You're right it's hard to argue. My experience with them was around 2000, which is a while ago - so things might have changed. My alma matter was a pretty respectable one as well. One would only hope that they'd change for the better.
These are companies that, from personal experience and feedback from peers, have provided pleasant interviewing experiences. This list has no correlation as to whether they have gotten the job.
Intel AMD Broadcom Magma Design Automation Cadence Synopsys University Research position with a Professor IT job at a university
I've walked out of interviews at places where the technical people displayed the "I am god and you must impress me, pesant" mentality, because I don't want to work in that sort of an environment. I know a lot of other really competent people who have done the same.
I swear I would have walked out in some of these I've had.
Examples:
Nvidia - This is at a career fair. They ask if you have a GPA > 3.5 to start with. If you don't, they put you off immediately and tell you in your face that you're not good enough. If you "pass" that question, they sit you down at the back of their booth and ask you to solve a technical question for an hour - as if you don't already have better things to do or, *gasp* classes to attend. I know people working there, and the only feedback I've heard is that it's a sweat shop over there. I'd say no thanks rating: 4.5 of 5 (www.nvidia.com)
Xilinx - Interview. Manager constantly interrupting what you have to say. The man was the most impatient man I've met in my life. If you answer a question incorrectly he would say some pretty negative things. One of the employees asked a simple unix command line question. I've been using it for 8-9 years at that time and I was sure I was correct in the question. There are million different ways of doing things, but he wouldn't accept my answer eventhough I went step by step explaining clearly how this crazy 'find' command works. Me not getting that job - my gain. I'd say no thanks rating: 5 of 5 (www.xilinx.com)
Marvell - The guy was asking technical questions that had no relation to the job technical requirements, responsibilities or my background. Answers had to be exact. Solving these equations over the phone interview. I even asked him in the end if the job would be related to this field, and he admitted that there were no relations. What an idiot. I'd say no thanks rating: 2 of 5 (www.marvell.com)
Analog Devices - Career fair during year of dot com bust. Had a booth but told everyone who came by they weren't hiring at all. Feedback from students - why bother showing up at all? Next semester - decided it wasn't a good "PR" thing to do, they scheduled interviews with a large number of candidates for on-campus interviews, only to found out they weren't hiring at all. How do I know, you'd say? Like parent post said: the word gets around QUICK. Thank you for wasting our time, Analog devices. They did this for 3 straight years. I'd say no thanks rating: 5 of 5 (www.analog.com)
Teradyne - Sometimes, alumni from your school returning as people representing their companies would turn you off from applying there too. I recognize these jokers. They're the ones that copied assignments and cheated through tests in some class you took together. Would you want to work with these jokers, or even a company that hires these people? No thanks! I'd say no thanks rating: 4.5 of 5 (www.teradyne.com)
Let's look at one of the biggest EDA companies out there, Synopsys. Their training costs are generally about $1800 USD in US. Even in India, their training costs are the same. But if you look at the same courses offered in China, they are about $300 USD. The material offered is pretty much required for most new grad/ entry level engineers. Does this difference in cost mean they're encouraging expansions in China or are Synopsys application engineers really that much cheaper?
1. When you pick your grad school, consider one that is in a city where a lot of related companies reside. Some of the classmates you see in your courses may be only part time students, and take advantage of the opportunity to find out more about the company he/she works for. Silicon Valley would be nice.
2. I did a thesis based masters in Canada and I have to say (through a lot of feedback from my friends) that Canadian profs like to keep their students for longer than they initially tell you. (Most of them are slave drivers, but that's discussion for another day). If you decide to do a thesis masters, try to find an internship/co-op position. When you're tired of your research and start to find it unchallenging, you still have your co-op job that'll really brighten up your CV.
3. A lot of jobs require masters or phds nowadays. If you're in electrical engineering, doing anything in rf/mixed-signal or EDA would require this. If you choose to be a software developer or digital designer, most companies don't ask for that.
