Intel

Intel has great benefits and, depending on what group you are in, gives you a lot of flexibility and respect. I love the "about three weeks of vacation per year" and the fact that no one is tracking my hours. They care if I get my job done, not if I left fifteen minutes early. Work can be challenging (in a good way), and I have worked with some of the smartest and most competent people I have ever met.

Those who can't do sometimes wind up managing. As a software engineer at a hardware company, you are a red-haired stepchild. Intel knows how to make world-class silicon; their processes and techniques are stellar. But they haven't grasped that software is different, and without software, the best silicon in the world is just a really expensive doorstop.

Have managers with recent software experience manage software groups.

Learn something about software planning.

Include software in the product planning process.

"Doing whatever it takes" to get software out the door with hardware without planning is not a recipe for success.