Intel

Intel's competitive advantage is its ability to deploy a manufacturing technology quickly and at the largest scale possible.

Intel's manufacturing technology is cutting-edge, but only in commercial deployment. The cutting-edge technology is developed not in big corporations, but in academia and startups.

If you are fresh out of college, start your career at Intel to learn about the industry, tools, and commercial technology (usually at the beginning of its decline). Leave no later than two years, start your own company or join a startup (you will make more for the hours you put in).

A typical manager is competent talking to a PowerPoint, with very little understanding of or appreciation for the content. He is a good salesman and a sycophant. He gives little thought to the growth of his direct reports (who usually haven't left the team or the company because they are on employment visas or the employment market is bad).

If you are looking to gain technical experience/knowledge, you will work at least twice as long as the industry on a project and spend twice as much time in irrelevant meetings.

If you are looking to grow your career vertically, there is little hiring and most managers have decades to go before retirement, translating to very few management positions in the foreseeable future.

If you are looking to broaden your skills (grow horizontally), the hiring managers will not consider your application without "prior relevant experience", translating to most groups operating as silos.

If you are looking to grow your income, follow the stock price INTC (a good portion of the compensation). The last decade (Jan 3rd, 2000 to Jan 4th, 2010) the stock fell more than 50%. The average annual raise in salary in the US ranged from 0% to 6% during the same period.

If Intel wants to remain an attractive employer to the Gen Zs, the status quo has to change.

To retain employees when income grows less than inflation and vertical growth is uncommon, the management has to put in place practices that enable horizontal movement of the workforce.