Thread regarding Qualcomm Inc. layoffs

@113183: it becomes hard to practice medicine when you get over 50. People want younger doctors who can help them years from now, and it gets hard for a 65 year old doctor to get any new patients in the door to replace the older ones who die off.

Engineering is good but isn't enough. You need to train your kid how to kiss his manager's a$$, play politics, climb the ladder by stealing credit from others if anything works and then blame others if it doesn't, etc. and then he will have a very good chance to secure himself as one of those useless mid managers at Q that don't do anything but status gathering and responsible to lay off real engineers who do the real hard work!

Chiropractic is the way to go. It's like faith healer / snake oil salesman, and insurance may cover up to 26 visits to your snake oil den every year!

Job security is the key. You can be very competitive all you want. At some point, fresher and cheaper waves of talents will replace you. That's a fact. Ironically, most engineering managers with kids wouldn't want their own kids to do engineering/CS alone because they've seen enough throughout their careers. The managers themselves will get cut or be cut eventually. It's just a matter of time. If you're a dentist, you'll need to get the hell out of California. This state is so saturated with pharmacists and dentists. A lousy family/primary-care physician is probably still doing better than 98% of the population despite of being reimbursed less and threats from lower-paid physician assistants (for simple treatments). You can't never outsource a medical doctor's job.

It's not about a nice house. It's about job security. A doctor/dentist with his/her own practice can practice all the way until he's in his 70ies or 75ies. If you look at the entire scheme of things, undergrad+medical school isn't really that many more years of schooling versus some geek with a masters or (worse) PHd... The amount of money one spends on college education is going to the same for undergrad and maybe 2-3 years extra for grad school. But look at how much better off doctors are. Take away the idea of stock options/RSUs being lucrative moving forward. Unlike earlier decades when companies were much more generous with stock option/stock grants, how many new hires have a decent stock/RSU grant (short of working at apple,google, facebook, or one of the premier engineering firms)...Most companies (including the Q) has cut engineering benefits to the bone and in some cases don't even want to hire for the higher level positions in the States anymore, because they believe (right or wrong) they can find people overseas willing to work much cheaper with as good quality.....When was the last time you went to a doctor's office in which the doctor was "outsourced"? And as far as medicine is concerned, unless you are at the bleeding edge of research, what you learn and the experience you gain is useful/valid for a long long time. Medical knowledge/experience doesn't nearly get "outdated" as fast as technology..Contrast that with say an engineer that spent all their time on Palm O/S and then had to retrain/relearn something brand new like Java ME, and then Blackberry's platform, and then iOS, and then Android, and then TBD in the future. If you don't keep up in engineering, you will be outdated very soon. And even if you do keep up, you're compensation plateaus much sooner (unless you are one of the few that happens to make it to senior management)....

I had been through 2 layoffs before settling down at Q (7+ years). The third time is probably gonna happen some time this year. Anyone who has been through layoffs before would know that no matter how prepared you are (financially or mentally), it would take time and mental resources bouncing back. It'll be stressful. Well, it's easier (not much) being laid off while being single, but it'll be a lot tougher when having a wife and a couple kids to feed plus other bills such as monthly mortgage payment etc. Any new grads reading this board, you guys should never stick too long at one company during the first 10 years of your career. Jump around to get more experiences and new skill sets. For college grads, I would still do engineering/CS, but also do a minor/double-major in bio-chem. It'll take longer to graduate, but I think it'll be worth it in the long run. Good luck.

Look, this is total BS. One layoff and you are ready to throw in the towel? Gimme a break. This just goes with the territory. Go talk to lawyers and they will tell you how sucky their jobs are. Doctors, maybe same. At least we can get to do interesting work. There has never been a better time to be an engineer. If QCOM tanks, there are other jobs (although if you want to stay in SD, you might just take one sooner rather than taking your chances later, when its just the dregs). But forchristsake, get a hold of yourself.

