Talking Technicians
Talking Technicians
S02-E05 Yeysen is a technician at Intel
Yeysen works as a technician at Intel in Hillsboro, Oregon. He graduated from Centralia College with a 2-year degree and now works in a field where he can make more than $50,000. Hear Yeysen’s story in this episode.
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/
Centralia College: https://www.centralia.edu/
Jobs at Intel: https://jobs.intel.com/
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 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 Yeysen. Yeysen works at Intel in Hillsboro, Oregon - outside Portland. Yeysen, welcome to Talking Technicians.
Yeysen 0:51
Oh, thanks Pete.
Peter Kazarinoff 0:52
So tell me about yourself. Where do you live? And how long have you been there for?
Yeysen 0:57
I live in Hillsborough. I've moved probably a year ago. So I've been here until for about a year.
Peter Kazarinoff 1:05
And where'd you live before you move to Hillsborough?
Yeysen 1:08
In Washington around the Olympia area.
Peter Kazarinoff 1:11
And did you grow up in Washington?
Yeysen 1:13
Yeah, whole life in Washington.
Peter Kazarinoff 1:16
Is there anybody else in your household?
Yeysen 1:19
My wife. Yeah, been married for three years now.
Peter Kazarinoff 1:24
And do you guys have any kids?
Yeysen 1:27
Just about to have one.
Peter Kazarinoff 1:29
Oh, congratulations! That's amazing. When's your due date?
Yeysen 1:34
Um, this - this March?
Peter Kazarinoff 1:37
Oh, that's super, super exciting! And it's going to be your first?
Yeysen 1:42
Yeah, my first.
Peter Kazarinoff 1:43
Awesome. Well congratulations. I've got two little kids at home. And they're really are just the light of my life. So tell me about where you work. What's your job title? And what kind of things do you do day to day?
Yeysen 1:57
So I'm a manufacturing technician. And what I'm in charge of is operating several tools. And basically, there's wafers that come in these, FOUPs, and we run the wafers on these tools. And each tool does a certain process to them. And I'm in charge of making sure that - that the tool has done the process, done it correctly. And to maintain the tool.
Peter Kazarinoff 2:30
And when you say wafer, what are these wafers made out of? And what are they ultimately going to be turned into?
Yeysen 2:37
So these wafers are basically chips, I guess. There's probably around 300 400 of these little chips in just one wafer. And they're made of silicon. And there's, there's so many processes that are done to it. So when it gets to my section of the factory, it's towards the end. So we basically do a lot of final processes to it. And then it's sent out to the next section of the factory. And till it's directly towards the end, consumer, I guess.
Peter Kazarinoff 3:14
You mentioned that they come in, FOUPs. What's a FOUP? And why do you need them?
Yeysen 3:19
So a FOUP is basically just a container. And they hold 24 wafers. And it's just a way to transport the wafers.
Peter Kazarinoff 3:28
Oh Okay. And about how big are the wafers?
Yeysen 3:34
A size of a medium pizza.
But probably not quite as tasty. How long have you been working at Intel for?
A year and a month now. So.
Peter Kazarinoff 3:48
And has - have there been any opportunities for professional growth since you started?
Yeysen 3:53
Yeah. The first six months to a year really, it's all a lot of training. And just to get the life of Intel. Um, but they do a lot of opportunity for growth after maybe a year, year and a half. There's different sections of intel that they encourage you to go to if that's your, your, your passion, I guess. So there's - there's lots of growth in different directions. There's like, more of them main - the maintenance side, more of the processing side. Yeah, there's the pays is different towards the jobs. So I guess the more you know, this side will pay more. I'm sort of the kind of - yeah. They have a constant competition. Yeah, it's - there's a lot of growth.
Peter Kazarinoff 4:38
Are you willing to share how much money and entry level technician makes at Intel?
Yeysen 4:43
I started there with just a two year technician or a two year degree. In mechanical - Electronics Robotics and Automation and with no experience at $51,000. And there it is, yeah, per year, and it's - they start you out $47,000. But they, they give you factory bonuses and quarterly bonuses, which add up to around 51. It can fluctuate, it can be a little bit higher, it could be a little bit lower, around that price range.
