With the changing landscape of the wireless industry, job descriptions don’t often stay the same for long. RCRtv is looking into different jobs throughout the industry to see what the hot jobs are and what it is like to do them.
With this installment of Gigs, we spoke with Elizabeth Ledwosinska, a foundry engineer at Silicon Labs, to get an idea of what she does from day to day and get advice for those looking to get into the field.
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So what does a foundry engineer do?
Ledwosinska says she has her hands in many different areas at Silicon Labs. While she is mostly focused on wafer level operations, no day is the same. On any given day she may interface with fabrication facilities in Asia, measure wafer test structures or provide failure analysis on optical and humidity censors. The diversity of the work is one of the aspects of the job that Ledwosinska likes most.
And for those interested in the field, Ledwosinska has a bit of wisdom to impart, especially for those still in college or fresh out of college.
She studied physics for her bachelor’s degree, but wanted more practical experience so she felt the natural transition was to electrical engineering. She credits Silicon Labs’s new college graduate program for getting her in the door.
“I’m very grateful they do have this program because its a good transitory type method to get these students who come out of school who are academically minded … so its good to come on board and undergo that training and have the guidance there,” Ledwosinska says.
According to Silicon Labs, the “paid internships are designed to enable the student to quickly become immersed with their assigned team and work on meaningful projects. The intern group is also a community at Silicon Labs, with activities planned to help the interns get to know each other, add skills and knowledge and have a great experience.”
But Ledwosinska says perhaps the most important attribute to gain as a young aspiring engineer is a solid technical background because it provides the versatility that is required in the rapidly changing field.
This is the first installment of the “Gigs” series. Keep an eye on the RCR Wireless News website and Youtube for more information on the important jobs that are shaping the industry.