112918: Take a cue from current events. Today's war zones and other hell holes will be tomorrow's emerging markets--simply because they are all going to need brand spanking new infrastructure. If you speak their language, can do basic math, and can string together coherent sentences in multiple languages, you already have an advantage over about 50% of the job market. As for a major, pick something in STEM. And not just medicine, engineering, or math, but pharmacy, quantitative business analysis, economics, bioinformatics, and anything remotely related to genetics. Genetics will not only be the next big thing in medicine, but will have uses in evidence, and security, as well. Stay away from anything with a "pre" prefix, e.g.: pre-med, pre-law, etc. The prefix "pre" = useless educational debt. IMHO. If you are at a loss for electives, take literature and creative writing. They are much more difficult to do well than people assume. Plus the improvement in your writing skills will probably be worth more in the long run than that "A" in basket weaving 101.

I started at Nortel years ago.. watched my 58 yr old boss get yelled at, he was berated in public by superiors. Nortel had a layoff policy that targeted 40 yr old engineers that were burned out from working horrendous hours. Nortel, a 50+ year old company, was a hell hole... and not surprisingly is no longer in business.... the result of sociopathic management practices. Sound familiar ??

It has been said that the 1/2 life of a s/w engineer is 15 years... make some money during that time but plan an escape from that career from hell. I got lucky and moved to the business side of things but that's not heaven either... generating revenue is more a function of the marketplace than it is on effort. If the market does not want your product you cannot sell it regardless of how hard you work.

In hindsight, I would consider starting a business at a young age... work for almost nothing to establish the business in the early years but grow it through hard work and enjoy the benefits of your own work. I think if you are smart... work hard.... you should be able to survive and do well. My problem was I was to afraid and insecure to strike out on my own at an early age... now its to late for me.

Fortunately I am surviving in a business role with an engineering background in my late 50's... I can only attribute this to God's grace.

You know. I had a lot of liberal arts major friends that took the easiest classes and then take the required minimum classes needed for med school. For all the time they had, they did really well on their requirements and they did really well on their MCAT. They also didn't go to the best undergrad school. Meanwhile, my friends that tried to go to medical school through the bioengineering route really struggled.

So what is a high school senior supposed to apply for then? At the very least, he/she needs to major in something that is perceived to be useful, ie. Law or science right? As a parent that's all you can hope for. Otherwise they will spend your $200K or take on $200K to major in Asian studies or business administration.

Financial Engineering is a wonderful profession. From on top of the Ferris Wheel, all those little employees with their little lives look like little dots waiting to be crushed. Would anybody care that a few dots are let go when the share price is at stake?

Anonymous112848. I assure you that I have not tried to keep up with the Joneses. I loved a modest life. But let's just put this I perspective. College tuition costs have been increasing about 4% per year. Right now, a reasonable engineering college is running around $25k-30k/year...even a UC school. With a Masters, a kid can easily be $200k in the hole. And that's in a profession that ceos insists on shipping the work to Bangalore or china for 1/8the cost. Ad a parent, seems like an engineering degree is a lousy ROI. Meanwhile stupid ceos keep saying they can't find talent here??? Bullshit.. You can't find talent that will work for squat. No wonder things are so fcked up here with geeks. You have nerdie kids get treated like crap growing up versus all the jocks and non geeks. And now you got ceos trying ship everything overseas.

I hope my kids can inherit my real estate portfolio, so they can be a trust fund kid...just like me...they might be worthless as a member of this country in productivity. But so is most everyone else these days, at least the way ceos view them

Tell you kids to major in whatever interests them, but to get a job selling real estate or pharmaceuticals if they want to make a sh*tload of money. Don't go into law, medicine or engineering unless you've already made your pile, and want to spend the rest of your life doing something that really interests you. If all else fails, they should consider going into politics. You don't need to go to Harvard or even have half a brain! All you need to do is marry a wholesome-looking wife, whomp out cute kids, and kiss ass well--e.g.: Nathan Fletcher.

