S06-E02 Ashley is an RDA process technician at Micron

Ashley is an RDA process technician at Micron in Manassas, Virginia. Ashley describes her role in inspecting wafers for imperfections and ensuring high-quality chips. She works shifts from Wednesday to Saturday, earning a starting wage of $20-$25 per hour, with potential differentials for night shifts. Benefits include excellent healthcare and retirement plans. Ashley emphasizes the importance of communication and adaptability, crediting her community college education and internship at Micron for her success. She advises students to try new experiences and not be afraid to explore different career paths.

The Talking Technicians podcast is produced by MNT-EC, the Micro Nano Technology Education Center, through financial support from the National Science Foundation's Advanced Technological Education grant program.

Opinions expressed on this podcast do not necessarily represent those of the National Science Foundation.

Join the conversation. If you are a working technician or know someone who is, reach out to us at info@talkingtechnicians.org.

Links from the show:

Episode Web Page:

https://micronanoeducation.org/students-parents/talking-technicians-podcast/

Careers at Micron: https://www.micron.com/about/careers

Transcript

Peter Kazarinoff  0:02  
From MNT-EC, the Micro Nano Technology Education Center, this is Talking Technicians. The podcast about technicians: who they are, what they do, and where they come from. I'm your host, Peter Kazarinoff. I teach technicians and engineers at Portland Community College. In each episode, you'll meet a working technician and hear their story. That means real interviews, with real technicians, about real jobs. At the end of each episode, you'll hear actions you can take if you want to be a technician too.

Peter Kazarinoff  0:41  
In this episode, I'm talking with Ashley. Ashley is an RDA process technician at micron in Manassas Virginia. Ashley, welcome to Talking Technicians.

Ashley  0:53  
Hi. Thanks, Peter, happy to be here.

Peter Kazarinoff  0:57  
Ashley, I'm so glad that you're here and going to talk with me today about both your work at micron and also some of your educational experiences along the way. So you work at micron in Manassas Virginia. Did you grow up in Manassas

Ashley  1:13  
Yeah, I've been raised and born here since, obviously, forever and yeah, sorry.

Peter Kazarinoff  1:23  
So you got to stay close to home, both for going to school and for work. So let's talk a little bit about where you work. You work at Micron, and Micron is one of the semiconductor fabs. Can you describe to me what your job title is, what's an RDA process technician?

Ashley  1:46  
So an RDA process technician is someone that goes through wafers, which is what we have at work, and we check if they have any imperfections and stuff that will make the chips fail on our customers. So my job is to go through, lead through them, and check that everything is right, and then make cases. In case something is wrong, to tell another area to fix their tool and stuff like that. And we're like, basically, like, like, the police of that our area, because we're just watching that everything is going correct in a correct way, I guess. 

Peter Kazarinoff  2:32  
Right - and you want to make sure that all of those wafers are high quality, and eventually, like, through that whole process, all of those wafers will become memory or become other types of chips. So Ashley, as a technician, you might do something like at the beginning of your shift and the middle and the end of your shift. How would you describe like a typical day at work?

Ashley  2:55  
So I worked night shifts at first, it was really hard to get used to working that shift, but as I got like through the days and through the weeks, it got a little easier. So I come in at 6pm get started with my computer. I start all my applications that I need to work for the night, and our our site has a gym on site, our TMC has a gym. So that's what I do for my breaks. I just make sure that I'm still active, because sitting two hours a day, it's a little little hard on your body. So that's our typical day. We just work, talk to other people, and just make sure that I'm still active, so I still eat throughout the day.

Peter Kazarinoff  3:52  
So even though you're doing those night shifts like you're still active, you still go to the gym. That's pretty amazing.

Ashley  4:00  
Yeah, I tried to not not be active. Since in my regular life, before night shift, I was always like trying to stay active and fit, because I feel like that's a really important part of like, who I am. But even though I chose to be night shift, I decided to be able to also incorporate that and so my nightlife,

Peter Kazarinoff  4:22  
So, Ashley, I've got a good idea that you're working the night shift. And like, when that shift starts and ends throughout the week, what kind of schedule do you have?

