Talking Technicians
Talking Technicians
S05-E06 Ian is a maintenance technician at Polar Semiconductor
Ian, a maintenance technician at Polar Semiconductor in Cottage Grove, Minnesota, discusses his career path and work as a maintenance technician. Ian troubleshoots equipment and tools, including those for low-pressure chemical vapor deposition (LP CVD) at high temperatures. Ian transitioned from running his own business to becoming a technician after obtaining a two-year degree in nano science technology at Dakota County Technical College. Ian emphasizes the importance of communication, teamwork, and critical thinking in his role. He advises others to pursue technician education and career changes, regardless of age.
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 Polar Semiconductor: https://polarsemi.com/careers/
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 Ian. Ian is a maintenance technician at Polar Semiconductor in Cottage Grove, Minnesota, outside the Minneapolis / St. Paul area. Ian, welcome to Talking technicians.
Ian 0:54
Thanks, Peter. It's good to be here.
Peter Kazarinoff 0:57
I'm glad that you're here and going to be able to talk with us today, both about your work and about some of your education experience. So Ian, you live outside the Minneapolis St Paul area. How long have you been there for? Is that where you grew up?
Ian 1:11
Yep, I grew up just north of the Twin Cities, about 30 minutes north in force Lake, and moved down to southern part of the metro area here, and been here now for about 15 years.
Peter Kazarinoff 1:24
Yeah, So Ian, let's kind of transition into where you work. You work at Polar Semiconductor. How would you describe your job title?
Ian 1:32
Well, I'm a maintenance technician. I've worked in in the EC department, and over the last four years, I transferred to the diffusion LP CVD department. So on a day to day, tasks are troubleshooting equipment, tool issues.
Peter Kazarinoff 1:51
And when you say LP CVD, for those that don't know those acronyms, what do those things mean?
Ian 1:57
Li quid, physical vapor deposition and diffusion. So basically, LP CVD, we're taking very high, very low pressure and heat, and we're depositing particles, or well layers, on top of wafers, and then diffusion. We're just using that atmosphere. We're depositing on top of wafers at about 2000 degrees C.
Peter Kazarinoff 2:26
Uh huh, uh huh, and at Polar Semiconductor, how would you say your typical day goes like, what do you do at the beginning? What do you do in the middle? And what do you do at the end?
Ian 2:37
Sure, when I arrive, we take over from the previous shift the plant runs 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. So we go to what's called a pass down, where we spend about half an hour talking about all the tool issues that arose in the past and what they've done so far to troubleshoot issues. And we kind of spend about 15 minutes talking about that, then my group and I talk for about 15 minutes on a plan on how we're going to approach taking over. And then we begin throughout the shift, we have what's called a pro score has a different levels of tools that are higher priority or lower priority. So based on that, we'll determine where we go to work, and I'll basically go to a tool and send as long as they can, or have you on it to fix it. And if I don't get it done, or I do get it done at the end of the shift to the next, pass all that information on to them.
Peter Kazarinoff 3:38
Right- so we kind of have this cycle of receiving pass down, then doing your work and then giving pass down to the next shift. Yep. So Ian Polar Semiconductor is located in the Minneapolis St Paul area. What kind of things do they make? What do Polar Semiconductor products go into?
Ian 3:56
Well, they make computer chips for mainly for automobiles at this time. So all safety devices, for instance, on Toyota are, I think, about 80% of their chips for all their airbags and their sensors for different, oh, two sensors and brakes and anti lock brakes come from us. We are affiliated with allegro and sank and Sanken, a very large corporation out of Tokyo, Japan, and I think they own roughly 50% of Toyota. So we, pretty much majority of our chips go to them.
Peter Kazarinoff 4:35
Right - so the chips that you work on making those are the kind of chips that really do help people safe out on the road, because those are the chips that go into things like airbags or anti lock brake sensors. So Ian, could you talk to me a little bit about compensation and salary if someone becomes a maintenance technician in the Minneapolis St Paul area in this. Semiconductor industry, what could they expect to make?
