There have been a few posts recently where I have had to point out what the current state of the US electronics industry. This is going to cause butthurt among US readers but it is not really for their consumption. It is for British and Commonwealth Engineers mostly and a current WARNING ABOUT MOVING TO THE US FOR MONEY.
1. Many engineers move to the US because of the Money - its true the pay is generally higher. By all means come to the US for a while and take the money but when the job ends be prepared to move back. Do not cut your ties or contacts.
Nobody knows the future, so you should never burn bridges, and its probably a good idea to keep them well maintained as well. (America take note. Maintain your bridges
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2. The problem is that most US companies no longer have sound business strategies - they have been almost completely reliant on supplying components and equipment to China.
Yep. America has retreated into component supply, leaving most equipment making to Asia. Now Asia is catching up on components, too. The most advanced silicon fabs are in Asia, and they are catching up fast on system and circuit design.
3. China has pivoted and the CCP now has spent many billions lifting and acquiring electronics capability from advanced ARM processors to Cell phone chips and everything in between. They had a 5G Chipset about 5 years ahead of the US which is why the iPhone is still not 5G (forget the hype - its not). They are working on it now. They are looking at a 5G rollout in 2025. The Chinese are doing it now.
Right now China is a strange mix of good and bad in silicon design. It is not clear how long it will take them to really achieve parity or superiority across a broad range of product types. Especially those for high reliability applications, where expertise in China is still weak. However, an interesting point for this discussion is that when a US company starts up a new design team it is more likely to be in China or India than in the US.
4. As a result of the CCP direct investment there is a directive to not buy or buy as little (often to copy) from the US as possible.
The CCP's silicon efforts don't usually work out very well. As in other countries, the government program money has a habit of ending up in someone's pocket, while the real innovation occurs elsewhere. One thing a Chinese business can usually rely on is that if it gets something to work it can get the finance needed to expand rapidly... and in China rapid tends to mean REALLY rapid.
5. Since the US has been buying from China they no longer have the design capability left. If you go into the large corporations what heavy hitting designers they have are 9/10 from China, India and the rest of the world anyway. US engineers are typically doing rote operational tasks as few if them go on to graduate design work.
9/10 is an exaggeration, but you don't see that many advanced young American engineers in the US sites of US companies. The young Americans are more likely to be in technician roles. There are plenty of senior Americans, who started when Americans found a career in electronics more appealing, who are hoping to retire before the jobs completely dry up.
6. I have notice over the last 10 years there has been a general trend of a lot less of these heavy hitters staying in the US. Many are returning home - you would not stay in the US with the lack of investment and work when your home country is providing opportunities left and right. Typically this has been happening in recent years with mass layoffs - getting more than 5 years out of a US company is a trick. Sometimes you get less than a year. It's unbelievable how bad the management and investment situation is these days.
You need to look at countries individually. China has a huge number of engineers in Chinese companies, and some engineers in foreign companies. India has a huge number of engineers in foreign companies, and some engineers in Indian companies. The Chinese will do just fine in China, as long as the electronics industry does well. The Indians in India rely on foreign companies prospering. For them its just an issue of which country they are located in. These days they are often paid better to work in India, and the cost of living is lower there.
7. 9 out of 10 foreign heavy hitters I know are only here for the money. The lifestyle elsewhere is just as good or better - even in China as long as you stay out of politics. Again forget the hype. You will also miss family and notice the asshole factor rises 10x. When I first arrived the phone rang off the hook besides it being a private number. Every bastard was trying to con me into buying something. And that repeats every time you move house - in the end you only answer numbers you know.
Well, duh! Who'da thought that?
8. Because of the growth in Chinese and Indian markets and some others - actually having stayed in ones home countries these last 20 years, while your pay may have been lower you have probably come out ahead in terms of capital gains on property. The US has had little of that - you needed to be in Silicon Valley in the 80s and 90s to have experienced that. It's been flat since, and many pensions have been openly traded on the market leading to large losses. Just be careful
See point 6, above.
9. Because they can't sell a paper bag a lot of these businesses are hiring the heavy hitters because they are desperate - they then go out of business because they have no strategy. I have known engineers that moved 12 times in 2 years. In the end you get sick of it or divorced. I have never received and offer for a job where I was not lied to either about what I would be designing or the prospects for the company.
Short lived companies are a normal thing in every country, and across time. There seems to develop a pool of people who keep getting employed by those companies, and another pool that stays in a successful company for many years. I'm sure sociologists could find something interesting in those dynamics.
10. Housing is cheap - you can buy a house - if you can keep your job long enough. If you are a design engineer that is becoming increasingly difficult - remember most americans are not that well qualified and end up in the safer operational roles - but these are as boring as hell. They never question anything - the only ones that do are the foreign engineers who can see things going to shit. There is a lot of fear and a culture of backing the team in the US. This usually leads straight off the cliff.
So, you were not in California. Housing prices vary over a huge range in the US. When you see a US salary you have to look at the location. Housing can turn a very nice looking salary into a poverty level one.
11. If you are a design engineer you will find also a similar group of foreign engineers who are quite shit and are chasing the money in management. Avoid them - they are just as bad as the US management. Money does weird things to people and attracts assholes.
Some people are driven by opportunity. Some are driven by greed. I guess you have had too many encounters with the latter.
12. Its mostly at will work. They will fire you on the spot and walk you out. That is standard practice. My co-worker was fired in the lobby with no severance and the loss of all stock options. It's brutal - and people are practicing almost no integrity or honor in business.
This is complex. US companies vary a lot in how much of a hire 'em, fire 'em culture they have. If you look at the ones who lay people off at the slightest sign of trouble, they tend to be the ones who last. So, the people who remain in those companies seem to have more long term security at the expense of those laid off.
So my advice to all you grad students and engineers out there who are looking at the US for money. Yes try it out for the money - maybe you can get lucky. But you will get laid off in a few years most likely - just remember that when thinking everything is rosy and you buy a house. Every job I have had seemed great and then turned on a dime. You go from happy to oh-shit in a matter of months. Management typically hide the reality from employees like a closely guarded secret until it hits. So I can't tell you not to come because human nature always things the grass is greener on the other side. It never is. The money you see is just fertilizer in a sea of shit. Some of you will need to experience it to believe it.
For the rest of you who are on the fence (I was), stay at home - keep electronics as a sideline - maybe your own part time business and retrain in something suitable for the service economy. The reality is - regardless of all the hype - I have realized that I could run an electronics company anywhere in the world. Almost nothing apart from design happens in the US and most of that design is happening by foreign engineers anyway. So if you are inclined stay at home and do it - but do something else to pay the bills. Is the the electronics is successful you will make your fortune. You could work for someone in the US doing the same thing but when it fails you will be unemployed and then have to move and scramble for your next job.
In my view its not worth it. Bite the bullet and accept that your university trained you in an area where there are no jobs and didn't give a shit about you forcing you to roam the world for work. If you love electronics like I do thats fine - keep doing it but get some other qualifications to back you up and pay the bills so you can have a stable family.
That's my advice - I never received it - but I think it really needs to be said. If you come to the US come with your eyes open and be prepared to move and be flexible. Maybe hold off on getting married until later in life.
The electronics equipment business started deskilling in the early 90s, with many of the most capable people moving into the silicon vendors, to do system design there. Now those people are seeing a weak future in the silicon vendors too. It would take some radical breakthroughs to breath serious life back into the industry.
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