Time and time again, we hear reports of Indian engineering graduates not being industry ready. Unfortunately this is true to a large extent. Most electronics students eventually land in software jobs. Agreed that the semiconductor industry is a minuscule one when compared to the software industry in general. Since the pickings are slim, students need to be even more prepared. So, after around 7 years of being in the semiconductor industry, here's a list of top skills every fresh grad must possess. So, spend the last year honing these and you should be able to crack any interview.
Clear understanding of Digital design/VERILOG
You won't be asked to design huge circuits in your interviews, but at that level, what is expected is a good understanding of the basics. Understand sequential design well and basic gate level design. We aren't looking for breadth. But what you know, you must know well.
Clear understanding of Device physics
Understanding design physics is a primer for doing good Analog design. Understand all the important device effects. Know how which effects which and how. Understand the function of a basic transistor inside out. You must be able to draw a few basic layouts too.
Clear understanding of Analog design
Spend time and understand all basic amplifier configurations and what they are best suited for. Understand Op-Amps and PLLs. I stress on the phrase 'Clear understanding' since again, at a fresher's level, we expect the basics to be intact.
Now, these above are subjects you are already taught over the four year period. But having the additional skills below is just an icing on your resume and such a candidate would be hard to turn down.
PERL
You would be surprised how much of coding is undertaken by VLSI engineers on a daily basis. It almost never involves object oriented programming, but basic programming, or what is called as 'scripting', using PERL. Since eventually whatever you deal with is a file, you need to know how to manipulate them. So, learn PERL programming in your semester vacations. Its a simple, fun language and with a very easy learning curve.
UNIX
UNIX
The entire VLSI industry works not in windows, but in UNIX. So, you should know your way around a shell and know shell programming. This is again rather simple. If you don't really plan to learn it yourself, pick up a course. A month of working with Unix should get you ready.
Good Luck!
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