David
Engineer
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On the Job
“I do ASIC design and I’m responsible for taking a family of UMTS chips from start through finish. What I like best about my job is the variety of projects I work on and the variety of tasks that I do. A hardware designer can do design work, verification work, you see the silicon come back and can do testing on it and you can see it in action — in real products.”
A Unique Company
“There’s an incredible number of really knowledgeable people here. Some are folks who are developing ideas that lead to patents. Some are folks who are working on products. Our knowledge is what differentiates us from other companies.”
Corporate Values: Innovate, Execute, Partner
“The Qualcomm value I identify with the most is innovation. For me, the real challenge and what makes this work more interesting and fun is finding ways to innovate. Rather than just be another team taping out another chip, I try to encourage people to look for ways to do things a little bit better.”
Wireless Technologies Make a Difference
“Qualcomm’s wireless technologies are connecting the world. This is especially important in developing countries where they don’t have landline infrastructures in place. We have a lot of employees from India, and I’ve heard stories about people in that country waiting decades to get a landline installed. With a cell phone, you have the immediate ability to communicate with the world around you.”
A Natural Fit for my School’s Alumni
“I studied at the University of Waterloo. Qualcomm usually recruits several interns from Waterloo each school term, and we’ve had good luck with those students. There’s not a lot of job opportunity in Canada for doing ASIC design work. If that’s what you want to do, Qualcomm is a great place to do it. We’re one of the larger companies hiring for that type of work.”