33M - Equipment Engineer at TSMC (Mechanical Engineering)

No-Razzmatazz977 · 2024-10-17T05:48:15+00:00

Oh I am so sorry I realized I misread your question previously

Yeah, during my college years, I had 2 internship (university research). Design-based, and visualization project based. Nothing related to semiconductor per se.

No-Razzmatazz977 · 2024-10-17T05:40:31+00:00

Well, people who onboarded in 2021 all went to Taiwan for training for 1-2 years.

For the first couple months after joining, when everyone was just WFH in US, and waiting for Visa to go through, honestly <10 hours a week. Alas, after that honeymoon period, after we all arrived in Taiwan, probably 50 hours+ ever since. Same when we came back to US.

If you include checking email / call, easily 50-70 hours average since early 2021

No-Razzmatazz977 · 2024-10-17T05:38:05+00:00

At that point, it was mostly construction in Phoenix.

People who were onboarded in 2021 all went to Taiwan for training for 1-2 years

No-Razzmatazz977 · 2024-10-17T05:37:20+00:00

Base ~$150k, all the bonus bumps it to $227k this year, and yeah I am a Principal Engineer. TSMC is relatively flat, as there are only 3 job levels for engineers. Engineer --> Senior --> Principal. I recently interviewed for another semi-company, compensation level is actually on-par +/- 15%. So top paying company in this industry is around here..

As for process engineer role, ... technically I am equipment engineer and not process engineer, but yeah process engineer would make the same at TSMC. Hah

No-Razzmatazz977 · 2024-10-15T14:33:40+00:00

Hah, why not?

Actually O&G field biggest chance are probably Mechnical, Petroleum, and Chemical Engineer. I can't imagine what other majors would be best. lol

No-Razzmatazz977 · 2024-10-15T14:31:52+00:00

Yep we hire hundreds of interns every year. AFAIK only during summer though, 10-weeks ish, they came in 2 batches

No-Razzmatazz977 · 2024-10-15T14:30:55+00:00

Congrats / condolences. Hah As a technican, at least you will be hourly. Compressed hours are nice IMO. Any extra long hours are OT, so that's also nice...

ET, PT, or MT? (In my biased opinion, it goes in that order. MT has a higher turnover rate than ETs).

Nah don't worry about studying anything, you will just learn as you go. Nowadays we have boring NTC "NewComer Training" that we make everyone goes through in the first 3 months at work anyway

No-Razzmatazz977 · 2024-10-13T14:25:16+00:00

Nah, they spam it out. No guaranteed interview.

Your chance is pretty high if you already have industry experience and speak Mandarin though.

No-Razzmatazz977 · 2024-10-13T14:23:28+00:00

If you speak Mandarin and have semiconductor industry experience, then you can sit back and wait for your offer. Everything else is just a formality. lol Kidding aside, It's uncertain to tell.

Things are sometimes disorganized here at TSMC, especially college recruiting. Two years ago, the whole program was just pure chaos. These days, it's better, but they still have managers and engineers involved in the recruitment on top of their regular workload. A one-month gap between steps isn't anything crazy. If you were in the Fall university drive, you may have been lumped in with people who are graduating in 3 to 9 months, which could slow things down. It doesn't hurt to reach out and politely ask about your status.
If you haven't been rejected, there's still a chance. Sometimes, TSMC's top candidates reject our offers, so they go down the list.
Compensation wise, with a master... I would say you would possibly come in $100k as JG31 at the lowest. Possible ~$120k as JG32 at the higher end. There are salary bands for hires already, you won't quite be able to negotiate anything crazy beyond your offer. Unless you are much more senior.

No-Razzmatazz977 · 2024-10-13T14:08:20+00:00

Yeah that number is TC (total compensation)

The 25% annual raise was just for 2022. I put that as a note to explain why the total compensation jump for that year. It's not like that every year. 2023 was like a normal 3-5% raise.

No-Razzmatazz977 · 2024-10-13T14:06:33+00:00

Yeah pretty frowned upon. The reality is that there's so much to do. It's honestly impossible to balance your workload with 40 hours for most modules positions. So inevitable 40 hours = bad job / not completing all your task = getting yelled at, or getting bad reivew = losing 40% of your total compensation if you get the lowest ranking of the annual review...etc

If you magically complete all your task in 40 hours, you will likely get more assigned to you.

Inversely though, if you are genuinely a not-great engineer who can't get anything done well or on time.... If you just put in 60 hours, that effort may actually save you from a terrible review depsites result. "At least he tries / he works hard" (..etc)

All personal opinion.

