Intel

The pay is decent.

There are some very challenging problems to be solved. Working on projects to solve them can provide very valuable experience.

The in-house training is good.

Middle management became overstretched. In the organization that I left, they were not able to devote enough time to resolve issues with respect to project resources and staffing.

The current move to reduce the workforce through attrition makes job security non-existent. There is a rule that 10% of the people in each department receive a negative performance review each year. Since Intel has started reducing its workforce, these negative reviews are being handed out arbitrarily.

Many project teams are dispersed, with team members in India, Asia, and the Americas, which leads to meetings during family hours.

The company does not provide adequate tools to do a proper job. The compressed cubicles are not large enough to work effectively in. When I left Intel in 2007, I had a 4-year-old laptop and a 10 MBit network connection. It took about 15 minutes each day to boot it up and connect to Intel's network.

Intel is a one-trick pony. Microprocessors are a good trick, but it won't last forever. What happens then?

Intel seemed to be trying to diversify during the Internet bubble by buying technology companies (at a premium), but either they did not work out, or they have been sold (Flash & XScale).

Right now, you are focused on squeezing the margin on your one-trick pony. Don't squeeze so hard that you kill it; make sure it stays healthy until it dies of old age.

At the same time, either figure out how to get into new lines of business. Don't try the same way again; do something different. Do some benchmarking of companies that have done this sort of thing successfully, like IBM or GE.

Also, remove Craig Barrett from the board of directors. He is responsible for several billion dollars of lost capital and should not have the position he has. If he was an employee, he would have been fired, not rewarded.