Has anyone struggled with onboarding due to role mismatch?
I'm based in Taiwan and joined ASML as UIR (Upgrade, Install, Relocation) Engineer(JG5) on Oct. 27 last year.
Originally, my manager planned for me to attend the FR1(Fab Ready 1) training in November. Typically, once engineers complete this training, they can start working at customer sites such as TSMC or Micron. This path was also closely aligned with my previous experience, as I had over 4 years of clean room experience and had previously worked at TSMC, mainly focusing on equipment operation, maintenance, and hardware related work.
However, my wife's expected delivery date was in December. Since there were uncertainties around the birth of our first child, I decided to postpone the FR1 training, and my manager agreed.
Around mid-December, I was assigned to learn SAP and take on the role of SAP coordinator. This was completely different from the UIR engineer position that I'd interviewed for. At the time, my manager told me to give it a try and see how it went, I also tried to maintain my positive attitude, thinking of it as an opportunity to develop an entirely new skill set.
My daughter was born on Jan. 5, and I took about 2 weeks of paternity leave. By the time I returned to work, I had forgotten much of what I had learned about SAP and had to start rebuilding my knowledge.
Form March through April, I repeatedly provide feedback to my manager and group lead regarding my learning progress, l told them that I didn't feel particularly suited to this type of office based coordination work. The SAP coordinator role within Taiwan UIR requires managing materials for 2-3 machines simultaneously, tracking incoming and outgoing parts, monitoring material status, and handling many administrative tasks that requires constant attention to detail. Missing small things can create problems.
I also explained that this role is different from both my previous experience and the position I was originally hired for. And my GL said that he understands the situation I'm facing, since this is the new policy of Taiwan UIR for this recent 1 year, this assignment is made from their supervisor and he can't change anything.
From what I understand, there are not many engineer who have gone through this path.
Another challenge was my mentor. Compared to what I've heard form others, qualification standards are usually reasonable and mentors tend to focus on helping trainees pass. However, my mentor had extremely high standards regarding documentation, formatting, note-taking, list maintenance, and consistency in small details.
My frustration was that I felt I was being evaluated heavily on details before I had fully built the overall framework and understanding of the job. While I was still trying to understand the bigger picture, a lot of attention was focused on formatting, document structure, sorting order, and process consistency.
As a result, I still haven't been qualified after more than 6 months.
Recent days I had Development and Performance (DAP) 1-on-1 discussion with my Group Lead. He mentioned that compared to others, my qualification timeline has been unusually long. I've been in SAP qualification process since January and it's now July.
As a result, there's perception that my learning curve is significantly slower than others, and I suspect my KPI evaluation may not look very good either.
At this point, I am becoming concerned about my career trajectory within the company.