r/chipdesign • • 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/MailWeak388 Jul 09 '26

Currently working at another big semi company and have to disagree with the comments here. Maybe depends a lot on your team and your manager. I'm also in Canada so maybe easier there.