Ian 5:04
I guess, starting technicians right out of school right now with a two year associates degree related in science or in any kind of mechanical maintenance is starting roughly around 60,000 a year, I would say the high end, after somebody that's been maybe in the field for 10 to 15 years plus is probably pulling around 110 120,000 somewhere in that range.
Peter Kazarinoff 5:29
Oh, so that's a pretty good living after you finish a two year technician degree. Besides salary, are there other benefits to working at Polar things like health care or dental or retirement plans.
Ian 5:44
Yeah, they have a very good health care with they have very minimal costs for myself and my family and dental and life insurance is we have free life insurance, free identity theft protection. We have free access to lawyers. We have a whole range lot of benefits from them. They also have a very good 401 K match at 5% and they're just about to announce stock options in the future here. So yeah, it's great.
Peter Kazarinoff 6:17
So just besides that salary, then you have all these other professional benefits, and so you can make working as a technician a real career. Are there any opportunities for professional growth at Polar if you start in as a beginning technician, what could you move on to do?
Ian 6:36
I can move without obtaining a higher education. You can really just move up in the maintenance department. So right now, I'm a level three technician. I started as a entry level, level one. So as you progress, maybe the average would be about every three years. You could move up a level, if as long as you work hard enough at it. So I'm basically I'm a goal to climb the ladder to a level five technician.
Peter Kazarinoff 7:05
And what's different about your work now that you're a level three compared to when you're at a level one,
Ian 7:10
I'm a senior technician, so now I'm by myself. I can multitask and take multiple tools on and on my troubleshooting skills and reading schematics, whether they be control or electrical or more advanced than somebody at a lower level. So now I'm kind of off on my own, and as I build you can get to master technician at level five, where you pretty much could explain the tool from one end to the other without even looking at anything so.
Unknown Speaker 7:44
So it sounds like you get a little bit more autonomy in your work, but also a little bit more responsibility as you move up those different technician levels at the company. Yep. So Ian, how about we transition a little bit and talk about how you got to where you are now. You mentioned that technicians usually go through a two year program at a community college. What kind of education background did you have before you started working at Polar?
Ian 8:10
Before I well, I guess I first have just had my high school diploma, and I actually started a business on my own. I did that for about 10 years, from about 20 to 30, and by the time I was 30, I realized that wasn't gonna make that very not gonna make a very good living. So at that time, my wife and I both actually went to school at the same time. And that's right, I actually got my degree in nano science technology at Dakota County Technical College. The reason why is just to raise a family, make more money, have a better career and better opportunity. So that's and right up the school. The second job I applied for was Polar Semiconductor. And it just was kind of interesting, because I really didn't intend to go in the minutes with the nano science technology degree. It was going to be more lab work and working on advanced microscopes like SEMs and atomic force microscopes and things like that. But they gave me a walk through and gave me a week actually to work with them first, to see if I'd be interested or not. So after the first week, I was hooked on it, and that's what I wanted to do. So just kind of interesting how that all works out, but it did. And
Peter Kazarinoff 9:23
Ian, from that time that you ran your own business, how did some of the things that you learned during that time help you and firm your work as a technician now?
Ian 9:33
Running my own business, I basically did everything from the labor to accounting to advertising, just multitasking and the ability to accomplish all of that and still keep it operating. I guess all of those things together kind of helped me to learn to work with others and teamwork.
Peter Kazarinoff 9:55
And Ian, how about the work that you did at Dakota Coney Technical College? What kind of skills from that program did you bring with you to Polar Semiconductor?
Ian 10:06
Well, it's funny to when I was first done any if you ever asked me that question, I would say I'm not really sure, but now looking back on it, you know, a lot of interpersonal skills, working with people to do labs that we did build, a lot of teamwork, just critical thinking skills, being able to take what we're learning in class, we would take something in class, go into the lab, and we would perform different experiments, and just all those abilities and skills I was learning I'm using a day to day basis at my job right now.
Peter Kazarinoff 10:38
Yeah, So Ian, besides some of the technical aspects of your job, you mentioned that you do some of those interpersonal skills, or professional skills, are things like communicating, verbally, communicating and writing and reporting, are those big parts of your job right now?
