Electrical and computer science engineers are some of the most well-educated people in any field and it can take some individuals six or more years for to earn the necessary degrees before entering into the semiconductor workforce. Yet despite having impressive academic credentials, most engineers only begin getting their feet wet once they get “hands-on” with the technology, learning the ins and outs of design flows, verification, tapeout, and validation. According to some leaders, it’s working in a commercial setting that provides some of the best learning opportunities which strengthen engineers and develops the resiliency they need for long-term success in our field. Richard Fung CEO and co-founder of The Six Semiconductor is one of them. Richard earned his BSEE from The University of Toronto and then earned his MSEE while working at AMD. He and his colleagues established their skills in environments suited for on-the-job learning, and Richard remarked that those were formative years for him as a young engineer. Today, he leads The Six Semiconductor with five of his previous colleagues and they all share a similar mindset when it comes to hiring - find people with strong fundamentals and a willingness to learn. Yet it hasn’t always been that way at TSS. Richard reflected that in the early days of building the team, “we would hire based on academic credentials but the personality was not right, and overall it was more negative than positive.” It’s a lesson that many leaders learn the hard way because they tend to put credentials ahead of personality. This often happens because it can be scary to take a chance on someone who hasn’t proven themselves in the real world yet, so academics become a benchmark to measure against. But according to Richard, what’s changed is that while they do evaluate talent based on competency, deciding based on personality carries more weight now. In his view, engineers with strong fundamentals can be taught as long as they have a desire to learn. He explained, “When we hire someone with the right mindset, who is willing to learn and willing to share… overall in a few years they become the better engineer.” Commercial projects will always carry risks if mistakes are made, but it’s through making mistakes that engineers will feel nurtured and challenge themselves to learn and grow. According to Richard, “real-life engineering is not like studying in school. Studying in school, you have a fixed answer. Solving real-life problems, you’re looking for solutions that don’t currently have answers.” We celebrate leaders like Richard who take this confident approach to building teams. Even though every hiring decision carries some risk, their philosophy of taking calculated risks is proving to be worth it. Do YOU share this mindset? We’d love to hear your story of a similar hiring decision so feel free to share it in the comments. #semiconductorindustry #hiring #recruiting
Jerry Zhai
8mo
Excellent points. Developing top-notched engineering team is so highly valuable in semiconductor industry which takes so much innovations in a super-fast pace
Rodrigo Cornejo
8mo
This is important for any size company. When I was building a layout team in my time at Synopsys I spent most of the time when interviewing looking for the right personality fit knowing that teaching the technical was the easy part as long as the person was someone willing to learn and humble enough to know they don’t have all the answers at that time. This hiring scheme has never failed me yet. Kudos Richard for an excellent insight!
Fu Ximing
8mo
for Small-Medium size startups, then yes.
Thank you for your insightful comments, Richard Fung. We are proud to have The Six Semiconductor as our member.