Peter Kazarinoff 5:24
Do you work alone? Or do you work it in team?
Yeysen 5:28
We work as - in teams. Um, so most of us are certified on a couple of tools. And we were in charge of, of those tools, and we work on who gets to work on that tool that day. Or if someone's gone, who's covering which tool. And, yeah.
Peter Kazarinoff 5:51
And do you work with other technicians, or also work with engineers and scientists?
Yeysen 5:57
We we primarily work with engineers. So they - they're, they're testing new processes on these tools, optimizing them. So we work very close to them and help them run, I guess, tests.
Peter Kazarinoff 6:16
And how do you communicate with your co workers? How do you interact with them on the factory floor?
Yeysen 6:21
Um, we were mostly face to face. Um, and through shifts, we have passed down and they basically just tell us what happened last night, or what, what they want to do today. And that's how we mostly communicate. That and email.
Peter Kazarinoff 6:39
Tell me a little bit more about pass down. When you first get on to your shift. What do you do?
Yeysen 6:46
So when we get there, around 7:00, we start passed down at 7:10. And basically, we get all the engineers that are going to be working on that section of the factory, and the other technicians from the ongoing shift and the prior shift meet. And they talked about what happened, the prior shift, and what needs to happen today. And basically, just - we're just passing down the the information from one shift to another.
Peter Kazarinoff 7:15
Do you remember what it felt like your first day at work? What did it feel like the first time you walked into Intel?
Yeysen 7:22
Ah - it was - it was a little bit nervous. We have a - Intel has its training. The first week training. And it's basically just kind of just getting information, what you need to do, what your requirements you need. It's like going back to college, I guess.
Peter Kazarinoff 7:43
And when you work at Intel, do you need to wear a cleanroom suit?
Yeysen 7:49
Yeah, we wear, when we go to the factory floor, there's different levels of of gowns, I guess you can wear. So the higher the cleanliness of the factory is, the more we have to put on more garments. So where I work, I had to put on a full bunny suit. Head to toe gloves, face masks, goggles. But prior to that people would wear just, what are they called - coats. I guess, just coats and booties.
Peter Kazarinoff 8:29
And we're recording this late in 2021. Do you feel safe at work in terms of COVID or infection risk?
Yeysen 8:36
Oh, yeah. They're - they're really - they're on point with the COVID thing. That - if you, if you have any fevers or any, any symptoms, they'll tell you to stay home and they'll pay for you to stay home. Because they don't want, they don't want any - any infections going around there. So. And they have their own clinic site too. So they will test you there too.
Peter Kazarinoff 8:59
So you mentioned that you work in shifts. How long are your shifts, and how many do you do per week?
Yeysen 9:06
It's 12 hour shifts. And from 7:00 to 7:30. You get an hour for lunch: 30 minutes, paid 30 minutes unpaid. And we - it's we work 3, 3 and 4 days. So - 4 days on, 4 days off. 3 days on, 3 days off.
Peter Kazarinoff 9:34
Does Intel help with benefits? Things like health insurance or retirement?
Yeysen 9:40
Yeah, Intel has, uh, has probably one of the best benefits out there. That's what they have going for them. Like as far as like competition with pay rates. They have really good insurance. They will cover up like 95% of your medical bills after your reach deductible. That's really pretty- pretty - it's really, really reasonable. And then there's, they have paid sick leave, they have PA which you can take any time. They give you vacations, and then they give you holiday time off. So you can use your holiday anytime you want. And they're really flexible on that. And they also have, have a lot of programs like paternity - paternity leave. So if you're, you have a kid coming, that and they'll give you like, three months off. And they have like a lot of a lot of packages, I guess. So. That they offer.
Peter Kazarinoff 10:43
Yeah, they've, they've got a lot of perks. That sounds great.
Yeysen 10:47
Yeah perks, yeah.
Peter Kazarinoff 10:49
So did you know that you wanted to work at Intel when you were living in Washington? How did you find out about being a technician there?
