Hiring Challenges and Best Practices in the MEMS Industry
ABSTRACT
Today's hiring climate is unique and challenging in any field, and MEMS is no exception. Covid 19, a shortage of qualified engineers and executives, and a push for manufacturing in specific regions, are just of few of the circumstances creating challenges. Larger companies with huge resources who traditionally hadn't hired MEMS engineers and leaders, have also influenced the ability to hire and retain qualified MEMS talent. MEMStaff has been working with most MEMS companies for more than 15 years to aid in the acquisition of talent and thus has a unique perspective on the overall hiring climate as well the evolution of hiring in the MEMS industry. In this talk, we will describe some of the factors and trends affecting MEMS hiring over the past several years and talk about some of the challenges many MEMS companies have faced. We will also talk about different methods of finding and retaining qualified employees, and how those might be used to maximum efficiency to build exceptional teams.
BIOGRAPHY
Jason Weigold has worked in the MEMS industry for more than 30 years. He received the B.S.E.E. degree from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1995 and the M.S.E.E. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor in 1997 and 2000 respectively doing research in the field of microelectromechanical systems including projects for the Charles Stark Draper Laboratories and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). He worked at Analog Devices for many years in the Advanced Development Group of the Micromachined Products Division working on diverse MEMS development projects. He has worked on the development of MEMS inertial sensors (including the ADXL50), MEMS switches, MEMS resonators, MEMS pressure sensors, and MEMS microphones over the years. Areas of work included all stages of MEMS product development, including new product conceptualization, mechanical design and simulation, process design and integration, layout, fabrication, testing and evaluation, mechanical and electrical characterization, assembly, and packaging. Jason developed ADI’s MEMS microphone, which was in the iPhone, iPad, Google Home, as well as other high volume applications. That product line was ultimately sold to Invensense (now TDK Invensense) for about $100M. In 2006, he left ADI to found MEMStaff, which has been serving the MEMS industry’s staffing
needs for more than 15 years.