> Of course, when I think about designing ICs, I'm thinking strictly about 
> purely digital "logic" devices such as microprocessors or crypto units. 
> There are of course other types...

There's probably more "other types" being designed than microprocessors or 
crypto units, by a long way.  What about FPGAs?  Those are also really 
common to use across many industries, someone has to program those.

> My point is, it seems almost unimaginable to me that real people actually 
> get hired to do technical jobs such as these.

It seems unimaginable to you that anyone does anything apart from the people 
*you* meet.  Try to think a bit "behind the scenes", there is a huge 
industry for designing and building ICs.  I can't begin to imagine how many 
people are employed in total in the IC industry worldwide, let alone the 
people who are designing small ICs "in-house" for internal use.  Do you 
think just a few dozen people designed every single IC that is available 
today between them?  (Just look at the ST Micro website to see sheer 
quantity of ICs available)

> It's the equivilent of being a world-class violinist.

Only if you're world renowned as one of the top IC designers in the world, 
probably some fellow of the IC designers institute (or whatever it is 
actually called) and giving lots of sessions at conferences etc.

> Sure, such people must exist somewhere, but you're never going to meet 
> one,

Not in work unless your job is somehow related, and out of work it will be 
random chance, so the more people you meet the more likely you are to meet 
someone who designs ICs :-)  I'd be very surprised if nobody in your company 
knew someone who had designed an IC.

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