'The father of the transistor' William Shawley left the Bell Labs and got an investment before he was able to create the Shockley Lab. The famous 'eight traitors' left the Shockley Lab and got a long distance. A venture capital investment on the East Coast of the United States, Fairchild Semiconductor was established, which is also recognized as a sign of the birth of Silicon Valley.
Nowadays, the prosperous semiconductor industry has a structural 'talent shortage'. Why is this? How to solve this problem? Please see the experience of international leading manufacturers and the treatment of 'pharmacy'. (Li Yanxia)
Guide
Frequent talent flow has long been a tradition of the Silicon Valley semiconductor industry. Lin Jianhong believes that this and the long-term success of the US semiconductor industry are likely to be mutually causal. The free flow of talent, representing the prosperity of the overall industry behind, also represents the company has Enough funds to dig corners, or the overall environment encourages investment and entrepreneurship.
See also layoffs.
This time, it is in the booming semiconductor industry.
In its second quarter earnings report for the 2018 fiscal year submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Broadcom said that after the completion of the acquisition of Brocade Communications in November 2017, the company began to reduce the acquisition related to the acquisition in the first quarter of this year. Costs, and have completed about 1,100 people, involving layoffs in all of the company's business units. Broadcom also said that the company is further evaluating its resource allocation and business needs, and may cancel more positions.
According to foreign media reports, in March, it successfully 'resisted' Qualcomm's hostile Qualcomm acquisition, and in order to honor the investors' commitment to cut $1 billion in expenses, it has begun to lay off 1,500 people, and this may still It is only part of the company's employee reduction plan.
This seems to be somewhat inconsistent with the semiconductor industry's prosperity. According to the International Semiconductor Equipment and Materials Association (SEMI), 2017 is a year in which the semiconductor industry has broken through various records: Global chip revenues increased 22% year-on-year to nearly $450 billion; 2018 In the year, the IC is expected to achieve a growth of 7%.
However, SEMI has repeatedly said this year that the global semiconductor industry is facing a structural shortage of talent. The president of the association, Ajit Manocha, said that its member companies have thousands of vacancies in the Silicon Valley region alone. The number is more than 10,000.
However, there is no contradiction between the layoffs of large factories and the structural shortage of talents. Lin Jianhong, research manager of TB Consulting's Tuoba Industrial Research Institute, believes that there are many sub-areas and sub-items in the semiconductor industry, and there are different application areas. Different fields, such as abolishing FAE engineers, have turned to increasing AI-related talents. ' He said, 'The global talents' corresponding work structure will be short-term short-term.'
The White Paper on China's IC Industry Talents (2016-2017) also shows that the total number of IC practitioners in China is currently less than 300,000, and the talent gap is 400,000. Compared with developed countries in Europe and America, those with more than 10 years of experience are Less. The huge talent gap has become one of the keys to restricting the development of China's integrated circuit industry.
The semiconductor industry 'talent shortage'?
On July 25, Liu Wei, deputy dean of the School of Information Science and Engineering at Fudan University, told the 21st Century Business Herald that the shortage of talent in the global semiconductor industry that SEMI is worried about is different in different regions. 'In China, because of us Starting late, developing fast, so you need to train a large number of talents.'
In the United States, it is because in the process of industrial transfer, many manufacturers have chosen to transfer manufacturing plants to Asia and other places, while retaining the front-end design in the local, which will inevitably lead to a weakening of the demand for talent.
'At that time, there was less demand, and fewer students were selected to pursue relevant majors. ' Liu Wei said, 'In addition, American companies have also experienced brain drain, including many of the Asian companies in South Korea’s Samsung and early Japan, and many of them are from the United States. The business flowed out. '
With the resurgence of local manufacturing in the United States in recent years, the consequences of the slowdown in local talent training and brain drain have gradually begun to appear. Liu Wei believes that the reasons for the lack of people in Europe are similar or even worse than the United States, 'this has caused the present The situation is lacking everywhere in the world. '
An observation by a Silicon Valley semiconductor practitioner also confirms this. She once pointed out to the 21st Century Business Herald that due to the slowdown in fresh blood injection in recent years, the average age of employees in some US companies is significantly larger than that of China. The age of employees in Asian companies.