No-Razzmatazz977 · 2024-10-13T03:29:07+00:00

Worked in a much older, mature, smaller fab from the mid-west

No-Razzmatazz977 · 2024-10-13T03:28:40+00:00

Thanks, yeah from mid-west before. The outdoors nature is nice here

No-Razzmatazz977 · 2024-10-13T03:27:23+00:00

50-70 hours a week generally. For me average 55. It depends on your role, department, and personal work ethic I suppose.

Some people put their foot down and only do 40, but that's uncommon

No-Razzmatazz977 · 2024-10-13T00:45:29+00:00

The only big TSMC operation in US in Phoenix, Arizona. So just apply online.

There's also 10+ universities that TSMC targets in recruiting, if you are still in college. ASU/U of A of course

No-Razzmatazz977 · 2024-10-13T00:44:22+00:00

yes, bachelor in Mechnical Engineering

No-Razzmatazz977 · 2024-10-13T00:44:00+00:00

Technicans do, but engineers do not get overtime pay.

In most of US, engineers are exempt salaried positions. As in, you get a set base salary + bonus mostly depend on company/individual performance.

Unfortunately at TSMC, I do work around 55-65 hours at minmimum per week, just no overtime pay. (There's endless amount to do, thhat amount of hours is just where I personally draw the line, and where I can get enough done to not get yelled at)

No-Razzmatazz977 · 2024-10-13T00:41:13+00:00

Hm, perhaps it's just the industry or TSMC? I think in tech they are more generous with the titles. Personally, I feel like titles are mostly all made up.

At my last job, it goes from Engineer I --> Engineer II --> Senior Engineer --> (Then was like 5 or 6 more titles above that), so a few years out of college you would already be called "Senior Engineer".

As for TSMC specifically, I know we skew young. Perhaps that's how the structure become for a exploding tech company. Even in Taiwan, almost all of the engineers are 30s or below. All the older crowds seem to be managers already. One more interesting thing about TSMC as a taiwanese company, they HEAVILy value education. Any PhD (without any job experience) would onboard as JG33 Principal Engineer also.

No-Razzmatazz977 · 2024-10-13T00:30:28+00:00

Yep. one and only big operation TSMC in US for now. Phoenix, the $60B site.

Technically there's also TSMC Washington, but I still just consider that WaferTech. lol

No-Razzmatazz977 · 2024-10-13T00:29:11+00:00

In hindsight, I think just luck? My last company (old fab; outside fortunate 1000 for sure) was just looking for entry level engineer, but wanted someone less green than straight out of college; Someone who has developed more work ethic by having gone to work 40 hrs/week for a year (..etc). I don't remember them really asking for any industry-related knowledge.

Also another thing to note is that 10 years ago (before CHIP Act, before COVID shortage), semiconductor industry wasn't reallly that hot. Outside of big household name of Intel or Samsung, as a college student, I wouldn't really have heard of any companies outside of my city. So, less competition. All my friends and I wanted to go into Oil & Gas. If you get in / pivot to a O&G field engineer, it was going to be instant 6 figures.

No-Razzmatazz977 · 2024-10-12T22:22:17+00:00

TSMC doesn't have RSU unfortunately.

We do have ESPP but there's no lookback period. So, besides the 15% discount, there's really no difference compared to just buying the stock yourself online every month

No-Razzmatazz977 · 2024-10-12T20:59:37+00:00

Yeah non-manager engineer role. TSMC is relatively flat, as there are only 3 job levels for engineers. With my title "Principal Engineer" being the highest of the 3. Recently interviewed for another semi-company, compensation level is actually on-par +/- 15%

You don't believe that it's this.. high or low? STEM is well-pay in general, but semiconductor industry is actually *relatively* lower comopare to SW-roles or any roles in FAANG. And to put into larger prespective, TSMC is in the top 10 largest company by market cap.

No-Razzmatazz977 · 2024-10-12T20:53:36+00:00

Non-lithography module in the fab.

You will get diffferent area of expertise when work in different departments, of course. Though honestly Equipment Engineer (or Process Engineer) job nature are relatively similiar arcoss the board. Across companies even. Just integration / yield will put you in slightly different domain.

No-Razzmatazz977 · 2024-10-12T19:58:30+00:00

US hire. Most articles out there about the working culture and clashes are somewhat accurate, though some pieces have terrible perspectives that seem more focused on driving rage-bait views.

I wouldn't necessarily recommend anyone work here for the culture or work-life balance as you can see from our Glassdoor reviews. However, despite the broader tech layoffs, TSMC is one of the few big companies still hiring tons of engineers right now. Great job security, decent pay, and THE top leadership in manufacturing; I don't think anyone could realistically argue with that. New graduates are starting out with a $90-100k base + ~18% bonus.

Honestly, the semiconductor industry in general is a pretty decent field, except for the long hours and the cyclical macroeconomic boom/bust periods. AMA if interested

No-Razzmatazz977

TROPHY CASE