Company Culture

The manufacturing factory setting involves a shift of about 12 hours a day,

three to four times a week biweekly. The morning shifts would go from 5:30 AM to

5:30 PM, while the evening shifts would go from 5:30 PM to 5:30 AM (in which I did

the morning shift for approximately seven months before having to leave to join the

program). Within this time frame, employees would be responsible for testing

and maintaining the quality of the semiconductor wafers, marking out the bad dye

panels of the wafer, and packaging the final products to be sent to the customers who

ordered them. Many different stations within the company are designated for each

task, with several people working together in each station. Some tasks required only

one person to fulfill, while other tasks required several others working together to

ensure the task was completed well. Each station relied on the other as well to move

along, since the semiconductor wafers had to undergo one procedure in one station

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before moving onto the next station, all the way up to the completion of the entire

process.

Interview Process & Pay

As with any other company, applicants are screened through an interview

process in which potential candidates are asked a series of questions that examine

their ability to do the job well. The pay was basic as well, which started at a range of

$12.50 an hour plus overtime as a temporary employee prior to being hired as a

permanent after a certain amount of time working for the company. During the hiring

process, we would undergo orientation for two days after being officially hired onto

the site, which would be followed by a week of training within the factory’s clean

rooms and getting ourselves acquainted with the work environment, as well as the

fellow employees we would be working with during our times at the site.

Since I only worked for the company for about seven months, however, I was

never hired on as a permanent employee and was satisfied with the pay I received,

which was enough for me to save up for my time in the program. With this being a

more labor-focused job and requiring only a high school diploma or equivalent, it was

a job that I would undertake just so I have a stream of income to save up for the

program and gain some experience, since at the time, I did not have a whole lot to

work with and wanted to expand on it in order to have something to work with prior

to entering the program.