On July 3, Li Wei, Director of Human Resources of Applied Materials China, told reporters that compared with China, the age structure of American semiconductor industry practitioners is indeed high. In terms of Applied Materials, globally, The age of employees in China's branches should be relatively young. 'She said, 'Applied Materials America has been continually recruiting new graduates in the past two years, and has worked hard on the attraction, training and retention of recent graduates.'
Leadership experience
Frequent talent flow has long been a tradition of the Silicon Valley semiconductor industry. Lin Jianhong believes that this and the long-term success of the US semiconductor industry are likely to be mutually causal.
'The free flow of talents, representing the prosperity of the overall industry behind, also means that the company has enough funds to dig corners, or the overall environment encourages investment and entrepreneurship.' He said, 'On the other hand, the free transfer of talent also symbolizes the company has the opportunity. More yuan, more powerful, this is the progress of talent transfer to the overall industry. '
In contrast, the fixed pattern of talents from entry to retirement in Japanese corporate culture is considered by the outside world to hinder innovation and the injection of fresh blood.
Lin Jianhong believes that the end-to-end employment model may cause manufacturers to follow the existing profit model, so that the industry's ability to cope with change will decline. 'In the face of the industry's need for new business models due to changes in economies of scale, the strain of Japanese semiconductor manufacturers The speed is slow, which is not only caused by the slow flow of talents, but also related to the thinking of its group operations for a long time. ' He said.
However, Lin Jianhong also pointed out: 'Any technology company, especially a good technology company, must have a group of backbones that are long-serving.'
In Applied Materials, the diversity of the talent team is critical to the company. 'This also includes age diversity. We hope that our talent age is multi-layered, old, medium and green.' Express.
In addition, in addition to a series of 'star' programs for long-term talent development, providing a platform for employees to develop globally is also an important part of the company's talent strategy. Li Wei told reporters that during his 11 years of application materials company, almost every year They will send Chinese talents to other regional branches, 'let them go overseas and send them back to China after a while.'
According to her, there are currently more than 20 Chinese employees in the US headquarters of Applied Materials, as well as in Singapore and Europe.
At present, there are many talents in the Applied Materials China company from Taiwan, Korea, Japan, the United States and Europe and other countries and regions where the integrated circuit industry is leading. 'These talents are very important to the company, they are experienced and can help us to cultivate together. Local talent. 'Li Wei said.
'Applied Materials hopes to cultivate a truly innovative leader through professional and targeted talent development programs, especially in materials engineering solutions for integrated circuits and advanced display manufacturing. We especially hope to cultivate More industry leaders with a global perspective. 'She said.
In the semiconductor industry, the importance of leading talents is self-evident. Take the current CEO of SMIC, Liang Mengsong, as an example. Several 're-employment's have played an important role in the development of several companies.
In 1992, Liang Mengsong, a former US chipmaker AMD, joined TSMC. In the 17 years of TSMC, he made an important contribution to the rapid rise of the latter. The Taiwanese media once said that he successfully developed 130nm 'copper for TSMC in 2003. The 'corner' of the process.
According to PricewaterhouseCoopers data compiled by Statista, the global wafer foundry industry market reached US$24.4 billion in 2008, and TSMC’s financial report for the year showed that its revenue in 2008 had reached NT$333.2 billion (at the current exchange rate). About $10.17 billion)
At the beginning of 2009, Liang Mengsong left TSMC and officially joined South Korea's Samsung Electronics in 2011. Since then, the company, which was once called “a small point on the radar” by TSMC founder Zhang Zhongmou, successfully won the Apple iPhone 6s through the 14-nanometer process. Important orders such as the A9 chip and Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 chip, let TSMC prepare for the 16-nanometer process for many years.
