From Technician to Scientist: My Journey in the Semiconductor Industry

[Israel Eydelson]

Humans,

My name is Israel, I'm an Israeli-American from Russian descent. I live in New York state, recently started an undergrad physics program trying to satiate a lifelong fascination with the subject.

I worked as a process technician in the semiconductor industry straight out of high school. I am brand new to the academic circle, trying to minimize my own stupidity and putting in the "leg work" in my understanding of reality. I come with a variety of unfortunate habits in the form of procrastination and video game addictions which I am looking forward to losing over time. Hopefully I can adopt better practices and priorities learning from the advice and experiences of more educated individuals.

Thank you for your hospitality and I hope to contribute positively through this journey without wasting your precious time.

 

[erick rocha]

How did you manage to get a job as technician straight out of high school??

 

[Israel Eydelson]

How did you manage to get a job as technician straight out of high school??

Referrals through family members that work for the company. I started off doing simple qualifications of equipment and monitoring SPC data for various processes. I got promoted a couple years in and started recovering product and reprocessing as well as delving deeper into equipment qualification.

It's mostly mindless, there are standard procedures in-place for everything and it's extremely oversimplified. It was dumbed down so much that the majority of technicians and engineers on shift could be replaced by a script.