ASML

Good job if you want to get an overview of the systems. Possibly the only job at ASML where you really get to see all parts of the system.

Low stress, well-paying job.

Good career opportunities within manufacturing coming from SP. Possibilities exist to go to System Install, Module Build, and Technical Support.

The shift schedule gives a lot of time off. For instance, you get 14 days off for taking 6 days of holiday due to the way the shift cycles work.

• Working in a 5-shift pattern: 2 mornings from 07:00 - 15:00, 2 days from 15:00 - 23:00, 2 nights from 23:00 to 07:00, followed by 4 days off (of which at least 1 is a recovery). Some like it, but for most, it is not sustainable long-term.

• Many very young, arrogant, inexperienced team leads without leadership skills who like to micromanage.

• The work itself can be boring. Mostly procedural, it requires very little brainpower. Troubleshooting, for the most part, is really minimal.

• Little career advancement opportunity within the department itself. A culture of promoting or not promoting certain people based not on merit but on whether they have a good rapport with management or not... sometimes borders on ethically questionable.

• Big emphasis on Continuous Improvement projects, most of which add very little value overall. The CI drive can be annoying when so many fundamentals within the department don't even work.

• Processes are surprisingly inefficient for such a clever tech company (working with clunky Excel files that require a lot of manual input, for instance, or awkward PowerPoint slides).

• The department is mainly composed of fresh graduates, including the team leaders. Sometimes it feels more like a high-school circus and less like a department with working professionals.

Stop hiring fresh graduates with bachelor degrees if you don't want them to leave after two years, as they are overqualified for the job.

Put people in management positions who know something about leadership and have more experience.