Mario secured an internship at Intel. Mario worked on submarines in the Navy. When he left the Navy, he needed a new career. Hear how Mario made the decision to work as an engineering technician intern and how his company is helping with his degree and coursework at community college. Mario’s story is inspirational and shows one of the different backgrounds that can lead you to work in the semiconductor industry.
The Talking Technicians podcast is produced by MNT-EC, the Micro Nano Technology Education Center, through financial support from the National Science Foundation's Advanced Technological Education grant program.
Opinions expressed on this podcast do not necessarily represent those of the National Science Foundation.
Join the conversation. If you are a working technician or know someone who is, reach out to us at info@talkingtechnicians.org.
Links from the show:
The Micro Nano Technology Education Center (MNT-EC): https://micronanoeducation.org/
Careers at Intel: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/jobs/jobs-at-intel.html
Portland Community College: https://www.pcc.edu/
Episode Web Page: https://micronanoeducation.org/students-parents/talking-technicians-podcast/
Mario secured an internship at Intel. Mario worked on submarines in the Navy. When he left the Navy, he needed a new career. Hear how Mario made the decision to work as an engineering technician intern and how his company is helping with his degree and coursework at community college. Mario’s story is inspirational and shows one of the different backgrounds that can lead you to work in the semiconductor industry.
The Talking Technicians podcast is produced by MNT-EC, the Micro Nano Technology Education Center, through financial support from the National Science Foundation's Advanced Technological Education grant program.
Opinions expressed on this podcast do not necessarily represent those of the National Science Foundation.
Join the conversation. If you are a working technician or know someone who is, reach out to us at info@talkingtechnicians.org.
Links from the show:
The Micro Nano Technology Education Center (MNT-EC): https://micronanoeducation.org/
Careers at Intel: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/jobs/jobs-at-intel.html
Portland Community College: https://www.pcc.edu/
Episode Web Page: https://micronanoeducation.org/students-parents/talking-technicians-podcast/
Peter Kazarinoff 0:02
From MNT-EC, the Micro Nano Technology Education Center, this is Talking Technicians. The podcast about technicians: who they are, what they do, and where they come from. I'm your host, Peter Kazarinoff. I teach technicians and engineers that Portland Community College. In each episode, you'll meet a working technician and hear their story. That means real interviews, with real technicians, about real jobs. At the end of each episode, you'll hear actions you can take if you want to be a technician too.
In this episode, you'll meet Mario. Mario is an intern at Intel and Hillsboro, Oregon outside Portland. Mario, welcome to Talking technicians.
Mario 0:52
Thanks, Peter. I've been looking forward to this meeting.
Peter Kazarinoff 0:54
Mario, you work as an intern at Intel in Hillsboro, Oregon. Do you live close by to there?
Mario 1:01
I do. I live in the Tanasbourne area. So about a 12 minute drive.
Peter Kazarinoff 1:07
And how long have you been in the Greater Portland area?
Mario 1:10
I moved here in September 26. So that well, September 28, in order to start last semester, which started on the 26th.
Peter Kazarinoff 1:22
So you're kind of a recent Portland convert, where were you before that?
Mario 1:28
Before that I was in Miami, Florida. I was there for about eight months. And prior to that I was in the military in Hawaii.
Peter Kazarinoff 1:37
And Mario, what brought you to the Portland area? Why did you move up from Miami.
Mario 1:43
So I was planning because of my job in the military, I was a nuclear technologist I was planning on pursuing nuclear engineering. And one of the better programs I found was at OSU, to which I got accepted. And then I realized I was going to need money. while going to school like I have my have my wife, I couldn't just rely on my military benefits. So I started to apply to pretty much anything I could find in the general vicinity of Corvallis. And I saw that Intel had some technician jobs, I applied to one of them. And I didn't even think I was gonna get it. But surely enough, next day, they called me. And they were like, Hey, you don't qualify for this because you don't have your degree. But may have an intern position. Within three days, I had an interview and...
Peter Kazarinoff 2:37
And then you got started working in the semiconductor industry. So Mario, how would you describe your title? And what kind of things do you do at work?
Mario 2:46
So my official title is product design engineering intern, however, most of what I do, is as as work as an engineering technician. So it's because of the COVID pandemic, most of the product design engineers at the lab, had to go from setting up their own. Because we had these trade, I don't know how to go, Okay, I'm gonna try to describe this. So they're just trace, those trays hold all the sternum amount of microprocessors on them, you get those trays, and you put them on to these machines and the machines, put them through certain tests. And before the engineers were the ones that will do this, they would set all of that stuff for themselves. When COVID happened, they realized they had to have a more seamless operation, because there's a lot of stuff going on at the research lab. And so they created this position, which is the position that I currently occupy, for us to do that for them while they do their jobs, remote. While we do that, though, we are also tasks tasked with doing some of the jobs that the product design engineers do in order to make their job more efficient. So we're like the guinea pigs, I guess, like the different kinds of testing processes, like we do it, it works with us. It'll definitely work with the guys who really know how to do this.
