Intel

The best reason to work at Intel is for the opportunity to work on truly cutting-edge technology. There are numerous interesting and challenging projects to work on. Intel also highly encourages employees who are getting burned out or bored at their current job to seek another job within Intel. This is a benefit, in my opinion, in that you are able to always stay in a job that is entertaining and challenging. Another good thing about Intel are the health benefits. Though, like everywhere, they have increased in cost over the last few years, they have helped me and my family significantly throughout my years of working there.

I think the biggest downside of Intel would be the lack of recognition for effort and the complete recognition for delivery. This means that it is extremely important to ensure that you are personally involved in projects that are well funded and have the support of management. If you end up in a position that does not have that, advancement and recognition will both be difficult.

It also has the potential to reward people who merely happen to be in the right place at the right time versus those who produce the best and most complete solutions.

Another downside of Intel is that they tend to pay on the low end of the industry average.

Something else to keep in consideration is that Intel is a silicon manufacturing company. As such, they always have their focus on hardware development and manufacturing. This can result in less importance being attributed to other areas that the company works in (i.e., Software Development).

The biggest advice that I would give to Sr. Management is to stay connected to your actual end customers and their actual needs. It is very common for Intel management to believe they know what is best for the consumer, but they are, in some cases, out of touch. However, they tend to be very good at knowing what their large customers, OEMs and ODMs, want.

Another bit of advice I would give to Sr. Management would be to pay close attention to their investments. When they are failing, cut them off. Choose them more closely as well, so that you can put more effort into a few rather than shotgunning with too little resources on any of them.