S04-E08 Jamel is a Technician at TEL

Jamel is a Technician at Tokyo Electron, also called TEL in Hillsboro, OR outside of Portland. Jamel was part of the Vet S.T.E.P.  program that helps military service members transition into the civilian sector. Jamel talks about how the skills and practices he learned and used in the military can be transferred and employed as a technician 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:

Episode Web Page: https://micronanoeducation.org/students-parents/talking-technicians-podcast/

Jobs at TEL: https://www.tel.com/careers/

Learn more about Vet S.T.E.P.: https://video.wmht.org/video/vet-step-gap-bridging-from-military-to-microelectronics-uvqeln/

Transcript

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 at 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 Jamel Jamel works for Tokyo electron sometimes called tel in Hillsboro, Oregon outside Portland Jemelle. welcome to Talking technicians.

Jamel  0:52  
Oh, thank you for having me. On his on his beautiful cloudy rainy day. Yeah, we

Peter Kazarinoff  0:58  
got one of those typical Portland Oregon days outside. So Jamel, you work for Tokyo electron. But you work on the inside of an Intel chip fabrication plant? Can you sit to just talk about what is tell? What does? What do they do? And then how does that relate to sort of what Intel does.

Jamel  1:22  
So we took electronic took which one it makes the tools that makes microchips for Intel. Um, it they tied together because the tools that Intel users are used to create Mac chips that go into their processes, their computers, things of that nature. That's kind of the nature of the beast between those two entities.

Peter Kazarinoff  1:48  
And Jamel when you say tool, like Tokyo electron makes these tools that go into the Intel factories that makes the microchip is that something like the size of a hammer? Or like a screwdriver? What do you mean by like tool?

Jamel  2:05  
These tools are? How do I describe it? The tools are things that they're pretty much squared, big, big stainless steel boxes, essentially, that makes them and they can be you know, 10 feet tall, they can, you know, five feet five feet wide. But each tool is is uniquely uniquely different based on the process you're using at that time.

Peter Kazarinoff  2:30  
So one of these tools could be you know, the size of a small bus or minivan and it just does one of the processes that goes into making individual microchip?

Jamel  2:44  
Yes, correct. Correct. That is the base of it. Yes. Okay.

Peter Kazarinoff  2:48  
So Jamel, can you describe for me kind of what's a general workday like for you? What do you do at the beginning? What do you do at the middle? And what do you do at the end of every

Speaker 1  2:57  
morning starts with a with a path now, pretty much on. It's a meeting that we have with Intel in the tool owners. And we just go over that day to day process of what's going on that day, and what needs to be handled. From there, we come up with a plan of action, depending on what the issue is that day. For example, if a tool is down for, you know, a pop issue, what you think that nature, we figure out, we figure out the issue diagnose the issue, then we can do troubleshooting process to get that tool up and running. If it's a pm or preventive maintenance for that day, pretty much we go in and we do a service on that item to get it back to performance level. That pretty much the daily functions of what I do. One day, it could be a PM, which is you know piano one day we could be switching off small motor very vast they do they depending on what it is.

Peter Kazarinoff  3:58  
And then Jamel at the end of the day, when you're done at work, what are the kinds of things you have to do to then prepare the next technician

Jamel  4:06  
you have to form your pastime, right? So you have to put together paperwork and discuss what you did for that day on that particular tool. And then you are very detailed in that procedure. So whoever picks it up next after you they can read it and know like okay, this is what Gmail did the previous day this what he worked on. So we're not turning we'll do the same thing over and over again. Um, that's the biggest thing posts doing the work is creating, you're creating a pastime based off what you did that day.

Peter Kazarinoff  4:37  
So at the beginning of the day, when you go to work, you look at the previous technicians past down to see what you need to do. You go about your work, it could be maintenance work, it could be some sort of troubleshooting, or possibly like repair work and then at the end of the day, you write out what you did so you can pass your work done to the next technician. 100%

Jamel  4:57  
Correct. Yeah, it does. How you create efficiency and great time management where if I tried a procedure that previous day, the next technician would not run the same procedure that didn't work for me. Right?