And by all means. I'd saying engineering today is different from say 10yeard ago. I think it's ironic that we have ceos saying that they can't find enough qualified talent. St the same thing trying to shift work overseas to save on cost. The truth is ceos can't find qualified talent that are willing to work for peanuts. Doctors and lawyers never need to worry about outsourcing

I agree that in the bay srea, doctors and lawyers are considered poor. But for the rest of the US and socal, its the opposite. As far as hours. I think all my doctors have pretty good hours. Plus they can practice even when they are 70ish. I have yet to find a 70year old engineer

Actually, there are very few doctors buying in the really expensive communities in the Bay Area; they're priced out. On my block, there are only two doctors, and both of them bought 20+ years ago when things were much cheaper. There's still a few teachers, but again, those are people who have been living here for a long time, not anyone purchasing now. It's all executives, mostly C level, as well as lower level but very early employees at tech companies that make it big (FB, GOOG, etc) buying now. Don't think you'll find many doctors purchasing today in Los Altos Hills either; too expensive for them.

I would say in the SF Bay Area, the nice communities are more evenly represented by engineers (those who joined the right companies), docs, and lawyers. There are opportunities to do well or mess things up in each field. At the Q, if you know how to talk, you will get far, and that has nothing to do with education.

There are tradeoffs to everything...those docs and lawyers have nice houses and all, but they likely don't spend much time at home with families. Hasn't anyone seen Family Man? If you're 40+ and still have a mortgage and college tuition is coming up, remember it was a choice that you and many others made to keep up with the Jonses. Could have easily chosen a less expensive area, a 15yr mortgage, and not leveraged both incomes. What most people don't realize is that if they had planned ahead and chose more sensible, lower financial stress lifestyles, they would actually be a lot happier

A lot of the med schools classes are pass no pass for the first year or two. Just saying.

I love engineering. Buts that's just me. What I am saying though is I wouldn't go into it with the notion of it being a stable profession. And unless my kids are really going to be into it, there are better ways to earn more money with less risk. Something happened to the relationship between us companies and employers over the last decade or so.

So how is this different from someone that works in QCT absent of the bigger pay?

And college debt for beginners are just as bad these days even in a UC school. The survivorship is true in Delmar and la jolla , but you definitely see more survivors that aren't engineers.

if i could start again, I'd get 100K / yr "coding" job (Ruby on Rails!) out of high school. Do that for 2 years while living in parents house to help pay for degree starting age 20. Start law school age 24. Become immigration attorney since tech companies will always be calling, and laugh as former classmates who became engineers get laid off.

I am gonna have to agree with you. I would have just laughed at any fools if they had said that to me 10 years ago. Now, in my mid 40's with two kids and a mortgage, I am getting scared. I am glad that I stopped my study after my masters (instead of wasting another 4 or 5 years for the PhD). Back in the days (junior high and high schools), the top of top students went on to major in engineering/CS. We didn't even look at the bio/chem fools with half of an eye. We looked down on them! Seriously! They weren't at our levels. Have you looked at the MCAT and DAT? I can't believe how easy they are. I know I will get laid off at some point, hopefully with the GTFO package. People tell us to move to the Bay Area. Well, the Bay Area isn't for everyone when your roots are deeply planted in SD. Also, I would stay away from law schools. Peace.

dont forget that what you're seeing in del mar and other nice neighborhoods is a case of survivorship bias. There are countless lawyers who do not do well at their own practice and cannot match the income of a sr staff engr. there are also a lot who work ungodly number of hours at big law firms and have a quality of life we can never imagine. Note that for lawyers, you have to work at least double the amount of time to accrue one billable hour because of the extensive research that needs to be done. While doctors also make a lot, they often also have insane working hours. Even docs in specialties like anesthesiology that are perceived to have better quality of life (with OBs having one of the worst) are pulling 60hr work weeks regularly. Also, most graduate with significant debt that is the same amount as a small mortgage (my friend who is in anesthesiology graduated with $220K in debt). Don't forget that if you burn out in the middle, you can't do much with your BS in life sciences except work as a tech in a lab. Contrast that to being an engineer with a BS...there are a wide variety of roles that pay well and don't require insane working hours and taking on massive debt. Plus, you get to start working a lot sooner, and if you join the right company that the Q overpays for, you'll do quite well. Engineering still offers the best balance of education required, working hours, education cost, and chances of doing really well