A Note from Jared
Where the jobs lead. That is the question I keep coming back to. It is easy to post an opening and move on. It is harder, and more useful, to show a student what the job actually is: what you would do on a Tuesday, what it pays, and what it sets you up for next.
That is what we tried to do this issue. One role broken all the way down, plus the internships that get you there. A good job is rarely a dead end. For a lot of our students, it is the on-ramp.
Jared
PS: One more worth your attention. On June 3, the NNME Pacific-Intermountain Regional Node launched at Boise State, hosted at Micron’s Center for Materials Research, with Idaho’s governor and the NSF acting director on hand. Led by Boise State’s Microelectronics Education and Research Center, it connects students across nine western states, from Washington and California to Idaho and Hawaii, to semiconductor training and careers. If your program sits in that footprint, it is a network worth knowing.
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Student Opportunities & Job Listings
A few featured roles, internships first. One decoded below, with what it pays and where it leads. The full roundup by region is on This Week in Small.
Internships
TSMC Arizona, Summer 2026 Internships, Facility Roles
Phoenix, AZ
New This Week, West Coast & Pacific Northwest
SpaceX Starlink, Entry-Level Production Technician, PCBA
Redmond, WA
Velo3D, Process Technician, Manufacturing Technician, and Quality Technician
Fremont, CA · metal additive manufacturing
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🔍 ROLE DECODED THIS WEEK
SpaceX Starlink, Cleanroom Technician, Microelectronics
📍 Redmond, WA · cleanroom microelectronics · $27–45/hr (posted, by level)
What you would do. Run, maintain, and calibrate die bonders, wire bonders, and automated optical inspection tools in an ESD-controlled cleanroom, building the RF and optical modules that go inside Starlink satellites. You check your own work with metrology tools like X-ray, profilometers, and pull and shear testers.
The courses that map to it. Cleanroom practices and contamination control, microfabrication and packaging, metrology and quality, and ESD handling. If your program follows the MNT-EC KSA guide, you have likely already touched most of these.
What it pays. SpaceX posts the range right on the listing: $27 to $33/hr at Level 1, $31 to $39 at Level 2, and $36 to $45 at Level 3. That is the employer’s number, not an estimate.
How you get there. Level 1 looks for about two years of hands-on cleanroom or electronics-manufacturing experience. A paid fab internship, like the TSMC summer roles at the top of this list, is built to give you exactly that. Intern now, qualify later. View the role.
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Also live this week: process, equipment, and maintenance technician roles at TSMC (AZ), Micron (VA), and Corning (NC). All of them, organized by region with student roles first, are in the full roundup.
See the full roundup on This Week in Small
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Community Shout-Out: Dr. Sandra Porter
Long before “career pathways” was a buzzword, Sandra Porter was building them. A microbiologist by training, she spent ten years directing the biotechnology program at Seattle Central Community College, then founded Digital World Biology, where she has made molecular science approachable through modeling apps, games, and Biotech-Careers.org, a database of thousands of biotech employers. She is a leader in InnovATEBIO, the NSF-ATE national biotechnology education center, and a reminder that opening doors for community college students is happening in every corner of advanced technology. Thank you, Sandra.
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For the Classroom: Chip City Adventures
Columbus State Community College and the Ohio Association of Community Colleges, with funding from Intel, built a set of free, interactive eLearning modules that walk students through what a day actually looks like in entry-level manufacturing and technician roles. The Chip City: An Introduction to Semiconductors module is a natural fit for the roles in this issue, with companion modules on energy, EVs and batteries, and biopharma manufacturing. A clean, no-cost way to show students the day-to-day before they ever set foot in a fab.
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In the News: Nanoscience, Now on Your Walls
A Brown University physicist who spent his career building molecule-scale devices has turned that work into Lilypad, a new interior paint that quietly manages a room’s humidity. It stores excess water vapor in nano-size pores and releases it as the air dries, no sensors, wires, or power required. A good reminder that micro and nano science keeps showing up in unexpected, everyday places.
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✂ Clip & Send
By 2030, the U.S. semiconductor industry is projected to add about 115,000 jobs, and roughly 67,000 of them risk going unfilled. The single largest share of those open roles, 39 percent, are technician jobs, most needing a two-year degree or less. Translation: the door is wide open for community college graduates.
Source: SIA and Oxford Economics, “Chipping Away”
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One Question for You
Which career pathway in this issue would surprise your students the most?
Tell us in one line
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