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... a blog about our experiences as engineers, as husband and wife as well as our adventures into unfamiliar places and situations. We write this as a recollection and as much as we want to become informative for others who would like to learn from these experiences, we cannot guarantee that all the information or data we provide are accurate or updated. They are accurate at the time of occurrence.

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Friday, March 27, 2009

Of lay-offs, closures and expansion - part 2

A few days ago, I heard from a former coworker that "our" department is going to close by end of Q2! This is surprising considering that it has only been a year ago since it was spun-off from Intel. And now it is going to close too.

How sad that they are going to get rid of the R&D department. It is only one of a few existing hardware design centers in the Philippines. It is such a disappointment that there are very few opportunities here for hardware design and development. Lots of talent but no place to apply them.

Nowadays, a lot of electronics engineers are going into IT or software development as this is where a lot of opportunities abound. Either that or they work in the assembly / test sector that pay too low. 

I don't want to sound depressing but that is exactly what is happening. That is one of the reasons why a lot of Professionals opt to work out of the country. But those who prefer to stay have their options running out.

On a positive note, it is still good that the Philippines still has a lot of job opportunities in the IT sector. Hopefully more opportunities come in now that a lot of companies transfer their workforce to Asia due to cheaper labor.