Intel

They will take you right out of college (talent development).

On-site services, cafeterias, and especially gyms are great.

Ronler Acres is a beautiful campus.

Parental leave is not bad considering they're an American company.

Work-life balance is up and down. In fab modules, your off-call weekends are pretty secure, but be prepared for long days if one of your tools goes down.

When it's your weekend on-call, don't make any big plans and be prepared to go in if necessary. There are also a lot of midweek off-shift calls for tool owners. Layer owners (who also own tools) get hit even harder.

The quality of your group leader is extremely correlated to your quality of life. Get a crappy one, and it sucks. They can also be penny-wise and dollar-foolish.

For example, in my case, they sent us to vendor training out of state. Instead of sending a brand-new engineer to the prerequisite course, they skip you through to 'advanced' and then shorten that course by three days in order to save more money. I had been in the company for nearly a year, so I caught on to the material pretty quickly, but I knew of a newly promoted ET who attended and didn't understand anything because he'd had less than a month in the position. So, they will spend around $1500 just to get you out there for an interview, but then take that approach to training.

I will pass on giving advice to management and instead give advice directly to prospective applicants.

Intel is fire. Like fire, it can lead to catastrophic destruction and suffering in the hands of fools. However, if you use Intel as a tool, it can harden you, refine you, and bring out your best qualities while providing you a steady paycheck, great experience, and a great paragraph for your resume.

Remember: there is no more "Leave it to Beaver." There are no more 20-year careers at one company. Intel will use you; be sure you use them. Keep your resume and LinkedIn up to date and have an escape plan. Never pass up an opportunity to network.