Applied Materials

Standard benefits, average market rate salary. It can be better if you're lucky enough to be in a good group under good management.

The hierarchy is way too top-heavy, with too many VPs, Senior Directors, and Managing Directors who just talk day in and day out and never do any real work. Probably 50% of the workforce are these senior management, with only 20% being real working-level engineers doing the actual work.

CEO Gary is disconnected from reality, eliminating hybrid work. This is maybe because all he meets every day are the VPs under him, who are paid well enough to be able to live anywhere close to the company in the expensive Bay Area. Very old-fashioned thinking in this day and age.

There are too many processes and approval flows, which slows down everything. This stems from again too many Directors and above, who are implementing more and more approval steps to justify their existence.

Your career path greatly depends on which team you're in and how good your chain of managers is. The difference can be no promotion for 5-6 years versus being promoted twice within the same timeframe, even for doing the same type of work and performing the same.

Don't think they listen.