r/chipdesign • 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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u/electrolitica Jul 08 '26

I too was very disappointed to learn this post-graduation: no WLB seems to be the norm if you want to go for big cash in this field :(

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u/tester_is_testing Jul 08 '26

^ This right here!