YouTube Video — Transcript

Interview with a Lam Research CVD process engineer sharing career advice, job roles, and tips for entering the semiconductor equipment industry.

Key Takeaways

Lam Research offers diverse career paths and international opportunities for motivated employees.
CVD process engineers play a critical role in recipe optimization and client collaboration.
English communication skills, especially listening, are essential due to the multinational environment.
Aligning personal experiences with company core values can improve chances in the hiring process.
Master’s degrees are generally preferred for process and equipment engineering roles.

What the video covers

Interview with a CVD process engineer at Lam Research Korea discussing their role and responsibilities.
Overview of career mobility within Lam Research, including internal transfers and opportunities to work in the U.S.
Explanation of the differences in job roles such as process engineers versus equipment engineers.
Details on the process engineer’s work involving recipe optimization, on-site client support, and wafer live demos.
Discussion on the importance of English listening skills and semiconductor terminology for communication with headquarters.
Advice on tailoring cover letters and self-introductions to reflect company core values, especially for foreign-affiliated firms.
Insights on the preference for master's degree holders in equipment manufacturing roles.
Clarification on the mechanical design work being done primarily at the U.S. headquarters, with Korean teams focusing on setup.
Emphasis on the diverse age range of employees and encouragement to apply regardless of age.
The video provides practical career guidance for those aiming to enter or advance in the semiconductor equipment industry.

Chapters

What are the main responsibilities of a CVD process engineer at Lam Research?

A CVD process engineer optimizes equipment recipes on-site at client facilities, ensures uniform thin film deposition for mass production, collaborates with hardware and software teams, and conducts wafer live demos to refine processes.

How important are English skills for working at Lam Research?

English listening skills are crucial due to the multinational environment and diverse accents. Basic communication and semiconductor terminology knowledge are sufficient for effective communication with headquarters.

What advice is given for writing cover letters when applying to equipment manufacturers?

Applicants should align their personal experiences with the company's Core Values, as HR staff closely review these aspects. Differentiating content from chipmaker applications by emphasizing relevant traits is recommended.

Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown

Speaker A

Yes. Hello. I’m a semiconductor career mentor. Yes. It’s been a while, but we’re able to conduct another interview with an industry professional. Today, we’ve invited someone currently working at Lam Research to join us. We’ll be hearing some advice

Speaker A

and tips that can help those looking to enter this field. Yes. Hello. Yes. Hello.

Speaker A

Ah, yes. Nice to meet you. Yes. Please give us a brief self-introduction. Yes. I’m an engineer at Lam Research Korea’s CVD process team, and I’ve been working there for about three to five years. Currently, I’m in charge of DRAM inter-metal dielectric layer

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deposition and NAND oxide deposition equipment setup. So you’re a CVD engineer currently employed at Lam Research, right?

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Yes. Yes. Lam Research is one of the world's most famous equipment companies, as I've mentioned before, but from your perspective as an employee, could you talk about the pros and cons of working at Lam Research? Well, one of the

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biggest advantages of our company is that there are many diverse opportunities available. We have an internal job posting system, so equipment engineers can become process engineers, process engineers can move into sales, and if you’re doing well, you can even transfer from Lam Research

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Korea to become an engineer at our U.S. headquarters. So, I think the biggest advantage is that if you have the will, there are many paths open to you, because sometimes the actual job turns out differently than what you

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originally thought. It can be disappointing if the only answer is to quit, which is a huge risk, so having the opportunity to change departments is a major benefit.

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Hmm. Hmm. So, there are many ways to change your job role, and there’s also the advantage of potentially moving to the U.S. I’ve heard that the company sends employees to the U.S.

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for training, and since it’s a global company, I assume those systems are well-established. Yes.

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Yes. What is the system like? I know you haven't experienced many other companies, but based on what you hear from friends, I personally think going to the U.S. in the semiconductor industry is a great career path. I’m just curious—is that opportunity as

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rare as a needle in a haystack, or is it fairly open to everyone? How is it?

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First of all, I think the opportunities vary a bit depending on the job role.

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Since I’m a process engineer, I do seem to get a bit more opportunities. Because process engineers have a lot of work to do with the headquarters, we have frequent meetings, and we often get chances to perform live demos at

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client sites, so I think that leads to more opportunities to travel for business. For equipment engineers, rather than project-based travel, they seem to go more often when there are opportunities for equipment training.

