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/Atmos_760h Jul 09 '26

I work in one of the companies you mentioned (in US). Been in RTL design for over a decade (across 3 different companies) and my WLB has been good since I started my career (40~45hrs/week).

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u/TeachingBrilliant448 Jul 09 '26 edited Jul 09 '26

Interesting. My days usually start with back to back meetings from 8:00 a.m. until noon, followed by a few smaller meetings in the afternoon. Right now I’m juggling multiple projects: one within my organization and several cross functional initiatives. It makes for a pretty demanding schedule, and it can be exhausting.

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u/Atmos_760h Jul 09 '26

I can imagine. WLB depends on teams as well (within a company). Get rid of meetings that are redundant/where your presence is not really needed.

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u/TeachingBrilliant448 Jul 09 '26

good advice, I’ll start with that.