Yeysen 10:58
So I heard that Intel and Centrailia College had like a small little partnership of a - partnership, I guess. They would find a lot of their employees at Centrailia. Yeah, I heard about it. Um, but I didn't, I didn't really consider it immediately. Cause I never really knew what the whole Intel world was, or the whole semiconductor world was. My plan was to go into work with Boeing. And had some offers that were thrown at me. But when the Corona hit, I knew that, you know, that section of the industry was gonna slow down. So I decided to go into semiconductors here in Portland, in Oregon. And that's been a really good decision, I would say, and it's just growing rapidly over here.
Peter Kazarinoff 11:55
What was your education experience and your work experience before you started at Intel?
Yeysen 12:01
I didn't have much work experience. Like there's no industry, but I mean, I had college experience. And I worked on projects. So a lot of skills was learned that way. Working with - as a team, building my own robots, things like that. Employers, you know, they look for that kind of, those kind of projects, and it kind of sets you apart.
Peter Kazarinoff 12:33
You mentioned that you got a two year degree from a community college. What parts of those - of that degree do you feel like you use now at work?
Yeysen 12:43
For right now, it's - it's more like it's the technical, following instructions, I guess. There's like, I guess sometimes I would I would compare to lab work, I guess. Yeah. So a teacher would give you a set of instructions of what to do. And you need to follow them. And that's basically kind of what we do at Intel as the engineer with instructions, what to do. And we follow that. I guess another big thing, especially here at Intel is safety. So a lot of safety precautions. A lot of OSHA, maybe like more on top, like higher level of safety in OSHA. That's kind of the environment here at Intel. So that's kind of something I've took from school. Is that, that classes of safety.
Peter Kazarinoff 13:35
And did you learn everything with the community college? Or when you started Intel were there some additional things that Intel taught you?
Yeysen 13:43
Most everything you needed to know, they taught you at Intel. Just because it's a little bit different to what the schools offer I guess. Moment, mostly because it's just high. It's very proprietary knowledge and technical things that they need - that they go with these tools. So.
Peter Kazarinoff 14:08
What was the hardest part of your education?
Yeysen 14:11
For the most part, it was pretty fun. Community College is definitely much more fun than high school, and everything. Something you like to do. I guess prerequisites maybe but I think that's about it.
Peter Kazarinoff 14:26
What is something unexpected about working that you only learned after you started?
Yeysen 14:31
Um, career growth, I guess. Um, yeah, I started - I thought, you know, when I go into jobs, I was gonna do like the ideal dream job. But what I've learned is it's more like you need to work to get your dream job. And so - that's career growth you go to. So Intel provides a lot of options and a lot of things that you can, you can shoot for. For example, after working couple years, you could work as an engineer at Intel with just a two year degree. And it's just - and all you need to do is just, I guess, just put in the time and talk to your managers and just making sure that you know what you're doing. And yeah, there's a lot of growth in that. So that's something I've learned is that I'm working towards my dream job. And right now, it's just another step. It's another year college is what I think.
Peter Kazarinoff 15:29
How has your life changed since you started working as a technician?
Yeysen 15:35
It's a - It's definitely like, been, I've been in a better place that in mind, I guess. I moved out of my parents house, and I have this - all this new income, and I've been able to do more things. I've been trying new projects. And so I've been able to explore a little bit more on my own. And it's been great.
Peter Kazarinoff 15:57
What advice would you give current students or people who want to transition careers and work as a technician like you do?
Yeysen 16:05
It's probably one of the most easiest jobs out there. And it's, it's so on demand right now. Like they're hiring, like crazy. They're - they're out there was having they're having problems hiring people, just because no one was applying. And it was, it was crazy. So my advice is just apply. And the job is so much easier than a desk job, I guess. It's hands on.
Peter Kazarinoff 16:33
Do you have a final call to action for students or people who want to transition their careers?
Yeysen 16:39
Well, I guess just find your passion. Really, I mean. If that's what you want to do is, you know, being a technician, the absolutely. Go for it.
Peter Kazarinoff 16:48
Well - Yeysen thank you so much for being on Talking Technicians and sharing your story with me.
Yeysen 16:54
Yeah, thanks for having me.
Peter Kazarinoff 16:56
Bye now.
Yeysen 16:57
Bye.
Peter Kazarinoff 17:03
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 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.