Displaying posts in the categoryCareer Advice
Career Advice articles
Top10
Why learning AI prompting as a career skill is the wrong bet, and what to do instead How LinkedIn influencers mislead millions, and where the real opportunities in AI lie. Prompting is a useful everyday skill, but it is a poor thing to build a career on. It is easy to copy, it changes every time the models change, and the tools are increasingly doing it for you. The lasting value in AI sits in the layers around the prompt: data, integration…
by
Murugavel Ganesan
August 26, 2025
Video
How do you compete with AI and win? In this TEDxBoston talk, HubSpot co-founder and CTO Dharmesh Shah argues that the question is usually misread. Competing against AI is a losing game; competing with it, as a tool you use better than others do, is how individuals and teams come out ahead. His summary line: AI will not take your job, but someone using AI might, and AI may well take your job and hand you a better one. Key takeaways Read &…
by
Murugavel Ganesan
August 08, 2025
Top10
Service roles in semiconductors are a strong career choice, not a fallback. A good design services firm puts an engineer on several chips, clients, tool flows and process nodes in the time a product engineer might spend on one block of one chip. That breadth builds skill, judgement and a network quickly. Product roles still offer depth, ownership and stability, so the right choice depends on what you want from the next three to five years. A co…
by
Murugavel Ganesan
July 08, 2025
Semiconductor Industry
Before joining a semiconductor startup, ask whether it is worth betting the next few years of your career on, not only whether it is exciting. Check four things: a realistic strategy and roadmap, credible leadership, enough funding to reach the next milestone, and a hiring plan that matches the work. The Startup Evaluation Quiz on this blog turns those checks into a structured set of questions you can answer before you accept an offer. This pos…
by
Murugavel Ganesan
July 01, 2025
Technology
AI is changing semiconductor jobs task by task rather than wiping out whole professions overnight. The roles most exposed are those built on repetitive, rules-based work: routine circuit optimisation and layout, manual test writing, routine defect classification, transactional planning and first-line technical support. People in those roles can move towards supervising AI tools, handling exceptions, validating AI output and making strategic deci…
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Murugavel Ganesan
April 06, 2025
Semiconductor Industry
The Digital Electronics Blog accepts guest posts from academics, researchers, graduating students, job seekers, hobbyists and independent engineers. If you can explain an emerging technology, a design technique or a practical tip clearly and accurately, send a short pitch or a draft to the editor at the address below. Submissions are open all year, and accepted posts are credited to you and promoted on the blog's social channels. Image co…
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Murugavel Ganesan
April 01, 2025
Semiconductor Industry
You can screen a candidate well in ten minutes if you decide in advance what you are checking and ask the same short set of questions every time. A good screen tests six things: relevance to the role, communication, problem solving, fit with how the team works, adaptability and motivation. It does not try to replace the technical interview; it decides who deserves one. Hiring the right talent quickly is crucial, especially for engineering team…
by
Murugavel Ganesan
November 20, 2024
Semiconductor Industry
The best free leadership cheat sheets are short references you can return to before a hard conversation, a delegation decision or a team review. This page collects the ones I have found most useful: four general cheat sheets and guides, and a set of twelve resources compiled by Eric Partaker, with notes on what each is good for and how to use them without turning leadership into a checklist. Key takeaways Cheat sheets are prompts for thin…
by
Murugavel Ganesan
December 26, 2023
Semiconductor Manufacturing
The Kaizen way of questioning is a simple root cause method: you state a problem, ask "why" it happens, then ask "why" again of each answer, usually about five times, until you reach a cause you can actually fix. You then switch to "what" can remove that cause and "how" to put the fix in place. Known as the 5 Whys, it grew out of the Toyota Production System and is still one of the quickest ways for a te…
by
Murugavel Ganesan
September 16, 2023
Top10
The ten interview questions below come up in almost every job interview, from graduate roles to senior engineering positions. Each one is really testing something specific: your story, your fit, your judgement under pressure or your self-awareness. A winning answer is short, specific and backed by one real example, and it ties back to what the role needs. For each question you will find what the interviewer is looking for, a sample answer and a …
by
Murugavel Ganesan
August 31, 2023
