I’m pretty thankful I’ve been given the opportunity to get out…I don’t know how long the new opportunity will last, but I think staying in the semiconductor industry when you are a software guy is an extremely career limiting move. The good old days of software selling hardware are over.[/quote]
It probably is a smart move to get to a sw-focused company, not a hw focused company.
However, there are still some opportunities in hardware – at least in the Bay Area.
Indications are very very strong that both Apple (mostly a hw company) and Google (mostly a sw company) are posturing themselves to enter the automotive business.
I’m looking forward to it. With the exception of Tesla, it has been a long long time since the US has had a successful new car company come along. And the jury’s still out on whether Tesla will survive.
My son is a car nut and in the bay area – he’s salivating at the opportunities arising all around him up there.[/quote]
I think there’s a huge market for IOT devices and great opportunities for both software and hardware guys/gals. But I think to expect them to come out of a semiconductor company is unrealistic. Chip companies aren’t usually good at coming up with customer end user products. I’m not going to a pure software company. I just don’t want to work in the semiconductor industry anymore, where you’re at the bottom of the food chain in what is given to a customer.
The way it works is you have a customer like a cell provider that screams at at a phone OEM to deliver a phone cheaper and sooner. And then you have the OEM scream at the chip suppliers to deliver things faster and cheaper. Being at the bottom of the food chain, well, sucks.
