Best hardware companies for learning?

Sandia National Laboratories / Eng
yoshee

Go to company page Sandia National Laboratories Eng

BIO
Early career Embedded Hardware Engineer
yoshee
Mar 15, 2019 87 Comments

Hi all! Hitting a roadblock in my career where I feel like I'm not growing my hardware skills as an early career employee. Could you recommend your top hardware companies for career development and learning hardware skills? Is it better to go to a smaller company or a larger, more established company for learning?

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TOP 87 Comments
  • New / Mgmt
    VSwf01

    New Mgmt

    VSwf01
    Take control of your career and teach yourself. Side projects.
    Mar 15, 2019 2
    • Intel / Eng
      DonaldDD's

      Go to company page Intel Eng

      DonaldDD's
      Side projects are good to learn about technology, but here's why I'm not sure it addresses OP's concern to the deepest level

      1) a real mentor on a real product matters
      2) at scale, f**k ups and being thorough matters A LOT
      3) checks and balances of design documentation (Making sure another engineer can jump right in with a week to read and fully understand architecture, calculations, data sheets, etc)
      4) a lot of hardware "just works" aka, half a**ed jobs will let code run even if you mess up some fundamental things. Simple examples are routing, component selection, properly following application notes to the T, and certain techniques for noise mitigation that only combat high volume fallout
      5) proper simulation and testing methods that incorporate the latest tools, equipment, and especially proper calibration. I've seen certain FAE's not quite understand too. Also, being thorough and understanding regulatory spec.

      To do side projects, you usually forgo a lot of the above steps just to get results
      Mar 15, 2019
    • Sandia National Laboratories / Eng
      yoshee

      Go to company page Sandia National Laboratories Eng

      BIO
      Early career Embedded Hardware Engineer
      yoshee
      OP
      This is good advice, I definitely need to take it upon myself to learn myself outside of work! However I also think that if I'm going to spend 40+ hours a week in an area, it should promote growth at some level.
      Mar 15, 2019
  • Amazon / Eng
    Big_fish

    Go to company page Amazon Eng

    PRE
    Intel
    Big_fish
    Big company in the beginning of career for resume building. Preferably move around teams and take on different roles while in big company. Then in mid career move to small company to take on more influential roles. Don’t stay in the big company for too long.
    Mar 15, 2019 5
  • Intuit / Eng
    j123x

    Go to company page Intuit Eng

    PRE
    Cisco, Verizon, Oracle
    j123x
    Previous HW engineer here. Unless you have some good patents and a diehard HW fan, switch to software. Better TC
    Mar 15, 2019 2
  • Airbnb / Finance
    unemployd

    Go to company page Airbnb Finance

    PRE
    Accenture
    BIO
    Sup
    unemployd
    Hardware = apple /endofstory
    Mar 15, 2019 1
  • Facebook / Data
    datacrunch

    Go to company page Facebook Data

    PRE
    Google
    datacrunch
    Nvidia
    Mar 15, 2019 1