4. CHOOSE YOUR PROFESSOR WISELY! This really depends on your personality as well. Some would hate ones that schedule meetings every week and nag them all the time. Other would would really want to have a prof that is proactive and has good research topics. Mine was neither and this can be VERY frustrating.
5. Funding. That's an obvious one.
6. For some of us, this may be the last time to be working on something you'd really want to be doing. Chances are your full time job may not be related to what you'll be working on during your degree.
This issue of deepchip has some interesting sections on outsourcing, how hiring really goes on behind the scenes, some interesting data and statistics on actual hirings, and how much they spend on hiring people (new grads, monster, stealing people from other companies, etc).
I was just trying to find where I can download a Debian Potato ISO that I can install on my PII 128MB. Not even debian has it linked from its own site. Browsers like firefox are so heavy but Mozilla Phoenix (0,4) is still available on mozilla's site and would be sufficient to do most things.... Would anyone know where I can find potato?
Actually, Taiwan has one of the largest fabs in the world. you might have heard of them - TSMC. If you're in Canada, look up CMC - they fit several designs on die from different universities which makes it cheaper to manufacture because you'll no longer have to pay for more prototypes than you need to made.
ok, here's a list based on my experience with them during interviews and career fairs - and feedback from people i know.
Intel - they give noctoriously hard questions, with 3 rounds of interviews. but there were simple interviews where they only asked about course projects and not too much textbook material in too much depth. in the latter case, there was only 1 interview round before the candidate was hired.
Xilinx - phone screen - basic textbook material. onsite: presentation. multiple full day interviews based on in depth textbook material. the onsite was probably 20 times more difficult. Interviews were disorganized. They had a list of questions that they go through and some of them were repeated from one interviewer to the next. This was in the valley and some of the people seemed to have attitude and ego problems, and didn't like to listen to your answer when are multiple solutions to the interview question. The group looked like zombies, probably from all the overtime shifts.
Analog Devices - the campus onsite interviews are a complete waste of time. they're basically for PR purposes whether they're planning on hiring or not for the year. Questions they ask are generally simple, but I hear onsite interviews are always challenging. Recruiters at the career fairs are always excellent and informative. Company slide presentations are always disorganized - but we were engineering students - who really cares anyway;)
Teradyne - Campus onsite interviews are usually given by aluminus of the university. I have a theory that their company is sending these folks for interviewing is because these are the ones that have nothing else better to do at work - i.e., they can afford to send the non productive ones for these events... At the career fair, almost all of the recruiters think you don't know anything about the field and go through the whole process explaning everything. Perhaps it's their strategy - holding up a queue at their booth so it looks like they're generating a lot of popularity and interest! Some of them don't even know what they're talking about after working there for a couple of years.
NVidia - this one's the worst. They used to show up at the career fair and flat out refused people's CV right at the spot if their GPA is below 3.5. They would ask up front and basically tell you to buzz off if you "don't have what it takes". I know of someone who worked there as an intern and he basically had to go through their insane work hours. Oh, what happens to the ones that get past that absurd GPA screening? They sit you down at the back of the booth, and basically ask you technical problems which would take up to over an hour.
Synopsys - Very reasonable interviews. They ask really good questions and are not there to find out what you don't know, but what you do, and to really see what you're capable of. They're interested in seeing your thought process and would give you slight nudges in the right direction to see whether you catch on.
Anyway, my current job was found through monster. I had my interview, signed the offer and began work just within 9 day of submitting my application online. I'll not name the company here, but interview process was very reasonable, (see Synopsys - very similar). Very humane people and you had a sense of the great people you would be working with if hired. After graduating, it took me 3 months of job search before I found the job.