Peter Kazarinoff 4:23
And Mario, do you work in shifts? Or do you have a nine to five schedule?
Mario 4:29
So the way that it currently works for me is I work either the first three days of the week, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, or Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, every week, it shifts, so three days, one week, four days the other week, and each shift is 12 hours. However, they are very, because we're in terms when we're going to school, they're really flexible. When it comes to their like I go to class smalI through Wednesday. So I come in, I'm supposed to come in at seven in the morning and leave at seven at night. But I, because of my school schedule, I come in around 1pm. And leave pretty much whenever I want as long as I don't exceed 12 hours per day.
Peter Kazarinoff 5:16
So Mario, you're working as an intern in the semiconductor industry, and at the same time, you're going to school and being a community college student. That's pretty amazing and a huge amount of work. I'm really impressed by that. So tell me a little bit more about work? Do you work in a team? Or do you work alone?
Mario 5:37
We work, it's a team. It's a team. We're all under this program, I guess. It's called the Opportunity Program, which they have at Intel, which they are looking for more people have anybody listened to and listening to this as interested. And the way that it works is they get people that have had life experience already, either in a different field, military or whatnot. And if they're interested in getting an electrical engineering degree, they'll give you an interview. The interview is basically just a big IQ test. And based on how you do an interview, they'll give you the job. Once you're there as a team, you're the job can realistically be done by three people. But we have six at every shift because we are expected to be on top of our schoolwork. And we can do that schoolwork at work. So because it's six of us, we have a fair amount of time in between actual work to actually study and get our homework done and everything like that.
Peter Kazarinoff 6:49
Mario, you mentioned that there six of you working together. Do you also work with a bunch of different types of folks at Intel? Like engineers, PhD researchers and others? Or is it mostly with other interns like you?
Mario 7:03
So the interns that I currently work in, because there are only so I work with six in the entire program, there are two people out of those 12 people, five of us are trying to become electrical engineers. The other is one is what to our CSS. One is currently doing his PhD in data sciences. Another one is getting his master's in finance. It's pretty mixed. Yeah.
Peter Kazarinoff 7:42
Mario, do you remember what it felt like your first day at Intel? What did it feel like walking into intel on your first day of work?
Mario 7:49
I felt like I was completely out of place. Because I I had just came from being in the military, like kind of like being like a low level, petty officer, what, that's what they call you. And all of a sudden, like his, I applied on the 28th for this job interviewed on the 23rd. And it was like, Hey, can you start in three weeks kind of thing and like, uproot my whole life over here. And then the 26th came around, and I was like, What am I doing here right now? Because you're surrounded when I went to the orientation. Like I was talking to some of the people around me just very just chatting and stuff. And all of these people had their masters and PhDs from like Berkeley, I met a guy from MIT. And I'm like, I am not supposed to be here. Yeah, but it's interesting, because I kind of think like, finding yourself in that puts in a position like that. It's really motivating. Like, I can do this kind of thing. That makes any sense,
Peter Kazarinoff 9:00
Mario, now how does it feel at work? Does it feel different when you go in, even though you are surrounded by people who originally thought were working at such a high level?
Mario 9:09
Oh, it's completely. It's such a casual work environment. There's no like, of course, there's a hierarchy like in every other job, but you don't really feel it. It feels more like we're all working together to accomplish something. And as long as you're like working hard and getting everything you need to do to get done, done, everybody's going to treat you well. Everybody's going to respect you. Everybody's going to talk to you, as an equal this whole thing like, Oh, I'm bigger than you because I make more money because I have this big degree. I have never felt that there.
Peter Kazarinoff 9:50
And for you, Mario, do you feel like there are opportunities for professional growth? You mentioned that you're moving on to hopefully get a degree in electrical engineering could And then you use those skills at Intel to,
Mario 10:04
Oh, that's the whole - the whole. That's the point, the point of my of what I'm currently doing there is to hopefully finish my degree. And once I do that, I will have had three years two to three years of intern experience working with them knowing pretty much everything that happens below the Product DesignEngineering level. So that once I'm a product, product development engineer, it's a more seamless transition. So that that is that is the goal.
Peter Kazarinoff 10:40
Mario, can you provide a ballpark salary? For the engineering interns in the semiconductor industry? What might somebody expect to make if they're doing a similar role to yours?
