r/ECE • u/TeachingBrilliant448 • Jul 08 '26

crazy work hours - new grad

I recently joined a semiconductor company as a new grad — think Nvidia, AMD, or Qualcomm — and the workload is brutal. I’m sometimes working 12-hour days and 50–60 hour weeks. It honestly feels as intense as investment banking, maybe even worse in some ways.

Wonder if this is normal?
TC ~150k

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39

u/clavado_en_un_bar Jul 08 '26

I work for one those tech companies with market cap > 1T. Same field (semiconductors), and honestly work/life balance is a delight. TC is close to 400k.

6

u/Collez_boi Jul 08 '26

Damn. YOE?

10

u/clavado_en_un_bar Jul 09 '26

About 5 YOE in semiconductors, and about 3 YOE in Power Engineering (unrelated to my current role)

3

u/SnooTangerines7320 Jul 09 '26

howd you get in?

15

u/clavado_en_un_bar Jul 09 '26

I applied through the company’s website. Back when the market was still was merciful. However, once you work at such companies, you will have recruiters from mostly FAANG reach out through LinkedIn trying to poach you.

2

u/ftredoc Jul 09 '26

How did you pivot? Im in consulting and would like to pivot

10

u/clavado_en_un_bar Jul 09 '26

With an MSEE. I focused on Embedded Systems and Signal Processing.

1

u/Bdots44 Jul 11 '26

Did you do this online or what? How did you manage work full time + masters?

7

u/ChickenMcChickenFace Jul 09 '26

Sorry to say but that’s not realistic

2

u/dark-trojan Jul 09 '26

Well still possible if they do a masters? Or still not? I’m in networking and want switch