Applied Materials

• High product focus.
• New learnings daily.
• Many teams have truly extraordinary management folks who've been in the trenches and know how to handle fires.
• Amazing benefits if you know how to use them (Mega Backdoor Roth, onsite extraordinary clinic).
• Good opportunities for advancement; people on my team are growing and being promoted like crazy.
• There are smart and dedicated people at all levels.
• The breakfast burritos are made to order, insanely good, and ridiculously cheap – legendary.
• Good contact with all levels of management. I'm on a first-name basis with my Manager, MD, VP, and EVP, not in a micromanaging kind of way.
• Vendor relationships are really solid; there are some really hard-working folks that support us.
• Great opportunities for IP development.

Organizational structure is ground up. This means that some teams are great, others are absolute trash, with poor focus, bad management, and little traction with internal or external customers.

My org: The MDs or VPs set the culture of the team. Talk to them during the interview process. If you like them and their ideas, you will enjoy your position.

Combative teams: Relating to the above, some teams will actively try to one-up other teams by running a competing program that aims to fill the same niche. This is supported by upper management.

Some teams have extremely poor work-life balance. Often that will change project to project, depending on upper management/the customer's needs. It seems the more control a team has over its destiny, the better. If they rely on contractors for anything, they're screwed.

The campus is honestly depressing. It appears to be an old fab that was converted into a cube farm: no windows, old cubes, old parts everywhere.

1. Internal power struggles sap the energy of ICs.
2. The culture needs a bit of an overhaul. Put some effort into unifying teams.
3. Throw some dollars at improving office space. People may actually want to return to work if the workplace doesn't suck.