Intel

Being able to see what CPU technology is coming in the future is pretty neat.

Most people I've run into at Intel doing Software Engineering really aren't Software Engineers and don't really know anything about proper software design principles.

They throw a lot of people who are really Hardware Engineers into software positions, even software architecture positions, and the result is poorly-designed software with poor quality.

The focus is more on getting things out the door to meet a deadline rather than quality.

There's also a strange reverence for the people who started Intel more than 40 years ago and an attempt to do things like they did back then.

The problem is that it isn't 40 years ago, and Intel should focus on the present and the future rather than people from 40 years ago and how they would do things.

If you are a Software Engineer looking to advance your career at Intel, don't.

Software Engineers aren't valued there, and you'll be frustrated by the lack of rigor in their software processes.

Pitting your employees against each other (also known as the Focal system) is not a good way to do performance management. Why would people work cooperatively together when they are pitted against each other in the Focal system?

In addition, using stock-level grants as a performance metric for layoff decisions, when some managers/groups don't use them that way, was a good way to get rid of a lot of good people that you probably shouldn't have let go (just ask their first-level managers instead of making your decision on some database query).

Intel has coasted on its manufacturing capability through the reduction in PC sales, but that's only going to work for so long. With more consumers opting for phones and tablets as their computing devices (and Intel's lack of being able to enter said market), the days of the home computer (outside of some niche markets) are numbered for most people, and Intel's fortunes will go with it. Trying to fit an x86 processor into everything to keep Intel relevant is already showing its shortcomings because that's not a solution in all cases.

The stock price has been going sideways pretty much since the introduction of tablets and smartphones. The propping up of the stock price from stock buy-backs and dividend increases can only go on for so long. Sooner or later, you'll have to truly innovate, or the shareholders will revolt from a lack of bottom-line growth.