You’re not engineering these things. You’re just fixing them when problems come up, and ALL fabs train you on the job. They don’t really have much choice. The equipment is so specialized, the processes are so complicated and secretive, that they can’t really afford to give entry-level techs free reign without ensuring competency (they need to train you on THEIR systems). It will be many months before you can do anything useful, and decades before you fully understand the equipment you work on. As a new employee, you will simply be a “wrench monkey”, as one of my former bosses affectionately called us. If a semiconductor company decides to hire you: your personality (are you a nice person to work with?) and ability to learn matter more than anything else. They know they’ll need to train you on everything else.
Common sense is required, of course: but let’s just say I have seen some of the most unintelligent people do VERY well in the industry. If you’ve managed to read an article this long, you’re already ahead of some of them. Don’t let your impostor syndrome kick in now.
Something else about the industry: Basically every fab in the world runs 24 hours a day, and runs on a CWW (compressed work week). At Intel, this meant I worked 12.5 hours a day, three days a week, with a four day weekend. Every other week, I’d add a fourth day of work and “only” get a three day weekend. This means, in most parts of the US, you get automatic overtime built into your schedule because of the long days. Even though I was only working half the week, I was clocking multiple hours of overtime pay each week. I LOVE this schedule. It’s not for everyone, but the long weekends (basically every weekend is a mini vacation) make it worth it to me. Another way to put this: I work fewer than half the days of the year and am able to take 4 day trips every other week.
PROMOTIONS.
At Intel, I did pretty well for myself. I got consistent raises and learned several different roles. Over a period of 3 years, I eventually got to a point where I was making $30/hour and was training other technicians. I also started going back to school, this time for Electrical Engineering, on Intel’s dime. Most semiconductor companies LOVE paying for school because it makes you more likely to stick around and grow with the company.
I felt stagnant, however. Several senior members of my team were clearly in line for promotion, and it seemed like a good time to jump ship. Intel was a good home, but I was ready for growth. During this time, I was also getting calls EVERY DAY from recruiters. Every day, in my LinkedIn inbox, I had a new recruiter asking me if I was interested in a semiconductor role they had. I started saying yes to interviews. I took about 15 interviews over the course of a few months, and finally accepted a role at another semiconductor company, Microchip Inc., making $37/hour. (A pay-bump larger than I’d gotten in all 3 years at my previous job!) This fab was smaller, and older than the Intel fab. The equipment required more troubleshooting, and many of their senior techs were close to retirement. It was clear why they needed experienced techs. I worked a swing shift at this company, which payed an extra 13% on top of my normal pay (which was still CWW with built-in overtime!) I learned a lot during this time, because the senior techs knew so much and the tools required so much more in-depth work. It was my intention to stay at Microchip for a while and finish my degree: but then another recruiter reached out…
Approximately a year after I started at Microchip, I got offered a dream role (my current one). Field Service Engineer for Lam Research. $53/hour with a $15k sign-on bonus. Lam Research makes equipment (“tools”) that it sells to Intel, and the FSE role is to provide guidance to Intel technicians and assist with advanced work. Lam’s intention would be to train me for this role (almost a year-long training track), they’d continue to pay for my degree, and would fully support me if I want to transition to a different role at the company when I graduate. I was floored to receive the offer and so thankful I said yes to the interview.
So, here I am.
No college degree. Just 4 years of semiconductor experience. An engineering title. School being paid for. $110k base salary before any overtime or bonuses. Once fully trained in my role, I will be making 15% more money because I’ll be working night shift. My expectation for this upcoming year is that I will earn approximately $140k, and will make $160k the following year after my transition to night shift. That is truly a lot of money for someone who works less than half the days of the year and who only has a high school diploma.
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Now, let’s talk about you. How do you break into Semiconductor, and what do you do when you get there?
