Bonuses
Bonuses in the semiconductor-design industry can take several forms including bonuses for filing patents, performance bonuses, retention bonuses, and paper-writing bonuses. Bonuses are not guaranteed and therefore should not be considered "regular income" along with your salary when you are making decisions on which job to accept or whether you can afford that new Mercedes Benz. However, when you do receive a bonus, especially a large one, it's a very nice surprise and can make your job even more rewarding to know that your performance really made a difference to the company!
Here are some common bonuses you will find in the semiconductor design industry:
Performance Bonus: The performance-related bonus is one of the most common. Some companies have programs where co-workers can submit you for a small "recognition bonus" when you help them or go beyond your job description. These "atta boy" bonuses might range from a $25 gift card at your local electronic retailer to $500 or more. The real eye-opening bonues are usually project related, though, and often revolve around getting a project completed by a certain date. You might find yourself working unpaid overtime as an engineer, but if you have a $15,000 bonus riding on hitting a certain release date, you can consider that time highly-paid rather than unpaid. These project bonuses will often range from $500 to over $25,000, depending on the company, the project, and your role in the project.
Patent Filing Bonus: Very many tech companies really value patent submissions and do everything they can to encourage employees to file patent ideas. This encouragement generally comes in the form of a cash bonus, which might be broken-up into smaller payments for the various stages of filing a patent (disclosure, filing, issue) or could be a lump-sum with the expectation that you'll follow through as-needed. Patent bonuses can be a nice supplement to your annual income because most patent ideas will be derived from the work that you're already doing, so it's effectively a pay-boost for what you're working on anyway.
The difficult part about patent filings is learning to spot ideas worth filing. This is difficult because as you do your job, you begin to take it for granted and probably don't notice the very many things you do daily which are "novel" or "unique" and therefore potentially worth filing. In addition to the monetary reward from filing a patent, many companies will present you with a plaque or other memento of the patent, and you can list the patent on your resume, which can be a real attention-getting when you're looking to move-on to another employer!
Paper Writing Bonus: The semiconductor industry, like many others, has its share of seminars and trade publications. Many companies that you'd be working for will reward you for writing and submitting papers to these seminars and magazines for publication. As an author of a paper, you will usually get $500 to $5,000 for your efforts, as well as getting your name noticed by others in the industry. Of course, you can mention published papers on your resume, which like patent filings, is something that will set you apart from competing job applicants.
Some companies will only pay the bonus if your paper is accepted for publishing or presenting while others will pay a small amount for submitting the paper and then another larger amount upon acceptance. A side benefit (or perhaps a disadvantage if you don't like traveling or public speaking) of getting your work accepted at a seminar is that you'll often get to travel to the seminar, on the company tab, to give your presentation in-person.
Profit Sharing Bonus: The profit-sharing bonus is one that's not extremely common in the semiconductor design industry. With this type of bonus, the payout amount is tied to some measurable performance aspect of the company. For example, if the company exceeds expected earnings by a certain percentage in a 3-month period (quarter), you might be paid a tiered bonus which depends on how much the earnings were exceeded. Obviously, this type of bonus is much more valuable at a company that is doing well and will hit the performance levels required. Some companies will pay this bonus in cash while others might pay the percentage into a retirement plan on your behalf instead.
Retention Bonus: This bonus is usually given during times of turmoil within the company that you work for, such as transitioning to a new owner or to try to prevent too many people from leaving to work for a new competitor in town. This bonus, which is usually a fairly significant amount, rewards you for continuing to work for your employer for a certain time period. For example, if your company is sold to another company, to minimize the impact during the transition to new management, you might be offered $20,000 if you remain with the company for another six months. Generally, only key personnel will be offered these bonuses as the company is hoping that you will not take your needed skills elsewhere because you're uncertain of the future of the company.
As you can see, the semiconductor design industry has quite a selection of hefty bonuses that you can be given. It's not uncommon to add another $20,000 to your base pay rate in a year due to these various bonuses stacking-up, and that's a pretty nice boost!