AMD

I was with a brilliant team that didn't hesitate to commend you on your efforts and help you out with things that you need. My counterparts were very eager to help, and all in all, I had a good experience learning about the technology. The place had its own gym, a tennis court, and a cafeteria that I'd frequent for lunches.

I rarely had some problems with the company. On rare occasions, I'd hear people's opinions on how there is a senior management issue, but until the issue gets to my level, I rarely pay attention to words you hear from people. It started to be a problem when the company did waves of retrenchments. Since I was quite junior to the team (less than a year), I'd freak out every time they did that. Until it happened to me one day, and all I could do was think about the compensation to make me feel better.

The sad part was that, I think the people they had selected to go were not really under-performing. It was just that they were newer than the people who are staying, or that after a certain project is completed, they just downsize that easily.

Get more training for you and your managers on how to manage resources. In my opinion, the retrenchment issue was more of a resource management issue. Otherwise, it should be clear to the one who is getting hired that this might not be a long-term thing.