When Christophe Fouquet interviewed for a job at ASML Holding NV in 2007, he had an unusual request: Could he take a position one rung below what the Dutch company was offering? He wanted to study the technical details of the new chip-making machines ASML sold to tech giants like Intel Corp. and Samsung Electronics Co. After he was hired the next year, he spent weeks poring over the product catalog until he could recite the key features by heart.“Even today when I meet with my customers, we talk...