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Job prospects

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Andy:
I think if you wanted to link your PhD and automotive interests, then you'd struggle. There are plenty of semiconductor manufacturers who supply into the automotive industry, but I doubt you'd see much (if anything!) of a car in the role. I started my career in automotive electronic hardware design, but quickly switched into automotive Electrical Systems Integration as the hardware stuff was predominantly lab/office based - and I may as well have been working on bits for washing machines.

If it's the money right now you're interested in, then I'd be sniffing around Intel to see what doors you've got open there.

If the automotive side is really important to you, I think you'll have to suck it up and join a graduate scheme with pay to suit. If your PhD was more relevant then you'd have a chance of getting direct entry into a higher grade role. I've just recruited someone who's just finished their PhD into one of my teams at Senior Engineer level (typically 5ish years experience post-undergrad degree), but he'd spent 5 years doing his PhD with an automotive OEM in a field directly relevant to the role I was recruiting for. He's not paid any more than his colleagues with ~5 years experience and no PhD though!

Having said all of that, automotive graduate scheme pay is an awful lot better than it was 10 years ago - at least £10k pa higher than it was back then, so £30-£33k ish isn't unusual. The industry is still booming at the moment, and there's a massive labour shortage - so salaries are higher than they've ever been.

physicsfool:
Cheers Andy, yeah I would rather do something interesting and automotive based over a bigger pay check.

Came across a 4 month "phd internship" that mclaren do in CFD (comp fluid dynamics). But 4 months doesn't feel like a decent enough time to get to grips with the work.

Going to try brush up on a few languages such as C++ and some java based ones. Maybe that will help. And scope some grad schemes as suggested.

Yeah 30k is a set up from the 14k I am on at the moment. Needs fund to paint the mk1

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