Mario 10:53
Well, so there are two different paths to doing work like what I'm doing. Mine as an Intel employee, I'm making with mine, as an Intel employee, I'm making about $27 an hour. And you're allowed to do up to 60 hours a week, which ends up being a pretty handsome amount of money while going to school. The other route is to be a contract worker, via via recruiting agencies, that's also like a very real option. They make about $21 an hour, but they're capped at 40 hours per week, if we decide to just because we're also allowed, if we don't want to continue our education, we are allowed to just stay there as technicians, and full time employee technicians start off at about $70,000. And cap off currently at around 180 a year for technician. Yeah, so it's pretty good.
Peter Kazarinoff 11:56
And Mario, Are there benefits things like retirement health care, dental insurance that come along with this type of compensation?
Mario 12:06
Yes. For a very minimal amount like for for visual, dental and health insurance. For both my wife and I, I pay about $12 per paycheck, and I get paid every two weeks. So $24 a month for my wife and I are visual dental health insurance. That's nuts. Yeah, so it's pretty good benefits. You also you get an FSA. Oh, no, an HSA a Health Savings. Account. Yeah. Which is non taxable. If you want to if you want to do the retirement plan with them, because you can opt not to, they match, you can contribute up to like 50% 15% of your salary. In they match up to 5%. And twice a year, they do an employee stock purchase program. They offer it, as I said earlier, twice a year. And you can you can contribute up to 15% of your salary into the stock purchase program to acquire Intel stock at half price. So the benefits are very real.
Peter Kazarinoff 13:30
So Mario, we've talked a bunch about what you do in your work and what it felt like working. How about we kind of switch gears and talk about how you got to where you are now? What was your work experience before your current role? And what was your education experience before you started this internship?
Mario 13:49
Well, I first went to college, I went to college, I graduated high school in 2011. I went to college to play baseball. So that was basically my whole life. I didn't really have any academic perspectives at that time, like I always did okay in school. But my family, they were all academics slash professionals. So that was always kind of like I think I knew was important. So when I went to school, I took their advice. And I went into something that could possibly make me money in the future because baseball isn't a for sure thing. So I went for biochemical biochemistry. And I'll do my sophomore year. Well, through my freshman year, I got injured. By my sophomore year, I was taking off for the baseball team and I had to start really focusing on school and apple. And I realized I did like they're not like biochemistry that much. I liked it but not enough to put in the amount of work and like develop the work ethic to actually be successful at that. So I wasted a lot of time And I, after a couple of semesters, I realized that, that it was probably better off leaving college and figuring something out. And what I figured out, like what I got myself into, at that point was the military because I felt like I needed something like to get me in like, okay, work mentality. I've never really had to work. I just did sports. And it's, you might think, oh, like, you work hard in sports, we're recording this other thing, it's not the same. It really takes a change in perspective to really focus and do what job day after day was something I was not used to. And I was about 20 at this point. So I joined the military. I did really good on like the second entrance exam they gave you. And I became a nuclear technician. I went to school for about two years in that, and I liked it. It was really cool stuff. And also, you don't really have an option to veer off and be a think about like, Oh, but I don't like working No, because you it's the military. So you have to go Go, go go go. And yeah, I made it through. And I worked as a as a nuclear tradition of submarine for about four years. After that.
Peter Kazarinoff 16:27
Mario, how did your work as a nuclear technician in the military on a submarine, prepare you for your work now, as an intern in the semiconductor industry? What kind of skills were you able to bring from your military experience that are really useful for you now?
Mario 16:45
They're not useful for me yet, but they will be. And I've noticed that in school like in the class I took with you. And last semester, we went over, over a lot of circuits. And that, to me, that was just like, oh, this is home for me. Because in the submarine, I did a lot of circuitry work. I learned a lot of schematics, and I had to memorize very large schematics very quickly, and do maintenance, on instrumentation. Fix electrical equipment that got messed up. I know, I got pretty good at that technical aspect of having to deal with electrical equipment while doing my job. And in the military. Also, because my job was because what I did for the most part was, have you ever seen the Simpsons? Do you have ever seen like the picture of Homer Simpson, sitting in front of like this giant panel of like buttons, that for the most part, that was what I would do, I would sit in front of this thing with a bunch of little things in front of me reading gauges and buttons, and stare at it for about eight hours, every single day, with the would meet ends here and there and repairs mixed in between having to do that. Because you're put in a position where if you don't notice something, this billion dollar government owned machine could could not blow up, but could kill everybody. So there's this constant pressure of, I have to be focused on this thing endlessly. And that kind of routine of like, as long as I keep paying attention, and I don't veer off, I'm good, like, everything's gonna be fine. When I got out of the military, and I became an intern here, that kind of the same mentality I have going into it, where it's like, as long as I don't stop, I'll be good. So it's like, when I go, I even though I only have to work three or four days out of the week, I go there about like six days a week, Today's my day off, but I go there about six days a week. And they don't they don't mind. They they like it when we come in, even our days off and just kind of sit there and studying. And it's just that like kind of mentality like, this doesn't stop. Do you know what I mean?
