Intel

Pay is okay in the Portland area, but with the sacrifice of your family life. Sabbatical is good if you stayed long enough to actually use it. Insurance and benefits like onsite gyms, eye doctors, dentists, and health centers are all positive, again if you get to use them.

In Portland Technology Development, the biggest problem I've seen is the incompetent top managers. Not that they are technologically incompetent, but because the important technological decisions/directions are changed on a weekly basis due to product roadmap changes. I feel this company is very product/market oriented. Because of this, an engineer's work for weeks, months, or even years, easily goes in vain simply due to the direction change. In the end of the year, no one cares what you have done; the managers only value the outcome, and if you have none, regardless of whether it's due to the direction change, you are screwed. It just makes you feel cheap and expendable.

An engineer in PTD has a minimum chance of career growth. There's no way to switch to other companies because of the geological location. The skills are also not very transferable, considering all the code names and acronyms. Everything is secret. You can only learn what you need to know.

Weekend meetings and extra work often ruin your personal life and trip plans. Depending on the manager, you can be called for weekend coverage very often with no compensatory day. Favoritism does exist. The exposure to top managers decides how good your focus is, not the time/effort you spent on your work. So practice your bragging/chit-chat skills if you decide to climb the Intel ladder. Also, be sure to spend time attending every possible meeting rather than doing the job. Someone will pick it up anyway. Top managers are impressed by talkers much more than doers.

You have a group of the smartest people in the semiconductor industry working for you. Use them properly. Don't let them feel like trash. Value hard work, not the talkers.

Think if it is really achieveable before anouce any improtant decisions. 10nm is an example of failing to do so. Product/marketing is important but don't change the roadmap often once you decide to commit to it 100%.