News

According to LinkedIn’s 2020 emerging jobs report, it’s a great time to be an engineer. In this recent report, more than half of the top emerging jobs in the U.S. are in engineering fields. For job seekers looking to shift into an up-and-coming career path, it’s a good idea to invest in some of the most in-demand engineering skills.

In our research and findings, we gathered information based on salary, annual growth, top skill sets, and industry forecasts to give you a list of the five fastest-growing engineering and tech jobs of 2020.

Over the past few years, organizations have had to face increasingly taxing challenges in the tech industry and the labor market. This year is no exception. When the competition for talent is rising and the work in the tech industry becomes more complex, project managers need to make proactive decisions to engage engineers and assess their workload.

With the start of 2020, now is the perfect time to set the right intentions and chart the best course for your team. Here are a few ways to do that:

In 2019, we witnessed massive breakthroughs and seismic industry shifts that shaped how we work, live, travel, and share ideas. Major telecom carriers are offering 5G-capable devices for faster connections. Students and professionals can ride in fully autonomous shuttles or employees buses. And an anonymous but searchable tool for drug development and health studies can help aggregate trillions of data points for research and drug manufacturers.

As we wrap up another year, it’s time to look at what happened in the past quarter with a roundup of news, technological breakthroughs, and industry trends. This was a busy quarter, with legislation updates for scientific funding, an energy-efficient device that bends light, a new method for transforming silicon, and more. Let’s take a look at what’s happened in the last few months:

Most semiconductor engineers have a similar mission: planning, executing, delivering, and optimizing cutting-edge products. That takes meticulous and thoughtful foresight, planning, processes, and resources — all of which stem from sustained research and development (R&D) efforts.

While R&D is foundational in every chip company, recent profound shifts in the industry call for a different approach. KPMG’s 14th semiconductor outlook report found that due to challenging market conditions, R&D and innovation ranks first in strategic priority. Semiconductor companies are innovating and growing revenue in new ways without massive investments in scaling. Many are also in partnerships with suppliers, foundries, system, and fabless companies, which demands a focus on value chain coordination. Moreover, the need to push new products within the critical ramp period increases R&D costs.

Design planning has never been easy for semiconductor engineers. Between front-end and back-end engineers building functional and error-free features quickly, designers are under the same pressure to manage complex design constraints and mandates efficiently. 

For automakers, everything is in flux. 

Four big disruptions— automated cars, connected vehicles, electric vehicles, and shared-vehicle technology — create new mobility solutions for drivers and various industries. At the same time, this new innovation comes with a host of financial and technical issues. Additionally, the impact of Uber and Tesla pedestrian fatalities has led government agencies and engineers to rethink safety and security measures.

For years, semiconductor innovation has heated up the competition between big chip players like Nvidia and Intel, as well as tech giants like Facebook and Amazon. Now, chip companies face a new competitive challenge: making chips for specific purposes as opposed to competing on performance edge or price.

Every industry has its own stressful work environments, but working as a semiconductor professional comes with a unique set of stressors and challenges. While it can be tempting to work with an iron willpower despite the pressure, this can lead to burnout and low productivity. It's critical to stay cool during your day-to-day operations.

As summer winds down and we welcome fall, it’s time to look back at the last few months in semiconductor industry news. In this issue, we’ll look at mid-year semiconductor sales numbers, the bill to end the employment-based visa process, MIT’s battery-free sensor, and Samsung’s newest 5G technology.