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However, since there are quite a lot of equipment engineers in one team, it’s a bit unfortunate that the opportunities for each individual are fewer.

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Oh, I have a question: the mechanical design team actually manufactures the equipment, right? Yes.

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Yes. But for companies with headquarters in the U.S., do our Korean engineers actually do the mechanical design? Or do we just utilize the mechanical designs created by the U.S.

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engineers? I don’t think we do the design work here in Korea. As far as I know, the blueprints and such are already prepared, and based on those, our equipment engineers and the partner LSP staff work together on the setup.

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Hmm. I see, that makes sense. Then, if you could explain more specifically, what kind of work does a CVD process engineer do? What is the main job? Well, our work can be broadly divided into two categories. First, as I briefly

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mentioned during my self-introduction, we are responsible for the process setup of the equipment entering the client site. In this role, we take the basic recipe provided by the headquarters, perform on-site evaluations at the client’s facility to optimize the recipe on their

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equipment, and then, as we transition to mass production, we tune the recipe to ensure the thin film is uniform and meets the specified standards, or we collaborate with the hardware and software teams to perform simple equipment tuning. And for the second

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case, we carry out projects by taking problems that arise during equipment operation and turning them into projects through regular meetings with the client. We then have weekly meetings with our remote counterparts to split up various items and modify

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the recipes. We compare the trial results from our headquarters' equipment with the results applied to the client's equipment, continuously refining them to resolve issues. Or, when we're about to provide completely new equipment to a client, we go

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through a process called a "wafer live demo" where we send patterned wafers to our headquarters or our KTC research center in Korea, run equipment tests, analyze the results, and then modify the recipes accordingly.

Speaker A

Oh. Oh. I'm a bit curious, the process engineers at the equipment company already create the recipes, right?

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Yes. You probably provide those to the clients, and the clients basically use those recipes. I'm just curious, do the results differ significantly between what the clients actually achieve and the recipes created by the equipment company's process engineers? Actually,

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the major parameters don't really differ. Basically, the variables for CVD could be things like power, deposition time, or maybe... Or heat—that is, temperature. There seem to be some differences in these key process parameters, but other than that, there

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aren't any major differences. So, it seems there are cases where clients modify the recipes little by little while running the process.

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Hmm. Ah, so listening to you, it seems that because recipes were created based on evaluations using unpatterned wafers, there are discrepancies when applied to patterned ones, so it's a process of communicating with the clients to align those parts, is that right?

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Yes, that's correct. Ah. Also, since you communicate with the headquarters frequently, do you need to be good at English? Well, rather than just being good at English, I think you need listening skills, because not many people at the

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headquarters actually speak "standard" English. Since there are people of so many different nationalities, there's a wide variety of pronunciations, so understanding them is the first priority. Actually, as for the English itself, there are semiconductor-related terms we always use, so if you can

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handle basic communication and have learned the commonly used terminology, and if you can understand them, there shouldn't be any major problems communicating with the headquarters.

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Hmm. So, as long as the terminology is sorted out, I guess there’s not much to worry about then. Yes.

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But when it comes to getting a job, I think the HR team tends to favor candidates with better English skills.

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Hmm. I definitely get that impression. Yes. So for the next question, this is something I've heard from many of you: when writing a cover letter or self-introduction, many people don't know how to differentiate their content when applying for a specific role at a

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chipmaker versus an equipment manufacturer; are there any tips on what to include or what to avoid when writing it? Is there anything like that you could share? Well, speaking from our company's perspective first, since we are a foreign-affiliated firm,

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there’s this concept of 'Core Values' that we emphasize. You could think of it as something similar to our ideal candidate profile; they're essentially guidelines on how we should behave and what traits we should embody while working here. It’s definitely more

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advantageous to weave your own personal experiences that reflect these Core Values into your self-introduction.

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This is because the people who actually read these closely are usually HR staff, rather than the team members themselves. I’ve actually asked the managers who conduct the interviews, and they said that because they are so busy with their own work, they often

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don't

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, it's most important to align your self-introduction with the company's Core Values. And since we’re an equipment company, our customers are the most important thing to us; it’s great to show a customer-first mindset, and examples of that could include

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things like strictly meeting deadlines. Hmm. Are there any phrases or approaches you think people should avoid? Because I’ve noticed quite a few people just reuse the same self-introduction they wrote for a chipmaker when applying to an equipment manufacturer. I feel like the content

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needs to be significantly different because the perspective should be different, so are there any specific things to watch out for in that regard?