Ashley  4:32  
Oh, I work Wednesdays through Saturdays. That's our long weeks. And then we have short weeks, which is Wednesday to through Fridays, and it's 6pm to 6am which I feel like is a really good schedule for me. Like I have three days to do my own stuff, and then throughout my work week I can comfortably, like, do what I want in the mornings, when I wake up a little earlier. So I feel like. Think my shift is good for me as a student.

Peter Kazarinoff  5:04  
Ashley, let's talk a little bit about things like benefits and compensation. You work for Micron, which is part of the semiconductor industry. What might beginning technician expect to make? How much money could they earn going into the semiconductor industry.

Ashley  5:23  
Uh, they can earn like $20 $25 and up according to the area and the position you're in currently, which is, like, really good, pretty young. So I feel like the amount of compensation I get for the age that I have, it's pretty like a big thing for me, like a big deal. So I feel like even with like, our starting pay that's like insane for my age, is what I'm trying to say.

Peter Kazarinoff  5:56  
And Ashley, you mentioned that maybe starting around $20 an hour. But are there differentials or, like, can you make a little bit more money depending on things like the shift that you work, or how many hours in the week, things like that?

Ashley  6:11  
Yes. So for my night shift, depending for the date the night that you work, like, let's say Wednesday, Fridays and Thursdays, you get like a, I want to say, like a 5% differential, maybe like a 6% differential, but on Saturday, since this weekend, we get a lot more differentials. So which is, that's the good side of working night shift, if I personally say.

Peter Kazarinoff  6:37  
Right,,right. So you've sort of got that starting wage. But then, based upon which shift you're working, and you could potentially be making more per hour than just that starting wage, besides like hourly wage, Ashley, are there other benefits included with your work, things like health care or retirement things like that?

Ashley  6:59  
Yes, our benefits are actually really amazing. Like, our healthcare is fantastic. I myself wear glasses, and I get, like, free visits with my DSP. And like, our we get our free glasses and stuff. And even if you're like, in a field that's not like technicians, like, maybe if you're, like, shift operations, you get free glasses so you can work safely at your job. And for other stuff, like retirement. And for 1k they're pretty, really good, especially if you have, like, a high percentage, they're they're amazing.

Peter Kazarinoff  7:41  
So Ashley, we've talked about wage and we've talked about benefits. What about professional opportunities? Are there ways for you to advance at Micron? Areas for professional growth?

Ashley  7:56  
Yes, there are many ways for you to advance Micron, especially, like, you don't really have to stay in the area that you started. I've seen people move in different areas, or people move to different countries to still work with Micron in different areas. And you can pursue whatever you want if you have, like, I guess, like the want to have it.

Peter Kazarinoff  8:21  
Right. So if you're if you're interested in working in another field or another area in the US or another country, you can go out and do that. And are there other types of levels for the technicians as well?

Ashley  8:37  
Yeah, so we have t1 to t4 and I'm currently t1 since I just got hired in. But there's people that are t4 like t2 have like, better, um, I guess, better payment. But they're also, like, much more adequate for the job, if I may say, like, currently I work with a t2 like, he's still training me, because I don't understand a few things at all sometimes, but he's, like, very cool. Like, he's so amazing, even though he's just like, he's not even there for much longer than I am. But he's a t2 he's grown so fast throughout the years, and I look up to him, actually. So imagine how I feel about like T threes or T fours, like they're insanely smart and capable of a lot of things, and that's just so inspiring to me.

Peter Kazarinoff  9:37  
Right - and maybe someday you'll advance to a t2 t3 t4 and then you'll be a mentor for someone else. 

Ashley  9:44  
Yeah,that's, that's the, that's the goal so far, to be a t2 right now. But I'm still, I'm still very excited to keep growing and learning.

Peter Kazarinoff  9:55  
Ashley, what did it feel like your first day at work? What did it feel like going into Micron for the first time?

Ashley  10:02  
From my internship - at first since I got an internship, I was very nervous because I have, because I've been working just retail jobs throughout my life, throughout high school, throughout college. And retail jobs, aren't they're very I guess they're very silly, because, like, the times that they give you, and then all the people that you meet, it's like, very different from working on Micron, when everyone's so respectful and so caring, and the times that they give you, like your shifts, they're like, they're like set times. And it was so, it was such a, I want to say like a shock to me, because I remember my first day. They were like, Yeah, you need to be here from 8pm to 4pm and this is your manager. And it was just so respectful. And I was like, Oh my God, I've never received this in my other jobs. This is crazy. So that's how that's how it felt, like I was just beaming with happiness, because it was such a crazy environment change.

