Career Prospects for a Senior AE in EDA Industry
Asking for a senior friend. He recently got affected from another round of downsizing at Synopsys. He worked there for almost all his life, more than 20 years in several Application Engineer roles in management and as IC. As I understood from him, his field is pretty narrow. What can be a good career path for him? Or job prospect in any of the FAANGs? ##hardware #EDA #synopsys, #cadence, #mentorgraphics #layoff #intel #apple #nvidia #qualcomm
Maybe CAD/Design Methodology/Analysis role in any other semiconductor company. Other than AE role in other EDA companies. Foundry jobs is another option.
He doesn’t want to go to EDA companies anymore. Do you know Anyone moved to any other industry from EDA ?
So so many examples. Just apply to EDA or CAD roles in companies such as Apple, Qualcomm, Nvidia, Marvell etc. Lots of opportunities- u can leverage contacts u made while supporting these companies as an AE in Synopsis. I have also seen AEs moving to design kind of jobs later - example if supporting Signal Integrity tools in EDA- later can become a Signal integrity engineer at non EDA company.. or STA tools engineer becoming STA methodology engineer at another company etc..
Bummer. AE's selling points are debugging and handling customers. It's a path towards marketing or program management or into a very narrow domain of tech expertise (possibly into engineering) another alternative is Sales or Field Application Engineering. Usually it's a place for Engineers to move. After being done & dusted with proper engineering work. There is nothing which you can't do . With some reskilling... But minim effort = program management path. If being AE is no longer an option. Allows for FAANG opportunities.
Will a PMP help?
Long answer : Possibly. But I would work more on the resume and interview prep to show work from a TPM perspective. Show what you can bring to the new company...from previous experience (chance to prove yourself)... And back it up with your success as an AE and proven people skills / understanding of product lifecycles and the flows... And how you can fit into the role & bridge some gap. In short : sell it.
Alternative short term goal could be applying for EDA Engineering roles in companies which were Synopsis customers. They can definitely use that right ?? Make a list of companies which use Synopsis tools (do your homework) and apply. Simple. Leverage Synopsis...
Thanks !
He can leverage his expertise on the domain and apply to design companies who are basically Synopsys’s customers. Or he can aim for PM roles, leveraging his people skills from the customer facing AE role. Another option would be to become Technical Marketing Engineer.
Thanks @userabc. Yes thats the natural progression. Any suggestions on how to prep for interviews as he has been out of the job market for a while. Also do you think having too much experience is going to have any negative impact?
No problem. Is he in front end or backend? Hardware still values experience. Or maybe just present last 10 years of work experience if that’s more relevant to the roles he is aiming for. There are books for cracking PM interviews. Check out the books written by Gayle Laakman and Lewis C Lin. Those help in preparing for interviews.
Try in any design services company…should be ready for lesser pay but great learning compared to EDA
Thanks! Can you give some examples of design services company?
Synapse, eximus, encore semi, Einfochips, mirafra, aricent and so on
By lesser pay, what range are you referring too? Synopsys isn’t a big payer like FAANGs but more comparable to the semiconductor industry. Not sure how much he used to make, but a range would help.
He can go to methodology teams in any of semicon companies assuming he is good with scripting and the tool itself. He can also try the technical marketing way as many suggested. Honestly snps is going to dogs hiring interns like crazy and letting go senior people.
What does that mean? Nothing good I presume 🙄