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Well, based on my own experience preparing for employment, personal statements for chipmakers seem to focus more on soft skills, while applying for equipment manufacturers...Should I call it a product? For instance, in my case, I wanted to work in CVD deposition, so

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I think highlighting passion for specific processes or relevant experience is more advantageous when applying to......an equipment manufacturer. Also, since the job involves handling equipment, issues don't always arise only from the process side for process engineers. So, you inevitably end up dealing with the

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equipment. From that perspective, even if the scale of lab equipment used in school isn't the same as actual industrial equipment, having any equipment-related experience is definitely better.

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Right. So, did you graduate with a master's degree? Or did you graduate with a bachelor's degree? I, um, yes, I'm a master's graduate.

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A master's? Yes. Ah. Then, my next question is, it seems like equipment manufacturers often prefer master's degree holders. I've been looking at job postings lately, and while I know they prefer master's graduates, I've wondered if it's okay to apply with just a bachelor's. Is it

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competitive? That was a question I had. What are your thoughts on that? Well, for our company, the requirement for process engineers is a master's degree, so it would be difficult to apply with just a bachelor's. However, for those

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applying as equipment engineers, there are cases like this. As I mentioned earlier, we have an internal job bidding system where people can transfer departments and get the opportunity to work as process engineers. I see. I want to let people

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know that if they are aware of this, there is still an opportunity to apply as an equipment engineer with just a bachelor's degree.

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Hmm. So, while it depends on the role, I also agree that most companies tend to prefer master's degrees for process engineers. I'm not very familiar with this field, so I don't exactly know what an equipment engineer does, but

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you're saying that for that role, applying with a bachelor's degree wouldn't be significantly less competitive, right?

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Yes. That’s correct. Hmm. Oh, and the next question is, well ...I know it varies from person to person, but while working at an equipment manufacturer, you might eventually decide to move to another company, right? There are various cases

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where one might move to another equipment company or a chipmaker, so I’m curious if there are cases where moving is restricted, or if it's generally free. Have you seen any such examples around you? Well, for starters , changing jobs is very free. In our

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company. So, some people move to client companies, and as you mentioned, some move to competitor equipment companies.

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There’s no fixed seniority for those who change jobs; people with various levels of experience join and leave quite dynamically. However, if there is one unique thing about our company, it’s that there is a question the company asks a manager when someone

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resigns. It’s a question asking if there is a possibility that this person might return to Lam. If they had a good relationship with their manager, the manager might answer "yes," and I have seen cases where someone left and later

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returned when an opportunity arose. To that extent, the company isn't stingy about turnover and seems quite open-minded.

Speaker A

Uh-huh. I see. Just listening to you, I really get the sense that it’s a great global company. Yes. So, I’ve asked all the questions I had. Thank you so much for answering related questions in our group chat as well,

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but since the job market is really tough these days, could you please give some advice or a word of encouragement to your juniors who are navigating this difficult job market? Well, I also had a very difficult time sending out

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resumes and got hired with a bit of luck, so right now, the semiconductor cycle needs to be in your favor. Also, for the big companies, like chipmakers Samsung or Hynix, they need to hire a lot of people for the equipment vendor

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companies to follow suit and hire more staff as well. So, because things are a bit difficult on the Samsung side, it feels like other vendors are also hiring fewer people, but if you work hard enough, honestly...I’ve seen many people who are sensitive about

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their age while preparing for employment. Thinking, "I'm this old, can I really join such a company as a new recruit?" But once you get in, you’ll find that the age range is actually very diverse, so don't be afraid to try multiple times. Also,

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don't just be greedy for large companies; even if you start at a good company, as long as you get an opportunity, there’s always the option of changing jobs later, which can lead to better chances. I hope you become applicants who aren't afraid to

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take smaller paths as well. Oh, right, thank you for the great insights today. Yes, I hope you continue to have a great career at the company, and I'd appreciate it if you could do another interview later on once you have more experience. Yes,

Speaker A

have a good night, and thank you. Yes, yes. Thank you for your hard work.

Topics:Lam Researchsemiconductor careerCVD process engineersemiconductor equipmentcareer adviceprocess optimizationEnglish skills semiconductorjob application tipssemiconductor industryequipment engineer

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