Peter Kazarinoff  11:07  
So Ashley, you've mentioned that you had an internship at Micron, so let's kind of switch directions and talk about how you got to where you were now. You mentioned that you went to high school in Manassas Virginia, what did you do after high school?

Ashley  11:24  
So after high school, I wasn't very sure what I wanted to do, since I have so many qualities that I wanted to pursue, like I was just very scared to pursue anything, anything. So I went to community college because I wanted to save up a little money and go through a four year school college right away. So at my community college, I met people, and I started liking a lot of tech stuff, especially since I have a cousin that worked in it, and he graduated from it. So I started like dipping into that type of pool. And while I was well, I chose to major in cybersecurity. And after my first year of majoring in cybersecurity, and I enjoyed it, I started looking for opportunities to internship at places, and I saw Micron, and throughout my high school life, Micron had always come to my high school to talk about opportunities and stuff, so I was like, let me give it a try. Hopefully I get picked, and I got picked, and it was probably the best decision I've ever made.

Peter Kazarinoff  12:39  
And Ashley, so your second year at community college, you were working your internship at Micron. Did you continue working on a cybersecurity degree, or did you start working on something else at that point?

Ashley  12:53  
So I continue working on cybersecurity, but I also took like other classes with like tech specialties, like um, but I did have other classes like that. Since when I was still into internship, being at Micron, like other people, started talking about electrical engineering and all this stuff. And so I took small classes based on those majors, and I enjoyed it thoroughly. But since I was already into cyber security, I was like, I just, I'll just stay with this.

Peter Kazarinoff  13:25  
And how do you feel like going to community college that I helped you prepare for your work at Micron? What kind of things did you learn at community college that you feel like now you use in your job?

Ashley  13:37  
So I learned how to communicate well with peers. That was my number one concern. When I was in high school, I wasn't really big on communicating, since we didn't really have, like, group projects. But in college, you were forced, forced to have group projects, and it was really hard on me, but I had to learn how to communicate with other people and just like, just basically have a well vocabulary with just communicating with other people, and that really was helpful in my internship, because I did not know how to speak up when I want to help or when I wanted to learn something, and I just thought that there was nothing I could lose, so I had to speak up and ask for this and that, and it really worked, and it really helped.

Peter Kazarinoff  14:26  
So Ashley, you mentioned that you had an internship at Micron. How did that internship prepare you for your role as a technician? What sorts of things did you do during your internship?

Ashley  14:38  
So for my internship, I wasn't higher in the area that I'm hired in right now, and so I was hired in shift operations, which is like the back end, not the back end, like the other side of what I'm doing. So like they look at tools, they look at how, oh. Um, the tool is working and stuff like that. So I went more into, like, the hands on thing, part of my crown, and that was really helpful to to me. Because now when I'm at work and I'm like, learning what happened and what cost is, I'm like, Ah, I know what cost is, or I know what like, area is in trouble right now. So it's like it was really helpful, because if I didn't know any of that, then I wouldn't, I wouldn't have understand my current job as much as I do now.

Peter Kazarinoff  15:30  
Yeah, yeah, that makes a lot of sense. So Ashley, do you feel like that your internship at Micron, that that was really crucial for you to ultimately secure your job as a technician.

Ashley  15:42  
Yes, because, other than just learning how Micron works in general, talking to people in different areas, because throughout my internship, they wouldn't just keep you in a certain area. They will like, put you in cam. They will put you in electrical, they'll put you in the fab they put you in different areas. So you have to talk to different people and different you see different faces every day, and that helps a lot.

Peter Kazarinoff  16:13  
Yeah, and Micron is also a big company, so trying to figure out, like, what is the culture like, and who do you go for help, and where can you ask questions, things like that. It isn't always immediately obvious, right?

Ashley  16:27  
Oh, yeah, yeah. And then that's the that's the other part about Micron. There's a lot of people with a lot of cultural differences among us, and I love that every every week or every other day we have like groups that bring in food, they bring in, like, their own music and like, we just, we just hot, we just, I enjoy that a lot, like I've learned so much about my peers, and I like how I'm I'm being put out there, rather than how I was In high school.