Peter Kazarinoff 19:32
So Mario, you made a pretty big transition, working in the military, moving all the way across the country, and now working as an intern, and also as a student at the same time. What advice would you give to other folks that you've learned? Who might be making big career transitions like that?
Mario 19:54
The biggest thing I could think of is don't let like Don't let the inconveniences of life stop you from doing something that can pay off great for you. Because, for example, it's like a lot of people, I feel like they let themselves be hindered by the fact that something is either far away, or I'm going to have to like, move, or it's going to be new people, or something's going to be difficult. Or I might fail, fail, go go do the thing. Fail. If you do fail, move on to the next thing. Like things are never going to be lean cut, like, oh, either you're going to always succeed, or you're always going to fail. Keep pushing.
Peter Kazarinoff 20:46
So Mario, what advice would you give current students like maybe your current classmates, or people who want to transition their careers and work in the semiconductor industry as a technician? What would you say to those folks?
Mario 20:59
So your question is, people who are thinking about going from school to transitioning to a tech field job, or who want to do both things simultaneously?
Peter Kazarinoff 21:11
Well, could be potentially both, or people who are working outside of a tech field job, maybe they're waiting tables, or they're doing some other type of work. But they want to transition into advanced technology industry and work as a technician, what would you say to them?
Mario 21:29
To make the leap, I would say, make the leap, it's very rewarding, in more ways than one, you're going to be surrounded by some of the smartest people that this country has to offer, you're going to be paid well, you're going to be part of something that will eventually make a difference. Focus, for example, right now, I asked, like, I guess, trivial, as what I do, might seem to a lot of people, it's like men, I'm working on the 14th generation of Intel processors, only the 12th generation, like the 12th generation just came out. So it's like this thing that I'm helping build, it's going to be used by millions of people eventually. And sure, I'm not the one designing this whole thing, or I'm not the one who created it. But if it wasn't for the work that we put in, it would have never happened. Like and that it's something that it's very fulfilling, to think about that, that you were part of something greater than yourself, even as a technician, while also having all the benefits in the world getting paid real good money, having a bunch of opportunities, if you start as a technician, and you're good. Like, the sky's the limit, they'll still send you to school, they'll pay for it, you have all the support in the world, the environment, I would have never thought before working in a place like this, that the environment would be like it is like as supportive and as employee driven. Yeah, I always thought it would be like, I don't know, I guess like how the movies and like T television makes it seem where it's like you show up to this place. And there's all this like, pressure trying to bring you down and people kicking you around. That is not what it's like, at all.
Peter Kazarinoff 23:37
So Mario, do you have a final call to action for students, or people who want to transition their careers so that you can bring in the next generation of interns in the semiconductor industry.
Mario 23:50
The final thing I would have to say my final call to action would be this, this is the it used to be the just the future. But now, technology is the present, and will continue to be your future. This is the biggest industry in the world. beyond anything because we need technology, we make technology to develop new technologies. That's, that's how crazy years before it used to just be like, Oh, you have a bunch of people in an office trying to figure out stuff now we have computers to figure out the stuff for us. And we make them like if, if that's something that that motivates you, being part of the growth of us as a society. From a technology perspective. That is the place you should go. That's the place you have to go. Because where else could you could you make an impact like that? And don't think about it as just like, Oh, if I'm working in technology, I'm just gonna be working on computers. There's millions of different types. of technology out there. There. So even if you're into the environment, there's a tech job out there for you. Like it. I feel like a lot of people have this idea of what tech is, when tech, it's like saying science. Science is just this really vague general term to describe a bunch of different things. And so is tech to tech technology. Technology is anything that advances what we currently have.
Peter Kazarinoff 25:30
Well, Mario, thank you so much for sharing your story with me about both your work in the military, your transition into work now in the semiconductor industry, and what engineering interns do at Intel.
Mario 25:45
Thank you. Thank you for having me. I was shocked when I saw the message from you invited me to do this with you.
Peter Kazarinoff 25:52
Well, it's a wonderful conversation and I'm really excited to share it with everyone - so please get keep in touch.
Mario 26:00
Definitely you as well.
Peter Kazarinoff 26:08
Talking Technicians is produced by MNT-EC, the Micro Nano Technology Education Center through financial support from the National Science Foundation's Advanced Technological Education grant program. Opinions expressed on this podcast do not necessarily represent those of the National Science Foundation. Join the conversation: If you are a working technician, or know someone who is, reach out to us at info@talkingtechnicians.org. We're always looking out for great guests to share more stories with you.