In October 2017, Liang Mengsong officially joined SMIC, and served as the co-CEO. He also headed the R&D department. In June 2018, it was reported that SMIC's latest 14-nanometer FinFET process is nearing completion and trial production is good. The rate has reached 95%, and the goal of formal mass production in 2019 seems to be not far off.
Find the 'talent shortage' good medicine
In recent years, China is committed to the development of the integrated circuit industry, and hopes to achieve the development of the entire industry chain.
Li Wei believes that compared with mainland China, the semiconductor industries in Japan, South Korea, the United States, Europe and Taiwan all started earlier. 'China is developing rapidly after the establishment of the IC industry big fund in 2014, and it has experienced ups and downs before.' She said, 'From the perspective of the industry itself, China has not yet formed a relatively systematic industrial chain, and it lags behind the above-mentioned regions in the industrial environment.' In her view, China still has a distance from the development of the 'full industrial chain'.
'Our industry and companies are still more inclined to manufacture.' She said, 'In the entire integrated circuit industry, the core technology of the enterprise may not be so competitive. In addition, the enterprise is not so mature, and the industrial chain is limited. In such a big environment, I personally think that our talent cultivation may also be more biased towards back-end manufacturing.
Lin Jianhong believes that the current global semiconductor talent pattern is first-class research and development in the United States, Japan, Europe, and first-class projects in South Korea and Taiwan. The United States, Japan, and Europe benefit from more diversified industries, talents are not concentrated in semiconductors, and there is a wider range of basic research. Talents can lead the introduction of new technologies through cross-disciplinary exchanges; while Taiwan and South Korea have achieved rapid rise in the semiconductor industry in the past two or three decades, but the concentration of industries has led to the concentration of top talent in engineering.
He said that if China's semiconductor industry is limited to the role of 'catch-up', it will lead the cultivation of talents to the engineering field, 'but China itself is a big market country, with diverse industries, and should have the opportunity to cultivate first-class R&D personnel. . '
'The growth of the entire industry still needs a process. ' Li Wei said, 'Limited by the industrial environment, and our lack of part of the entire industry chain, our company lacks some experts in the industry, the master, can lead young People, provide them with a good learning platform. '
Therefore, she believes that as a global leader in materials engineering solutions, Applied Materials has many partners around the world. There are also many industry experts in China. The employees can access some of the most advanced concepts in the world, and their new products are also very popular. Block, this gives employees the opportunity to access the most advanced technology.
Outside the enterprise, school-enterprise cooperation may be a good way to cultivate talents. Liu Wei, deputy dean of Fudan University's School of Information Science and Engineering, and Li Wei, director of human resources of Applied Materials China, pointed out to reporters that in the training of semiconductor talents. Universities and enterprises are bound to join forces.
In recent years, Applied Materials has conducted preliminary cooperation with a number of domestic top universities including Fudan University and Tsinghua University through the establishment of regular series of professional lectures on campus.
Liu has worked for a long time in the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and Motorola Semiconductor (the predecessor of Freescale, which has been acquired by NXP). In his view, thanks to the early start of the industry, the United States has a large number of Technicians with considerable experience go to colleges and universities after leaving the company. Most of these technicians have long served in key positions in leading semiconductor companies.
On the other hand, the US semiconductor companies have also formed a very complete training mechanism, which is also related to the background of talents sent by American universities. 'We have a misunderstanding that the integrated circuit company must be a microelectronics professional. However, there are few specialized microelectronics majors and departments in American universities. ' Liu Wei said, 'Semiconductor companies need talents from all aspects, including materials, chemistry, physics and many other backgrounds.'
Due to the late start of the industry, Chinese companies and universities are still difficult to meet on these two points. Therefore, Liu Wei believes that based on the current university, the basic education, principle teaching, corporate training is targeted and applied. The status quo, whether it is the technical training of enterprises to colleges, or the basic training of colleges and universities, the combination of the two sides is very necessary.
'The results of our seminar on application materials are very good.' He said that cooperation with industry leaders also needs to work together to expand the audience and be more targeted.