Peter Kazarinoff  17:00  
Yeah, yeah. And that sounds really fun, too, getting to like, experience these other cultures and getting to know your co workers a whole lot better.

Ashley  17:10  
That's, that's, that's, like, one of the best parts of working there. And throughout my internship, I feel like that also helped a lot with my personal growth, since I had to, like, be exposed to all these different people and their way of thinking and the way of working, and I, like, picked up a lot of things from them, like, I stole a lot of like, their own DIYs or their own stuff like that, like things that I didn't think of doing, that would do. And I'm like, Oh my God. I said that's so smart. So I'm really glad that my internship, like, put me out there.

Peter Kazarinoff  17:45  
Ashley, what's something unexpected about working as a technician that you only learned after you started what was something that sort of surprised you when you started work?

Ashley  17:56  
I guess the amount of knowledge that you're going to have to retain, because the way that my job works is that you have to know all this websites, all this defects, and you have to memorize them in order to work comfortably in The comfortably pace, I mean, with all your other co workers, and while I was learning, it was just a lot of information shoved into my head, and had to, like, manage it quick. And honestly, I love getting like, I love the fast pace, because it makes me work, like, it puts me in a trance when I'm working. And that's really good for me. Like, that's how I enjoy working. But just the amount of information that I had to maintain was crazy enough for me. And even now today, like I asked my co workers, like, hey, like, what is this? Or what what is this? What is like the website for this? Or where do I go with this? And they just laugh it off, because they're like, Oh, you we told you this. We do this already, but it's just so hard to retain that that's that was. That was crazy for me,

Peter Kazarinoff  19:08  
Right, right - just because there's so much terminology to learn so many different processes you have to be familiar with so many different systems you interact with. So Ashley, how did your life change when you became a technician? What was different once you started work, compared to when you were a student?

Ashley  19:28  
I guess the biggest hit of my life was just the schedule. You know, I used to be a morning person before, like, I used to just wake up really early go to the gym, you know. But when I'm like, at my night schedule, I it changed very, very bad. Like, the first few weeks it was like I couldn't really stay awake, so I had to live off my energy drinks. But after like, a week or two, you just just learned to live with it, and you. Actually, like, enjoy it now. Like, I enjoy my my breaks so much right now because I just hit the gym. I stay quiet. Hit the gym. But when I was also a student, I had, I guess, I guess I had less time to go out and enjoy my life. But with my schedule currently, it's like, I know the days that I'm gonna be off. I know the days that I could be off if I ever wanted to. So it's like, it's very calming for me to just know all these things right away, instead of when I was a student that I didn't know if this was gonna happen or this is not gonna happen, or if my retail job was going to schedule me for a day that I couldn't work and stuff like that. So that's that's a really good part of it.

Peter Kazarinoff  20:47  
Right - so having having some certainty about that scheduling, and also partly like being in control of some of that scheduling too, which days you can take off things like that. So Ashley soda, to finish up for today, what advice would you give current students or people who want to transition their career and work in your industry, like, what would you tell students who are at community college right now about the Micron internship program or about becoming a technician?

Ashley  21:19  
So my advice would be to not be scared and try new things. Because if I were to be if I was scared to try new things, I would have never gotten this internship, and I would have never changed my life into a better place that I am at right now, and to not be afraid to like talk to people, to experience more things, to to travel places, because if people are not near a place they want to work with, they can always just travel there. And it's so it's so good to be to be able to communicate to different people at all times, because you just, you just learn a lot. And that's that's great. I feel like that's great as growing as a person to just try new things.

Peter Kazarinoff  22:04  
Well, Ashley, thank you so much for being on Talking Technicians and sharing your story with me today.

Ashley  22:10  
 Thank you.

Peter Kazarinoff  22:11  
Please keep in touch.

Ashley  22:12  
So much.

Peter Kazarinoff  22:19  
Talking Technicians is produced by MNT-EC, the Micro Nano Technology Education Center through financial support from the National Science Foundation's Advanced Technological Education grant program. Opinions expressed on this podcast do not necessarily represent those of the National Science Foundation. Join the conversation: If you are a working technician, or know someone who is, reach out to us at info@talkingtechnicians.org. We're always looking out for great guests to share more stories with you.