Intel

In any position at Intel, you will work with some pretty amazing people, make life-long friends, and have the opportunity to learn quite a lot.

Health benefits are pretty much top-notch, and it seems they are making an effort to keep it that way.

The ability to take a sabbatical (eight-week paid leave) is a life-changing opportunity, and the new child bonding leave should set an example for all employers to follow.

From a software engineering specific position: there is no coherent career path for people who want software to be their main focus.

Advancing down the technical career path at Intel, strictly speaking from a software perspective, usually means losing a huge amount of relevancy in the outside world. No companies outside of Intel need an expert in the politics and methods required to get things done within Intel.

For this reason, I saw many of the most talented software folks leave after several years from fear of resume rot.

Another point to be aware of for just about everyone at Intel: assuming you are okay at your job, your quality of life will depend almost entirely on who your direct manager is. If you don't have a good one, your life will be miserable.

Even if you are exceptional at your job, your career will go nowhere without a decent manager backing you. Spend too long under a not-so-great manager, and your career will be irreparably damaged. This is not a statement of hyperbole or jest.

The way the employee ratings and ranking system is arranged requires that your manager play a serious political game. If they are unable or unwilling, you will end up stalled.

Stall too long – even being a key contributor to a business critical project – and you will get flushed by HR. This is also not a joke.

If Intel needs talented software people (as I hear my friends in HR say), they need to be a place software people want to go. They probably need to define a career path for people in the software field, and they drastically need to fix their employee ratings and ranking system (changes have been "in the works" for the nearly 10 years I have worked for them).