Amazing work environment - but that'll be for another time and a different story:)
we know they're really going after the slashdot crowd in terms of their PR and marketing - i mean, posting a page like this on frontpage slashdot ON A FRIDAY? some people are going to have a "tough job in their hands" tonight (woohoo friday night)! And I'm not only talking about the sysadmins working overtime "taking care" of the servers' slashdotting...
if you see what's on tv, you'll find so many shows dedicated to doctors (ER, grey's acadamy, chicago hope) lawyers (law and order: special victims unit, criminal intent, trial by jury) and cops (CSI miami, ny).
you never hear anyone even mention engineers in movies or tv series. it's got to do with the social culture of the states. 100% of the political leaders in China have an engineering or science degree. In the states? none! (source: IEEE spectrum magazine June 2005).
hating microsoft doesn't mean that you have to like linux or apple.
most of the people that hate ms, including myself is having the feeling towards the company because we disagree with their questionable "ethics". we dont like the idea of a company producing zero "innovation" each year yet people are still being screwed with their software licenses. we dont like insecure software. we dont like having things installed on our computers by default that we don't want - and an OS that blocks us from deleting them. we dont like an OS that forbids us from playing music and movies under DRM.
sure, microsoft has been a "pioneer", but they've got pretty much the same number of years (roughly) to get things right?
i like linux because it's free, secure and common tasks are easily scriptable. a lot of things are easier to do for my research - but that has nothing to do with hating microsoft (eventhough the two are inclusive here amongst the slashdot crowd i agree). i agree that ms office is sufficient to do a lot of the tasks.
why was this article even posted on the frontpage in the first place?
anybody notice that slashdot is removed from the list of news site that can be customized on google.com/ig? well now you can import any RSS feed now by specifying the rss url, but it's no longer part of the default list. just click on "add content" on the top left and you'll see what i mean.
Slashdot Mirror
Except what if there was a way to make your snail do some of the cool things oysters can do, like make pearls
Q: Now, can you imagine a beowulf cluster of Oysters!?
A: Yeah, pearl necklace as eye candy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haitian_(Heroes)
You're right it's hard to argue. My experience with them was around 2000, which is a while ago - so things might have changed. My alma matter was a pretty respectable one as well. One would only hope that they'd change for the better.
These are companies that, from personal experience and feedback from peers, have provided pleasant interviewing experiences. This list has no correlation as to whether they have gotten the job.
Intel
AMD
Broadcom
Magma Design Automation
Cadence
Synopsys
University Research position with a Professor
IT job at a university
I've walked out of interviews at places where the technical people displayed the "I am god and you must impress me, pesant" mentality, because I don't want to work in that sort of an environment. I know a lot of other really competent people who have done the same.
I swear I would have walked out in some of these I've had.
Examples:
Nvidia - This is at a career fair. They ask if you have a GPA > 3.5 to start with. If you don't, they put you off immediately and tell you in your face that you're not good enough. If you "pass" that question, they sit you down at the back of their booth and ask you to solve a technical question for an hour - as if you don't already have better things to do or, *gasp* classes to attend. I know people working there, and the only feedback I've heard is that it's a sweat shop over there.
I'd say no thanks rating: 4.5 of 5 (www.nvidia.com)
Xilinx - Interview. Manager constantly interrupting what you have to say. The man was the most impatient man I've met in my life. If you answer a question incorrectly he would say some pretty negative things. One of the employees asked a simple unix command line question. I've been using it for 8-9 years at that time and I was sure I was correct in the question. There are million different ways of doing things, but he wouldn't accept my answer eventhough I went step by step explaining clearly how this crazy 'find' command works. Me not getting that job - my gain.
I'd say no thanks rating: 5 of 5 (www.xilinx.com)
Marvell - The guy was asking technical questions that had no relation to the job technical requirements, responsibilities or my background. Answers had to be exact. Solving these equations over the phone interview. I even asked him in the end if the job would be related to this field, and he admitted that there were no relations. What an idiot.
I'd say no thanks rating: 2 of 5 (www.marvell.com)
Analog Devices - Career fair during year of dot com bust. Had a booth but told everyone who came by they weren't hiring at all. Feedback from students - why bother showing up at all? Next semester - decided it wasn't a good "PR" thing to do, they scheduled interviews with a large number of candidates for on-campus interviews, only to found out they weren't hiring at all. How do I know, you'd say? Like parent post said: the word gets around QUICK. Thank you for wasting our time, Analog devices. They did this for 3 straight years.
