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"Demand For EDA Engineers Increasing In India"
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EDA is all about qualitative targeted hiring, thereby packages ought to be high in this industry. It's in the range of 6-9 lakhs for beginners, said Sunil Pathak, director, human resources, Cadence Design Systems (I) Pvt Ltd.
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Tuesday, July 10, 2012:
Electronics Design Automation happens to be a niche segment where they want the best of the talent. With the growth in semiconductor and VLSI industries in India, demand for EDA engineers in increasing year after year, which is a positive sign for the engineers who want to make a career in electronics. Companies like Cadence Design Systems (I) Pvt Ltd are reaching out the campuses to hire the cream talent from engineering colleges for the highly paid EDA jobs. EFYTimes.com spoke to Sunil Pathak, director, human resources, Cadence Design Systems (I) Pvt. Ltd. about the job scenario in EDA industry. Excerpts:
How many EDA engineers does Cadence hires on an average annually?
We do very planned hiring in this front. After the economic slowdown in 2008, I presume every company has become very particular about the way they do hiring because they don't want to be in a situation where they have to deal with business uncertainties affecting their people. So we have been doing that very effectively. We have been pretty consistent in terms of our hiring. Since the beginning of this year, we would have inducted around 50-60 people in EDA. This is in technical domain because that's where bulk of our hiring happens. This year we went to campuses. For the campuses, the exercise starts a year before. So from last October till January of this year, we have made offers to 20 campus students as in the fresh hires. That batch will be joining us in July. Our hiring is based on our business needs and we do a lot of diligent work in terms of our manpower projections. So every requisition that gets approved goes through a proper approval chain and everybody makes sure that we assess the reasons why we are hiring that particular position for. We have been pretty consistent over the past few years in terms of hiring and the numbers speak about it.
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What are the avenues for a fresher in designing of EDA tools and what specialised skills does one require?
EDA is a very niche segment. So the talent pool is also very limited unlike the IT companies which hire, say 5000 people from campuses. We do things in a thoughtful and humble manner. We were not really active going to the campuses in the past years. Actually this was our first very sincere approach. So when we go to the campuses, we are looking for people from electronics and computer science background. That's the first basic skill-set an educational qualification that we look for. Electronics obviously gets the preference because we work in electronics and semiconductor industry and their concepts and curriculum better suits what we are really targeting at. When we look at the engineers in the campuses, we look at a very strong technical background. People who have got an understanding of VLSI design flow, who understand languages like C, C++, HDL, VeriLog, System VeriLog, VHDL, etc. These are the technical languages which we always emphasise upon when we go to the campuses. Then obviously the soft skill element also plays an important role. People who are quick on their mind, smart, analytical, if need be are able to interact effectively with our customers, can communicate very effectively about what we need and what are the challenges that we are facing. This is what we really target at. Once they are in the organisation, they are put on a learning plan. We offer a 3-6 months on-job training. EDA is a very different segment altogether so we definitely need to acclimatise people and align them with what EDA is all about. That takes a little bit of its own time. With time, they get into the normal cycle. So that’s how we move ahead in terms of our fresher hiring. And then there is lateral hiring where companies reach out in the market and hire people for certain specific skill sets, certain job levels which include mid and senior positions as well.
Do you think there are as many jobs in EDA domain?
I would not limit it only to EDA companies. There are various peripherals also where an engineer with EDA expertise gets a job like semiconductor where people with design background are needed Then there are design companies that hire people with design background. I feel one of the biggest challenges of our industry is retention of the right talent. One of the major reasons of it is that this segment is very small and its niche. Therefore the demand for the right talent is much higher. So there is a major challenge in that area and I feel there are more avenues. Avenues have grown because India as a market has gained a lot of momentum. All major companies in the field of semiconductor and EDA have now offices and customers in India. So, India is strategically very important. There is a lot of qualitative work which is happening in India, which obviously adds up the value the region brings to it. To deliver to the expectations, you need the right kind of manpower. I think there are enough avenues open much more than compared to application. Companies have a very high benchmark when it comes to hiring of EDA engineers. Cadence has a three-tier process which involves written exam, analytical exam and interviews. I think the degree of complexity of problems during the examination helps us filter the right kind of people. The criteria is very rigid.
Is the demand for EDA experts increasing?
Definitely. Last year the semiconductor industry grew at about 20 per cent. But things may have changed this year because of the global economic pressure. But today I assume that the industry would grow at about 10-15 per cent which is also not less. Yes, it has impacted the demand for talent too in the same ratio. But employee is still at an enviable position. Everybody is looking for talent and the appropriate talent is not available, so the situation becomes very critical for every company to look after their talent and second to effectively close people whom they are trying to find out. So companies provide enough development opportunities and learning plans for the employees to grow within the companies.
What kind of packages are being offered?
EDA is all about qualitative targeted hiring. So packages ought to be high in this industry. Its in the range of 6-9 lakhs for beginners. Of course this depends from company to company. This includes both graduates and post graduates. Obviously you maintain a differential between people who have done a plain BTech and people who have done MTech as well.
What is the growth path for an engineer in EDA?
They begin as a software engineer and then they do their progression. There are two streams for their growth: one is that they can chose a technical path where they get into hardcore technical space where they become an individual contributor and reach up to the level of an architect.
Architect is someone who conceptualises and shows directions to an organisation as to how they should think about their products and helps in drawing out a vision. The other path is the managerial path, which is a combination of technical skills and managerial skills, where people get opportunities to head projects and be accountable for a set of people. In our company, they go together up to a level and then they can diversify. This level could be from 0-6 years. If you aim to go for customer interactions as well, you can go for the applications engineering side as well.
Having said that, every company has got different job titles. We also have got those levels. Cadence is a ten-level organisation. Level 1 is where they start from and they go up to level 10 where they can head the company too.
Diksha P Gupta, EFYTIMES News Network
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(2 Votes)
Dear SirMadam, I Saw The News about EDA Engineering.So I Need How can I Study This EDA Engineering and How Can I Apply a Job For EDA Domain Side.I Completed My Engineering With Electronic and Communication Engineering.I am Interested To Do a Job On Electronics Field.I Designed a Small Gadgets Like Charging Lights With LEDs.Please Send Any Information Related To EDA. Thank U
You can join VLSI Design course conducted by CDAC or univ of pune. durtion around 24 weeks costs around 64000per course