Here’s what I think you should do:
Redo your resume so you can land an interview. Put as many words about “hands-on”, “Tools”, “Equipment” etc. as you can. Look at job descriptions online for Semiconductor Technician roles and include as many terms as you can. Your goal is to BYPASS the automated computer filters and land an interview. My friend who was a barista prior to this and had some college engineering coursework (no degree!) was able to land an entry-level role after adding words to their resume about espresso machine maintenance, personal home projects using hand tools, and computer skills. Make your experience fit the verbiage for the role. DON’T GET IMPOSTER SYNDROME. If you can read and use a screwdriver, you can do these jobs. Worst case scenario, enroll in an engineering program and leverage your degree intentions by putting it on your resume. (I’ve seen this work for several people as well.)
Update your LinkedIn. Change your status to say “open to work”. Adjust your settings to show jobs like “Semiconductor Equipment Technician”, “Semiconductor Maintenance Technician”, “Field Service Technician”, “Field Service Engineer”, and anything that looks similar. Include as much work history and detail about your prior experience and education as possible, again using verbiage that hints at your ability to work with equipment and do maintenance work. A good LinkedIn profile will have recruiters reaching out to YOU.
Say yes to recruiters. To this day, when I get hit up by a recruiter, my first message is always: “Thanks for reaching out! To make the best use of our time, what is the budgeted pay range of this role?” If the pay is acceptable, I interview, regardless of if I’m happy in my current role. I need the interview practice, and who knows if they’re going to offer me the job of a lifetime? If you’re new to the industry, I advise taking any interview for a semiconductor role that will pay your bills. You need the first role to land the next one.
Once you have a good resume, apply for everything. I really mean everything. Go on Indeed, Glassdoor, LinkedIn, etc. Find titles that look similar to the ones I’ve listed. Most job hunting sites allow you to quickly re-use an application from one role to apply for another one, which should make this process a bit less terrible. Breaking into the industry might require you to take something that pays $20/hour. (For some of you, this is a pay cut, for others this is a game-changer!) After six months, you can almost certainly apply elsewhere and get a significant raise. Don’t feel like your first job needs to be perfect. Just get that first job.
Interview with confidence and a “willingness to learn”. I’ve had a lot of interviews over the last 4 years. Something I’ve learned is that every semiconductor company is basically prepared to train you from the ground up for entry level roles. They want someone who is friendly, works well with others, and willing to ask questions. Admit when you don’t know something, but assure the interviewer you are excited to learn!
Believe in yourself. You’d be surprised how much companies are willing to pay you to do very easy things, and there are a lot of people making a lot of money who aren’t even very good at what they do. If you’ve had the brainpower to read this article, I can assure you that you’ll succeed in the industry. Don’t be intimidated by job descriptions or qualification lists. Apply anyway. Land the interview. There is a huge lack of talent in the industry right now, and it’s the perfect time for YOU to get in. I often remind myself how many former frat boys are making $300k+ managing accounts for random companies. You deserve a good wage too.
JOB HOP FOR PAY RAISES. GIVE YOURSELF A RAISE. My trajectory in 4 years: $25/hr with gradual raises to $30/hr >>> Jumped jobs after three years for $37/hr >>> Jumped jobs a year later to $53/hr. I more than doubled my salary in 4 years by job-hopping, and make significantly more than many other people who have been in the industry longer. If your pay is stagnant, you alone have the power to change that.
Take advantage of educational opportunities. Go back to school if your company offers to pay for it. Go part time if needed. Go online if you can’t go in person. Keep building your resume.
Consider your trajectory. Semiconductor is booming, and the sky is the limit if you want it. Think about your natural talents and how you can develop yourself in your role. Think about where you want to be in five years. Learn your role, but start learning about the industry. Will you be an engineer in ten years? Will you be managing other technicians? Will you be signing multimillion dollar deals for new semiconductor equipment sales? Take steps to get where you want to be. You are needed.
Help your peers. Bring people up with you. I’ve referred about 20 people to the industry at this point, and I’ve had several friends follow me to other companies after I left. Building good workplace relationships is not only healthy for your career, it’s healthy for society.
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That’s all for now, folks. I really hope this can help inspire someone, or give them the tools to get out of a bad job. Obviously, no one career is right for everyone, but I see a lot of opportunity here for people. Go make some money!