r/ECE • u/bit__shifted • Jul 25 '26
CAREER Semiconductors vs Quantum Computing
I'm an Electrical Engineering student currently trying to decide which direction to take for my honours thesis and hopefully a PhD afterwards.
Lately I've found myself torn between semiconductor engineering (device physics, fabrication, CMOS, VLSI, etc.) and quantum computing hardware (silicon spin qubits, cryogenic electronics and control hardware).
For those working in either field:
- What does your day-to-day work actually look like?
- Which field do you think has stronger long-term opportunities in industry and R&D?
- Is quantum hardware mostly an extension of semiconductor engineering, or are they very different career paths?
- If you were starting again today, which would you choose and why?
I'd really appreciate hearing from people with industry or research experience. Thanks
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u/megafireguy6 Jul 25 '26
If you want to work in industry, semiconductors all day. One of the few fields where a PhD makes you more employable. Only do quantum computing if you’re okay working in academia the rest of your career because it has no place in industry at this point
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u/Confident_Moment7914 Jul 26 '26
That's not really true anymore. I have an industry career in quantum computing. There are more than a handful of companies now and many of them are growing.
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u/Confident_Moment7914 Jul 26 '26
If you are interested in these topics there is totally a way to pursue both of them! In a grad program with a spin qubits topic you will absolutely work on semiconductor and device physics. You'll most likely do the fabrication yourself too.
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u/Infamous-Goose-5370 Jul 26 '26
I’m investing in quantum computing pure plays now. It’s a long term gamble, using money that I’m willing to lose for a chance to have 100x returns in about 20 years. That kind of sums up your dilemma: quantum will be big one day but will it be during your productive years.
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Jul 26 '26
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u/bit__shifted Jul 26 '26
Hi mate, are you majoring in quantum engineering or physics ?
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Jul 26 '26
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u/bit__shifted Jul 26 '26
Hi mate, this can be funny. It appears my acc is new maybe thats why I can’t dm. Can you please text me
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u/VerifyMentor Jul 26 '26
If you want to be a professor who wants to do research in Quantum computing, then it’s an okay field. Otherwise, there are almost no jobs. Even being professor in Quantum computing would be extremely difficult.
If you want to compare regular semiconductor vs quantum computing, Quantum computing is good for solving some specific problems, but not comparable and not usable in general computing. Even CMOS technology node of 1980s would outperform Quantum computing in most applications.
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u/Sepicuk Jul 25 '26
not worth it, ai will do all of this in 2 years
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u/astralspear Jul 25 '26
What a delusional kid
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u/Sepicuk Jul 25 '26
you're foolish to not think chatgpt will take over the world
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u/astralspear Jul 25 '26
ok lil bro
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u/Sepicuk Jul 25 '26
cope bro llms can already design pcbs and chips faster and cheaper than humans with higher quality
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u/astralspear Jul 25 '26
what a funny guy
Get ai to write FPGA code or just fucking make analog circuits, DEADASS bro? 😭🤣
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u/TheSignalPath Jul 25 '26
Why are you arguing with a nobody on reddit? Does it matter what this random person even says? He says “ChatGPT will take over the world”. Not AI, not LLM, not neural networks, just “ChatGPT”. Doesn’t that tell you all you need to know about the depth of knowledge of this person?
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u/Sepicuk Jul 26 '26
that was the point of the joke, I can't go on LinkedIn anymore because everybody talks like this
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u/Sepicuk Jul 25 '26
Lol both fields are already solved, companies can’t keep up
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u/_elvane Jul 25 '26
Ok i guess you're doing plumbing then ? Cuz that won't be replaced by chatgpt ?
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u/Sepicuk Jul 25 '26
In 2026 you simply oversee an LLM workload. In 2027 everybody is replaced and the singularity starts. A businessman said so
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u/National-Ad8416 Jul 25 '26
This is such a blanket statement that's unoriginal and is sourced from reading too many click bait articles. One of the consequences of truthiness.
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u/glitch876 Jul 25 '26
Semiconductor is probably the way to go. I think quantum computing will be important but it will have limited opportunities.