Peter Kazarinoff  5:10  
Right. So that makes it so people don't repeat things that you've done and also makes that next technician, like, do whatever the next job needs to be done. 

Jamel  5:21  
Yes, I wish every facet of life was like,

Peter Kazarinoff  5:25  
Jamel this sounds sort of like shift work. Can you talk a little bit about what your working schedule is? Like? Yes.

Jamel  5:31  
Um, so when I first started, I was doing your traditional shift Monday through Friday. And then, as I went along and got more experience, I should just head over to compress ships. So there's 33344 threes, which means that she worked three days all for work for all three. And that's where that's where our 12 hour days each day. So that's the biggest transition from working, I guess you'd say your additional month to Friday to work a compress shift.

Peter Kazarinoff  6:04  
So I think I have a general idea, kind of what you do at work, working for Tokyo electron and helping to maintain and fix the tools that are used to build microchips. Let's kind of transition and talk about how you got to where you are now. So can you describe for me a little bit about where you grew up? And then after a teenager after you're a teenager? What do you do next?

Jamel  6:34  
Oh, wow. Long story here. No, not really. So I grew up in Fort Pierce, Florida. No, traditional traditional upbringing, you know, went to high school, went to college that the high school, college wasn't clicking for me, per se. So I went and joined the military. I joined the Army did seven half years deployed. I got sinful delta, which a which is seaborn, a chemical, biological Rate Radiation and nuclear specialist. Pretty much my job was like, I did everything you can think of day to day. Last year for me literally everything. When I was in New York Monday, my day would start off with me doing maybe looking at schematics over a particular weapon that we're ordering. From very talk to my commander mom, upper leadership about potential safety issue that's going on in the building, from organizing where to put snow that day, right. It's the experience that I learned military is like invaluable I wouldn't ever take Oh, no, I'll take nothing from it. From there. I should use all the military. In I was I moved back to Fort Pierce, Florida. When went to school. I was coaching league baseball as well. That was also an interesting experience. So I did that for like a year. So one of my good friends on market Bennett, he called me to La Hey, hmm. We know about semiconductor and I'm like, I don't know much about it at all right? So he reached out to me and we was talking about his experience of him going to a vet step program. Okay, so from there, I reached out to Kate Alcott. And she pretty much put me in the room of semiconducting and after which I got like a crash course of what it is, how it's done, how is used in our day to day life. From there, as you know, I went through the course, I did the best I could learn what I could I use those skills that I learned and, and also the resources from Kate as well. Who is an amazing person, like, you know, it into like getting it till, um, it was a process for me to get to tell, you know, I was told no, a few times, right for this being brutally honest. I was told no, during some of the process of hiring, but eventually I got on with tell and tell has been everything they'd been advertised to me in the group I can potentially getting there.

Peter Kazarinoff  9:17  
So it sounds like after high school in Florida, you did a little bit of college and then went into the military worked in the army. And then you did this vet step program that eventually led you two working at Tokyo electron in the semiconductor industry. So let's talk a little bit about the vet step program. What is the program and how are you able to just do that financially? between being in the Army and then having a job at Tokyo electron? How does that work?

Jamel  9:51  
Interesting. So the desktop program is a program put together where vets have a tradition to step How to Get a stepping stone out of the military. So in my case, I was right out the military when I did that program. But it's also meant for people who are in the military transitioning out as well. Sort of program for me was like, say it was a position where I was introduced to something that I didn't know existed, correct, right. But I was introduced to it. And then I'm like, wait a second, I've done these things. Before I've worked with you know, I've worked with schematics understand how certain things we're understanding how to be being functional following step by step processes. And these are things that why don't we personally so it was very easy for me to like, Okay, this is something I really want to pursue the VISTA program, this is an amazing program that I think is not being properly used. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people who are currently in who are not getting the the full access to the VISTA program. I don't know. I don't know why. But I think every person who was transitioning out should be given the the walkthrough of the different program until their next course of life.

