Hi everyone. I am now having a hard time in choosing which company to work for after graduate. I've received offer from Altera and Intel PDC. Altera offers the permanent position of Product Engineer. While Intel offers Graduate Trainee in Penang Design Center under the groups of cpu design, chipset design and circuit design. There will be discussion on which group I will be placed sometime later for Intel's offers.

For me, the area that I prefer is IC design. You might ask why not Intel then. The main reason will be the GT position offered as it is 1 year contract based. I would like to hear for some opinions before i make the decision. Thanks in advance.

y r u so worried about being on a contract? u have just stepped onto working environment. c'mon man have some confidence in ur ability to obtain tat permanent position... if u feel that u r happy and interested in that role.. go for it o else u will regret it next time for not being able to take up the challenge in contractual position...

Altera, Intel moving to Vietnam in coming year.

who told you Intel is moving? whole company going? or PDC going? or IT going?

Go for Intel ..... PE job scope is not as interesting as IC Design. A lot of the skills that you can learned in PE are mostly limited to the Altera products.

i encountered the same case as u before
i got job offer from intel as circuit design engineer (GT) and altera design engineer

altera adv over intel

1. intel offers GT (which less benefit compared to altera.eg: shares)
2. i believe the intel environment does not suit me(personal view,might varies with dept in intel)
3. after u work in altera and go to intel, u r not GT anymore and get all the benefits as permanent
4. if u r GT, u cant do everything. u r just some backup engineers (which u might be treated as industrial trainee). in altera , if u r given a project, u r fully authorized and accessible to it. thus, i assume some of the GT's (but not apply to all, depend on which dept u working/who is ur boss) are just recording the datas on circuit characteristics, writing report etc (this is wat my friend doing there when he was a GT)

intel adv over altera
1. after u converted to permanent (often after 6 months to 1 year) u will get more benefit from intel compared to altera. but if u work for short term(eg. 6 months to 1 year) altera is paying more
2. u can get experience more (whole production line from design -> manufacturing)

why i choose altera
because i wan believe i am suppose to work short term in altera which offers more benefit , and after 1 year i go to intel which offers me more benefits as well.

I will choose Altera as well if i'm in your situation.

Kind of curious, does anybody know what is the direction of Intel Pg or kulim seems like a lot of rumors saying that most of their operation moving to Vietnam but as you can see on the jobstreet they are hiring a lot and GT as well.
Anybody can share some info.

I will choose Intel if i was u.

Why?

PE job is very boring to me, u need to do a lot of characterization jobs. A friend of mine just approach me and told me that Altera PE is very boring.

Altera starting pay is high but increment is very low.


For intel IC design, u might end up doing characterization too but i believe there will be chance that u will involved in design job.

And i dun believe u can't find any job if Intel dun want renew ur contract

You make your point also but the problem is, Intel is moving out soon. I heard they're transferring some of their engineers toKulim alreday.

hi,

If i am you, i will choose Intel PDC. Design job is much more interesting compare to product engineer job if you like technical stuff.

Don`t worry about the GT position. Think about how you will be trained in Intel. Furthermore, IMHO, Intel is more "branded" than Altera.

My 2 cents...

i m not sure whether intel is moving to vietnam or they are establishing a new plant there.

but i know intel is currently trying to shift all its production and manufacturing to kulim, where intel penang will focus on design only


GT post will based on 2 criteria:

1. ur performance
2. the vacancy available in ur dept

i have 2 cases of 2 friend, A and B
A just entered intel based on contract 1.5 weeks ago, and my friend was converted to permanent because there are a lot more new hires coming in
B already worked for 1 year in xxx dept, which i m not sure of my friend's performance, and he was offered to resume his contract for another 1 year.

this might varies with dept, dept boss, dept performance /needs

but i think the host already got a job since this was a long long time tread.

go for design engineering.. its at higher stream which bring more value in future as u know production is going to move to country like Philippine, china, Vietnam. This is not happened in INTEL only, its happen everywhere now. For IC design itself, in intel u r able to touch leading edge process node, this is not going to happen in altera. So look far but not just short term. No need to worry u can't convert to parmanent from GT, if u r ok, more likely u will be converted.

what u mean leading process node?? please define?? 45nm u mean??

45nm is now in production phase..so nothing to shout about.. 32nm is under development phase now..

oic, to your infomation, Altera's products is in 40nm, far better than intel's 45 nm

i shouldn't say this here..but can be more than that....

hehe, surely there is always room for improvement

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Added on June 23, 2008, 11:24 amas a conclusion, both these companies are pioneers in their respective fields, so it really depends on what u wanna do.

go Marvell IC design department.................

do they pay higher salary there ?

Hye,
Need help want to try in altera for my industry practical. I hope there is some one can help me hehe... Want to try there because want to work there someday after graduate... Any one can help sms me 0196192857