I'd say no thanks rating: 5 of 5 (www.analog.com)
Teradyne - Sometimes, alumni from your school returning as people representing their companies would turn you off from applying there too. I recognize these jokers. They're the ones that copied assignments and cheated through tests in some class you took together. Would you want to work with these jokers, or even a company that hires these people? No thanks!
I'd say no thanks rating: 4.5 of 5 (www.teradyne.com)
Let's look at one of the biggest EDA companies out there, Synopsys. Their training costs are generally about $1800 USD in US. Even in India, their training costs are the same. But if you look at the same courses offered in China, they are about $300 USD. The material offered is pretty much required for most new grad/ entry level engineers. Does this difference in cost mean they're encouraging expansions in China or are Synopsys application engineers really that much cheaper?
1. When you pick your grad school, consider one that is in a city where a lot of related companies reside. Some of the classmates you see in your courses may be only part time students, and take advantage of the opportunity to find out more about the company he/she works for. Silicon Valley would be nice.
2. I did a thesis based masters in Canada and I have to say (through a lot of feedback from my friends) that Canadian profs like to keep their students for longer than they initially tell you. (Most of them are slave drivers, but that's discussion for another day). If you decide to do a thesis masters, try to find an internship/co-op position. When you're tired of your research and start to find it unchallenging, you still have your co-op job that'll really brighten up your CV.
3. A lot of jobs require masters or phds nowadays. If you're in electrical engineering, doing anything in rf/mixed-signal or EDA would require this. If you choose to be a software developer or digital designer, most companies don't ask for that.
4. CHOOSE YOUR PROFESSOR WISELY! This really depends on your personality as well. Some would hate ones that schedule meetings every week and nag them all the time. Other would would really want to have a prof that is proactive and has good research topics. Mine was neither and this can be VERY frustrating.
5. Funding. That's an obvious one.
6. For some of us, this may be the last time to be working on something you'd really want to be doing. Chances are your full time job may not be related to what you'll be working on during your degree.
This issue of deepchip has some interesting sections on outsourcing, how hiring really goes on behind the scenes, some interesting data and statistics
on actual hirings, and how much they spend on hiring people (new grads, monster, stealing people from other companies, etc).
very very interesting.
I was just trying to find where I can download a Debian Potato ISO that I can install on my PII 128MB. Not even debian has it linked from its own site. Browsers like firefox are so heavy but Mozilla Phoenix (0,4) is still available on mozilla's site and would be sufficient to do most things.... Would anyone know where I can find potato?
Actually, Taiwan has one of the largest fabs in the world. you might have heard of them - TSMC.
If you're in Canada, look up CMC - they fit several designs on die from different universities which makes it cheaper to manufacture because you'll no longer have to pay for more prototypes than you need to made.
ok, here's a list based on my experience with them during interviews and career fairs - and feedback from people i know.
;)
:)
Intel - they give noctoriously hard questions, with 3 rounds of interviews. but there were simple interviews where they only asked about course projects and not too much textbook material in too much depth. in the latter case, there was only 1 interview round before the candidate was hired.
Xilinx - phone screen - basic textbook material. onsite: presentation. multiple full day interviews based on in depth textbook material. the onsite was probably 20 times more difficult. Interviews were disorganized. They had a list of questions that they go through and some of them were repeated from one interviewer to the next. This was in the valley and some of the people seemed to have attitude and ego problems, and didn't like to listen to your answer when are multiple solutions to the interview question. The group looked like zombies, probably from all the overtime shifts.
Analog Devices - the campus onsite interviews are a complete waste of time. they're basically for PR purposes whether they're planning on hiring or not for the year. Questions they ask are generally simple, but I hear onsite interviews are always challenging. Recruiters at the career fairs are always excellent and informative. Company slide presentations are always disorganized - but we were engineering students - who really cares anyway
Teradyne - Campus onsite interviews are usually given by aluminus of the university. I have a theory that their company is sending these folks for interviewing is because these are the ones that have nothing else better to do at work - i.e., they can afford to send the non productive ones for these events... At the career fair, almost all of the recruiters think you don't know anything about the field and go through the whole process explaning everything. Perhaps it's their strategy - holding up a queue at their booth so it looks like they're generating a lot of popularity and interest! Some of them don't even know what they're talking about after working there for a couple of years.
