With a bachelor's? I'm deciding which career path I'd like to pursue and I've heard chip design is pretty much impossible for new grads without a PhD. In your experience, is it possible to do a verification / validation role for a few years after school and then push for an ASIC design role?
It all depends on luck more than anything else. College grads get to be designer because they somehow ended up in team looking for designers. The longer you stay in verif, it will get more difficult to switch. You can still manage it though, if you continue to write some design code in your verif role too and convince the next manager to give you an opportunity given your self motivated design work
Hmm, why do you say it gets more difficult the longer I stay in verification? I was under the impression that it uses a lot of skills that could be applied to design as well.
All the OOP skills, scripting, env bring up, coverage, tests, sequences are pretty much useless for design. The longer you keep dealing in non synthesizable constructs, it will be difficult to think like a design engineer. And it will make sense for the team to hire a designer with 2 yoe than a verif engineer with 4 yoe. This might be difficult to hear and accept. But think from a hiring manager's point of view. Try to find someone who has successfully managed this. I am sure it won't be easy to find a single person