Ian 10:53
Oh yeah, absolutely we I mean that communication going in and out of passed down, before and after, if you're not saying the correct things, or you're not explaining very well, you're going to have people repeating things that you've already done, or you're going to repeat things people already did on the previous shift. The tool history, when we're done working on a tool, we need to document everything, and need to record everything as we're going so if I'm troubleshooting, say, an electrical schematic, if I am following where I'm losing voltage, for instance, if I don't document the 40 different steps I took correctly, and people can read that and interpret it, it's just going to waste a lot of time. So yeah, that's very important, and it's something that I learned, definitely learned in school.
Peter Kazarinoff 11:42
Yeah, that makes total sense, that it's not just communication for communication sake, but the reason that we're doing it is because we're saving people time, and we're making the company more productive while we're doing it. So Ian, you mentioned that you went into Polar Semiconductor after your community college experience, do you remember what it felt like your first day, or the first time that you went into Polar Semiconductor?
Ian 12:08
You know, just like anywhere, you know, you're nervous and anxious, but I felt, yeah, like I said, they gave me a week to work there to make a decision. And, you know, after the first day, I just knew that's what I wanted to do, so I felt very comfortable right away. And just put at ease so and just working with everyone that knew what they were doing, and the fact that they were all willing to help. And, you know, you could see that, and you could ask them a million questions, and everybody would be answered or would answer it. And, you know, show you everything needs to do. And just the willingness to work with me was definitely what made me want to stay there.
Peter Kazarinoff 12:46
So yeah, it sounds like that the other folks at the company were pretty kind, pretty nice, pretty sociable, and welcomed you in. So Ian, what's something unexpected about working as a technician that you only found out when you got your job at Polar Semiconductor?
Ian 13:04
Well, I never have been in a I guess I did tour a clean room in school one time wearing a bunny suit. But, yeah, wearing a full polyester suit from head to toe and working on tools that are 2000 C that put off about, you know, probably about 150 degree Fahrenheit off of the tools. So that's something I didn't expect. It's something that took time to get used to. Trying to do critical thinking when you're in that situation, it's a challenge. Takes time to get used to. But I guess there's different things with every job that you have to get used to - so.
Peter Kazarinoff 13:41
Ian, you mentioned that both you and your wife went into community college at the same time. How did your life change once you graduated from community college and you got your job as a technician, what was different for you and your family after that?
Ian 13:56
Well, my wife and I both went at a I think I was 32 and she was 31 we were both. We had three children at the time, so we it took a few years to finish our two year degree each, but by the time we're 3536 we both finished, and the first thing we noticed is just financially, how much better off we were to raise a family. May that was definitely the number one thing and the number one reason why we decided to go to school.
Peter Kazarinoff 14:28
Yeah, that makes sense that maybe it's this financial burden that you finally feel like is lifted a little bit once you get that career type job. So Ian to sort of finish up today, what advice would you give current students or people who want to transition their careers like you did, from running your own business and become a technician in the semiconductor industry like you are. What advice would you give folks like that?
Ian 14:56
Well, people that were in my situation, I was afraid to make the. Jump to later in life. Usually people go to school when they're younger, around early 20s. I made that decision at 32 and I was really afraid to do it, but it was the best decision I've ever made. You know, if you don't feel right where you're at which I didn't to make that jump, it's still scary. But it was, you knew it was the right thing to do. So I would definitely encourage people to if you don't feel feel good at exactly what you're doing currently, and you decide you want to go to school to better yourself and get a better I definitely would suggest doing that.
Peter Kazarinoff 15:36
Yeah, and I think you bring up a good point that it doesn't matter what your age is, you can still go back to community college, get a degree better yourself and start a new career. You don't just have to be 18 out of high school in order to do it. Nope, absolutely. Well. Ian, thank you so much for sharing your story with me and being on talking technicians today. I appreciate it. Oh, thank you very much. Please keep in touch.
Ian 16:01
Absolutely.
Peter Kazarinoff 16:08
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.