NVidia - this one's the worst. They used to show up at the career fair and flat out refused people's CV right at the spot if their GPA is below 3.5. They would ask up front and basically tell you to buzz off if you "don't have what it takes". I know of someone who worked there as an intern and he basically had to go through their insane work hours. Oh, what happens to the ones that get past that absurd GPA screening? They sit you down at the back of the booth, and basically ask you technical problems which would take up to over an hour.
Synopsys - Very reasonable interviews. They ask really good questions and are not there to find out what you don't know, but what you do, and to really see what you're capable of. They're interested in seeing your thought process and would give you slight nudges in the right direction to see whether you catch on.
Anyway, my current job was found through monster. I had my interview, signed the offer and began work just within 9 day of submitting my application online. I'll not name the company here, but interview process was very reasonable, (see Synopsys - very similar). Very humane people and you had a sense of the great people you would be working with if hired. After graduating, it took me 3 months of job search before I found the job.
Amazing work environment - but that'll be for another time and a different story
the actual website of the house in BC is: http://alightchristmas.com/. You'll find actual video clips there.
Gotta love the way the folks in Singapore do it... "Integrity, Service, Excellence"!
gentlemen, with all the googling going on, we'll arrive at 3rd base in no time...
yep, but also notice the number of microsoft ads here on slashdot. linking to slashdot is adding exposure to their ads.
Sure, the professor's a fabricator, but he's no Fabrikant !
In other news, Quebec wants Google Earth to stop calling it a province of Canada :D
we know they're really going after the slashdot crowd in terms of their PR and marketing - i mean, posting a page like this on frontpage slashdot ON A FRIDAY? some people are going to have a "tough job in their hands" tonight (woohoo friday night)! And I'm not only talking about the sysadmins working overtime "taking care" of the servers' slashdotting...
http://www.soulmachine.net/wiki/index.php?title=En lightenment_on_Debian_unstable
or wear this t-shirt while playing
I hear the sound of incoming Apple Lawyers.
oh no no, that's just the sound of an echo, repeating itself!
if you see what's on tv, you'll find so many shows dedicated to doctors (ER, grey's acadamy, chicago hope) lawyers (law and order: special victims unit, criminal intent, trial by jury) and cops (CSI miami, ny).
you never hear anyone even mention engineers in movies or tv series. it's got to do with the social culture of the states. 100% of the political leaders in China have an engineering or science degree. In the states? none! (source: IEEE spectrum magazine June 2005).
hating microsoft doesn't mean that you have to like linux or apple.
most of the people that hate ms, including myself is having the feeling towards the company because we disagree with their questionable "ethics". we dont like the idea of a company producing zero "innovation" each year yet people are still being screwed with their software licenses. we dont like insecure software. we dont like having things installed on our computers by default that we don't want - and an OS that blocks us from deleting them. we dont like an OS that forbids us from playing music and movies under DRM.
sure, microsoft has been a "pioneer", but they've got pretty much the same number of years (roughly) to get things right?
i like linux because it's free, secure and common tasks are easily scriptable. a lot of things are easier to do for my research - but that has nothing to do with hating microsoft (eventhough the two are inclusive here amongst the slashdot crowd i agree). i agree that ms office is sufficient to do a lot of the tasks.
why was this article even posted on the frontpage in the first place?
anybody notice that slashdot is removed from the list of news site that can be customized on google.com/ig? well now you can import any RSS feed now by specifying the rss url, but it's no longer part of the default list. just click on "add content" on the top left and you'll see what i mean.
;)
(hehe yes, slashdot is a *cough* news site
well i can see it being much easier to clean and wipe. no need to worry about water seeping through the holes and gaps of the mouse.