How to prepare and apply for hardware engineering jobs
A guide especially for new college grads and early in career engineers
The process of applying and interviewing for a job is always stressful, it doesn’t matter if you’re a new college graduate or a seasoned engineer of 15 years.
This article offers a 3-step guide on how to prepare and apply for your first, or next, job in hardware engineering.
🔒 For members, I’ve also included an extensive spreadsheet of 100 companies in hardware engineering to kickstart your search.
Step 1: Understanding the available opportunities
The journey of a chip or a hardware system, from conception to finished product, involves a number of sub-specializations in hardware engineering.
By accepting a job offer, you’re not just picking the company but also which specialization to focus your career on. So, the first step is to get a good understanding of the lay of the land.
While doing my graduate studies, I fell into this trap of applying only for jobs related to the subjects I had studied, because I felt these were the only interviews I could crack.
In hindsight, there were several opportunities in the neighborhood of my expertise that were worth considering. So, understand the lay of the land and confidently cast a wide net.
Step 2: Applying for the job
Once you have a grasp of the opportunities out there, the next step is figuring out how to reach them effectively.
Tailor your resume
A single resume is insufficient. Create multiple versions of your resume tailored to different roles.
Depending on the job description and what that company does, minor tweaks to your resume to highlight pertinent skills can significantly increase your chances of getting that call.
Referrals work
Referrals are better than a blind application to a job listing. They often get your resume seen faster and by the right people.
Leverage your network — friends, alumni, family, and acquaintances. Let people know you’re actively looking.
Cold emailing is okay
Don’t hesitate to reach out to people on LinkedIn. A cold email is totally acceptable if it’s polite, direct, and genuine.
The worst they can do is not reply. In the best-case, you get a referral or even an interview.
Step 3: Preparing for the interview
The mindset
Your goal should be — if you get the interview, you should have a near 100% chance of converting it into an offer.
You leave nothing on the table. The only reason why you should walk away without an offer is because they were just exploring to see if you would work and there was a genuine mismatch.
Know your work
Almost always, the first question will be about your past experience. It sounds obvious, but the ability to clearly explain your past work is the first step towards success in your interview. This is where you make that first impression.
You should rehearse your answers so that they are clear and concise. You’ll be anxious as it is, so don’t try to look for the right words during the interview.
I’ve made this mistake myself. I was once asked about a patent I had filed 8 years earlier. I hadn’t revisited the work beforehand and, in that moment, I blanked. It made my look unprepared and maybe even dishonest.
It is critical to revisit and rehearse your own experience before the interview.
Understand the surrounding 20%
As a principle, you should strive to understand not just your own work but its surrounding 20% as well. While it is not practical to know everything, this is a good general approach to any problem or project that’s assigned to you.
This extra 20% would help you understand the history behind this particular problem, studying other comparable designs, and what has and has not worked. This depth shows that you’re not just a doer but a thinker as well.
Standing out as a new college grad
As a new grad, your resume might look like a hundred others. So how do you stand out? How do you make a good first impression during your interview?
Personality and communication skills: Personality is something that can be worked on. Things like how you speak and present yourself matter. Interviews are not just about your technical chops.
Stay curious and well-read:
When you go through a panel of interviews, for a portion of the interview you can rely on your past work/project experience.
But, there will be technical questions which you haven’t directly worked on. Being well-read (i.e., knowing what companies in your industry are doing and the top papers published) will help you come up with a hypothesis and give a good thoughtful answer (even if its incorrect).
This also shows your willingness to learn and become good at your craft.
What interviewers are looking for
As someone who interviews candidates and helps build teams, I can tell you that my evaluation boils down to three things:
Personality: Can I imagine working with this person for the next 3,5 or 8 years? Are they respectful, open, and articulate?
Technical Aptitude: This isn’t about IQ. It’s about the quality of your past work, how well you know your industry, and can you apply your knowledge creatively to problems you haven’t exactly seen before.
Willingness and Ambition: How much do you care about the quality of your work. How important is it for you to get better at your craft?
List of 100 companies
That’s it for this edition. To kickstart your job search, I’ve prepared a spreadsheet with 100 semiconductor companies based in North America.
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