Thread regarding Qualcomm Inc. layoffs

@..h9C: Yes, you nailed it. The skillset gained as part of the job in Qualcomm starts ok but progresses to nearly useless value, and you need to go back to drawing boards during interview. Some hardware groups just do pure computer science type of development work, and this kills the early in career folks ... if they just do Java and GUI to feed to Excel docs, and losing touch with design and manufacturing process development.

I am a hiring manager at a local startup and sadly I get dozens of these resumes each week.. Guys with very specialized skill but only applicable at Q and possibly intel or another "modem" house.

Its a shame, because being a "modem engineer" is a niche skill set that really leads to no where. Its a total waste of your career, if you value having some employment options in the future. And many guys slaved away as EEs in communications theory/MS classes in such, and for what? Guys slinging stupid Ruby on Rails or some Java/Android/iOS are making bank now and that crap is e-a-s-y compared to hard core EE. Unless your in it totally for the love of it @ QC, open your eyes and plot a better career trajectory.

h9c you are exactly correct, I will add there are a decent number of EE's and CE's in SD but the numbers are dropping.. quickly. Hence the lack of openings. There are much greener pastures, and keeping current is important. No that does not include being a "modem engineer" at qualcomm.

Ahahahahaha! !!!!!!!

Could not be further from the truth. I think most Qualcommers are not GOOG/FB/AAPL material.

In fact, it does not really matter which company you work for, but what project, which skills used; and how much these skills are in demand in current job market; pure software development skills are always in demand.

Deskilling. Lol so true. Maybe not a laughing matter. Even the technical skills are only useful at qc

This was pretty much my experience, and I left QC a while ago. I felt that the work environment at QC was uninspiring and for many people, working at QC is deskilling because a very high percentage of your time isn't spent on hands on engineering. And now that I'm out and on the other side of things and looking over resumes from guys at QC, I can see that my concerns were realized as I see lots of guys who are likely very sharp, but don't really have much to say for their time at QC aside from glorified integration, bug fixing, or feature enhancements. This is why I would advise anyone who feels like they are in that kind of rut to try to get the heck out of there - you won't realize that you are up the river until its too late. If you are planning a break, I would start a long term strategy of enhancing your skill set and hacking around with things on the side to build up a small portfolio of interesting projects and technologies that are web/IOT/server/mobile oriented and to heck with the embedded world, learn a decent scripting language while you are at it, and continually work on your interviewing skills. Its totally weird that companies say that they just can't find qualified people to hire, yet there are tons of guys out there - its really a skills mismatch situation and you just have to get your skills in line with the current demands, practice interviewing (which it sounds like you did), and just persevere. And finally, the other option is just to leave SD - its a nice place to live, but its a desert for engineering job opportunities. Just one data point, search for "embedded systems engineers" on monster.com: Sunnyvale = 230 positions, SD = 20. "mobile applications developer" = 478 Sunnyvale, 61 = SD, 59 = Portland, 175 = Seattle, 69= Austin (so some small town like Austin appx == SD), "cloud computing engineer" = 391 Sunnyvale, 43 SD, 59 Portland, 175 Seattle, 337 NYC. So I'm not promoting any of these cities, but for as large a place as SD is, it really doesn't fare that well for engineering employment opportunities, so people have that going against them. But if you were interviewing for Intel/G/A/FB and the others, sounds like you were already willing to consider moving, so this is really aimed at others who might be reading. Again, this is more of a marathon effort than a sprint for many guys, so just hang in there and work on your skill set and eventually something will work out (but people should be thinking of this process taking 6+ months).

Ahhh, dude, reality check. Grades are not everything, and mean less after 5 years of experience. unlike QC some companies don't care about grades, they care about your talent. If you have a 4.0 but never had to think, you know the theory but not the application, your hobbies do not involve some tech when young, sorry, there are a tonne of techno geeks that are degreeless that will wipe up the floor with your sumi-cumi-crap. They live eat sleep drink and breath tech. Grades get you in the first door, talent and network get ya in the next door.

Agree; very competitive job market; also it shows H-1B program is a scam

The problem is that at the top companies the bar is even higher for experienced candidates than it is for new grads. However, working at Qualcomm, you debug and patch more than design any real software. As a consequence, your software design skills atrophy relative to even the new grads and suddenly you find yourself struggling at these interviews. For that reason, CS grads should stay away from places like QC or any other hardware company for that matter.

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