Henry Samueli’s Career Advice for Aspiring Engineers

Henry Samueli, cofounder of Broadcom and the 2025 recipient of the IEEE Medal of Honor, has this advice for engineering students and recent graduates just starting on their careers:

“Don’t do engineering for the money. Do it because it can have an impact, because you enjoy doing it, and because you love doing it. If you have an impact on society, the money follows.”
“Advance your college education as far as you can. I know there are people that say, ‘You don’t even need a college education,’ but statistically, that’s stupid. The average salaries paid to STEM professionals blow away every other field. You don’t look at the one-offs in a field. You have to look at the average statistics, because you’re probably not going to be that one-off, you’re most likely going to end up in the averages. When you’re betting on your career, you want to go into fields with the largest probability of success.”
“Stay off social media. Social media can be very damaging. And it’s just a huge time sink. You end up going down rat holes that are totally useless.”
“If you are fortunate enough to be successful, don’t forget to give back. One of the most rewarding things you can do in your life is giving back to those less fortunate than you.”