Career Opportunities in EDA Date:   Thursday , February 03, 2011 EDA stands for Electronic Design Automation. It helps to define what we mean for the words behind those three letters, “EDA”: Electronic- anything electronic- from computer chips, cellular phones, pacemakers, controls for automobiles and satellites to the servers, routers and switches that run the Internet. Design- the part of the production cycle where creativity, new ideas, ingenuity and inspiration come to the fore. This is also where designers try to model the behavior of their designs and analyze the complex interactions of millions of constituent parts in their designs to ensure completeness, correctness and manufacturability of the final product. Why? Because it is difficult, expensive and time consuming to "build it first and fix it later." Automation- Automation is required due to dramatic increase in complexity that designers must tackle in electronics today. EDA as a space offers opportunity to engage in a cutting edge technology. The "increasing complexity" as world transitions from "ASIC to SOC", the shrinking geometries of ICs, the designer productivity coupled with challenges around "time to market", "enhancement of yield" and "reduction of costs" challenges the best of the R&D talent. Strategic partnerships assures our customers meet their performance, cost, and schedule goals. There are great opportunities in the Field Organization that allows employees to actively engage and manage critical accounts at a Global, Strategic and Territorial Level. EDA is a highly niche area where the skill set required is an esoteric combination of electrical engineering, data structures and algorithm, mathematics, programming and increasingly knowledge of physics and chemistry at sub-atomic levels. This industry therefore requires mostly Electrical/Electronics Engineers ("hardware engineers") and Computer Science Engineers ("software engineers") who possess superior analytical skills, logical ability, and programming skills using C & C++. For a Fresh Engineer, the EDA industry provides a great opportunity to gain experience by l.Develop programming skills. 2.Work with best of minds in the EDA industry. 3.Understand large Software systems & product architecture. After gaining certain years of experience and required competencies, the industry provides opportunities to pursue the path of Seasoned Technocrats (egg: Architects, Scientists, Fellow) or a career in Techno-Managerial ladder (egg: Senior Manager, Director, group Director or Vice Presidents): Technical ladder can grow them up to a Principal Engineer/ Product Architect. In this ladder the focus is on impacting product towards the business requirement. Visualize and align the product with the future needs. Management Ladder can grow them into people & process management, besides technology management. In this path, focus is on managing teams to deliver commitments towards technology or customers. The opportunity in R&D and Field Organization helps talent to hone key competencies that provides the desired trajectory to career aspirations. With a backdrop of Global Companies, Global Customer Base, Technology momentum, Innovation, challenges around "tech-nomics" and the rapidly changing landscape, the opportunity space within EDA industry to nurture leadership competencies is huge. This includes Project Leadership, People Leadership, Operations Leadership, Cross Functional Leadership and Strategic Leadership. Some of the key competencies include Technical Skills, Hiring and Staffing, Building Effective teams, Project Management Skills, Planning Skills, Customer Focus, Problem Solving, Timely Decision Making, Process Management, Innovation Management, Drive for Results and Change Management. The Industry is known for attracting the "Champion of the Champions". It is known for providing career opportunities to the "brightest of the bright talent"! Several students from the world's premier and most reputed institutions have pursued their career in EDA Industry and blossomed into seasoned Leaders and the finest of Technocrats that world has known. Nothing is more critical than DNA of the Human Capital for an EDA Company; as 'per-capita' productivity of talent has a huge bearing on Business Excellence. A Senior Business leader in an EDA Company very aptly puts it as "the difference in productivity levels between an average talent and the best talent in this industry can be to the tune of 100 X." The unique challenges of this Industry coupled with the DNA of talent that this industry attracts, does offer a compelling proposition to the pool of stellar talent for developing career and achieving career goals. It goes without saying that the Total Rewards extended to talent in this space is very attractive and extremely competitive. Director - HR, Synopsys