When you think of India as the offshoring capital for IT services, you think of the financial services industry, call center industry and software development. Another one to soon add to that list is chip design. In Forbes Asia, Elizabeth Corcoran gives some insight to the emerging Indian semiconductor economy by following Michael Fister of Cadence Design Systems, a major provider of software and systems for chip design and testing. Cadence, based in Silicon Valley, is set to take offshoring from help desk and software development to chip design. His vision:
Offshoring chip design promises to turbocharge business, letting companies produce more products quicker than ever, and at low prices. Imagine it and India's tech wizard will design it, Chinese factories will churn out the chips for it: It's just-in-time invention. Every new chip is the basis for a score of devices; every device sparks ideas for a host of software applications. "You build a foundation around semiconductors," notes Fister. "Then you can build industries around it."
By working closely with Indian companies and training engineers on Cadence tools for designing chips, Cadence is getting in on the ground-floor with cutting-edge work that Cadence feel will become the next new trends in electronics equipment and consumer technology. The India Semiconductor Association estimates the chip design industry will grow by 5 times to $14.4 billion with 286,000 employees by 2010.
Recruiting in the Semiconductor industry in Asia Pacific is one of the toughest areas I work. There are a myriad of dynamic smaller firms who need Field Application and Sales Engineers as well as Sales Managers. Not to mention the larger players also require a highly intelligent and bilingual workforce! Tough requirements for an extremely exciting and demanding industry. I am currently working on Sales Positions in Tokyo, Shanghai and Hong Kong for major semiconductor companies who are clear market leaders in their niches. If you are an Engineer or Sales Professional in the semiconductor industry in Tokyo or anywhere in Greater China, feel free to email me if you have any questions about where to go next in your career.
It's exciting to see India moving ahead in the semicon industry. My experience in Silicon Valley is that there are a great number of Indian Engineers in the semiconductor industry there and I don't doubt that those ties are helping to push the growth within India itself.
Please keep in touch with me . I am currently in Osaka
Posted by: Ashok Saraf | Friday, November 24, 2006 at 04:18 PM