Peter Kazarinoff  11:06  
And what about the vet step program? Made it that you could eventually work for Tokyo electron? Do you think you would have gotten your job without it?

Jamel  11:17  
Honestly, no. If there's a program was a we put me like sat in a room with, with with hiring managers with hiring recruiters with supervisors that I was able to speak with and in, they helped me through an interview process. They helped me just get through the overall process from beginning to end. Once again, when you don't when you don't know about something, it's really hard for you to like, understand it and do it yourself. So the fact that I was in the room with hiring managers and recruiters and supervisors, people who are active we interview for a decade, at least, it may the that I will never gotten that exposure, anywhere, anywhere else.

Peter Kazarinoff  12:00  
Yeah, so it sounds like both exposure to skills, like the things you have to do when you're working in the semiconductor industry, but also exposure to people in a network. Yes, hiring managers and the people that are going to read through your resume. Yes. That was also part of the program, too. Yes, yes. So Jamel, what advice would you give to folks who are either in community college, that are currently in the service, or working in a career, but they want to make a transition? to possibly work as a technician? Like you? What would you say to them?

Jamel  12:38  
Just Just do it. I know, it's kind of vague to say, right? Um, but you, you, you have the experience, right? You have to trust yourself. And once you know, and you just have to put yourself out there in front of others to show like, I can do the skill, I can do this job. And you just had to go 110% behind it. And like say, for me personally, I was told no, a couple of times, right? Um, but I never deterred me from what I'm able to do. So you just have to, you have to believe in yourself, like cliche to say, right, leaving yourself and just do it and just know that you have the skill, you have the ability. You just have to trust yourself and perform your ability you have to perform at the best of your ability. You know, I wish I could give a blueprint to that. But everybody's path is a bit different. So my path is a bit different from yours. But I think universally, you have the truth, your skills, what you learn what you know, and just go through with it.

Peter Kazarinoff  13:43  
So, Jamel to finish up, do you have a final call to action? Or something that you would say to the audience to make them aware of semiconductor careers and the work that you do as a technician? Not everybody knows about this job?

Jamel  13:59  
Try it. Right experience it give the experience um it's it's not just semiconducting right work for me separate was something I work inside the fab essentially right? But there are other avenues where okay, you're you don't like the fact you don't want to be in a bunny suit or so. You can work corporate, right? You can transition to a supervisor manager job with the tail where you know, alright, cool if you don't see us so we're going to 15 years or so. You can like okay, I want attrition to supervise and do more management things on the backside. There's many different avenues within semiconducting now I don't think people are aware of and you just have to push it once again, put yourself out in the forefront and say, Okay, I want to try this. And it didn't work out for you. Is it is it okay? What you have, you have the skill you have the knowledge no, okay, I try this. I can parlay the skills I learned here Your interviews.

Peter Kazarinoff  15:00  
Yeah, search about sounds like working as a technician isn't a dead end career. It could be that or beginning to like a lifelong career and move into other avenues within that semiconductor industry.

Jamel  15:16  
Most most definitely 110% of your work in safety, right? You can come a supervisor or manager. There's there's many doors, but you have to knock an axe. Right. So I think that's the biggest thing, you know, to learn in semiconductor is that like, say you, if you don't want to be in the FAB, you can learn and progress somewhere else.

Peter Kazarinoff  15:42  
Well, Jamel, thank you so much for being on talking technicians and speaking with me about your work at Tokyo electron. I really appreciate it.

Jamel  15:49  
Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it.

Peter Kazarinoff  15:51  
Please keep in touch

Jamel  15:53  
Most definitely.

Peter Kazarinoff  16:03  
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.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai