Auto Industry vs Silicon Valley

Career Opportunities & Internships
1

<p>This fall I'll be a junior in EE/CE (still have yet to choose what name I want, course work will be the same regardless) at Michigan and by that time I'll have a year working as a CAD designer co-op at ford under my belt, 4 months as a chassis electronics intern (also at ford), and 2 years as a system leader on our schools Formula SAE team. So clearly my background is tailor made for the auto industry. I also speak Chinese and lived in china for 4 years and would like to be sent on assignment to another country by my future employer. </p>

<p>However ever since I've got to college I've been fed stories of kids getting snapped up by the likes of Nvidia, apple, Microsoft and Intel and being paid 6 figures with a BS degree. I have a big interest in computer hardware, so I naturally placed silicon valley on a pedestal and tailored my graduation schedule to suit digital circuit design, embedded systems, and difficult programming classes.</p>

<p>Now I'm wondering if it's worth it to put all my eggs into that basket. There are many things I like about the auto industry, for example you get to travel a lot, international assignments are common, the sector is growing, and I'm very knowledgeable when it comes to cars, and I really like driving them. But I can't shake the nagging (irrational?) feeling that the tech industry is somehow superior in terms of compensation, career opportunities, and sexiness (definitely irrational). Can anyone comment on this? </p>

<p>Also can anyone comment on whether it would be worth it to start from 0 in terms of understanding in the tech industry and build myself up, or build on my existing knowledge of cars and the auto industry so I can climb the ladder quickly. Is it even worth it to stress myself out over this? I'm not the smartest person you'll ever meet, I only have a 3.0 (partially because I over worked myself sophomore year) but I work harder than anyone I've met here. </p>

<p>tl;dr?
1: which of the industries pay better (after taking cost of living into account)
2: how are the growth opportunities/ job security of the tech industry
3: do you get to travel a lot in the tech industries?
4: do tech companies send high potential employees to business/grad school?
5: would it be harder to distinguish myself in the tech industry or the auto industry?
6: are my credentials enough to get into the silicon valley giants fresh out of college?</p>

<p>thank you for any and all help.</p>

2

<p>Well, you can try for both: [Careers</a> | Tesla Motors](<a href=“http://www.teslamotors.com/careers]Careers”>Careers | Tesla)</p>

<p>Also, some other car companies do have Silicon Valley (technical development) presence.</p>

3

<p>I’m going to try and intern there next summer, but from what I’ve heard, Tesla isn’t yet a company you want to start your career with and they aren’t offering stock options to employees who tough it through their growing pains anymore. </p>

<p>Though do you think it would be better to work for a company like Tesla for a few years, learn a lot, then move somewhere else if they don’t turn out to be viable in the long term. Or would you recommend I start my career as early as possible to climb as quickly as possible?</p>

4

<p>1: which of the industries pay better (after taking cost of living into account)</p>

<p>Depends what your starting job is. Tech entry level careers are so varied so it is hard to answer.
2: how are the growth opportunities/ job security of the tech industry</p>

<p>Silicon valley companies range in many. Every industry needs engineers. Some of the fast growing industries like big data have massive growth opportunities.</p>

<p>3: do you get to travel a lot in the tech industries?
This depends if you are front or back office.</p>

<p>4: do tech companies send high potential employees to business/grad school?
Varies between company policy.</p>

<p>5: would it be harder to distinguish myself in the tech industry or the auto industry?
Again, if you are an outstanding employee in any industry, you will become distinguished. Otherwise it doesn’t matter.</p>

<p>6: are my credentials enough to get into the silicon valley giants fresh out of college?
Your GPA makes it very tough to get into a “giant”, but you cannot rule anything out, especially recently Google has just decided that GPAs are quite worthless to predicting how useful of a contribution the employee make in the long run.</p>