Intel

Plenty of learning opportunities, especially for starting out in your career. Easy to switch groups and try new things. Great work culture, especially among engineers. The thing I miss most about my time at Intel was the people I worked with. Some very talented people to learn from. Reasonable compensation (not super competitive, but average-ish) depending on location. Avoid the Bay Area location, unless you aren't planning on staying long term.

Highly political, especially as you get more seniority in the company. Some groups are worse about this than others. Towards the end of my stint at Intel, most of my week was spent in meetings trying to manage expectations, reporting on workflow efficiencies/inefficiencies to management, and arguing with other teams on behalf of my team.

Raises and promotion are not truly merit-based; your success in the company depends on being on the right projects, in the right groups, and being able to sell yourself to management.

There are some truly great engineers at Intel. However, in larger organizations at Intel, management tends to try and fill positions as quickly as possible (or risk losing headcount). This results in there being a lot of engineers that don't have the skill set needed to do their jobs well, which can be very frustrating.

Numerous 'big personality' types at Intel. These are usually very senior and principal engineers that have been in organizations for a while. They are easy to identify; their names will come up in conversations when discussing new ideas, usually in fear that the 'big personality' will come down from their high altar in the mountains and smite anyone that doesn't conform. Often these people bring little value to the organization, but they've managed to hold the organization hostage due to their long-term presence and 'wisdom'.

Try to reduce the ridiculous amount of politics.

Make the people who keep everything running actually feel appreciated. The trend that I have seen is that the talented individuals get fed up and inevitably leave, and the less competitive engineers are the ones that stay long term.

Management should try to reverse that.