Intel

Pay is very good. Intel works to make sure they're offering competitive packages to full-time employees.

Good benefits, with a stock purchase plan and above-average vacation time (3 weeks, but if you've got a good manager, they won't hassle you over every hour/day).

Free gym located at the Austin location, as well as a volleyball court and table tennis. Subsidized lunch with an excellent cafeteria (~$5).

In my position, I was able to learn tons. Managers talk with you to ask what your long-term goals are with the company. They make it easy to switch teams in between projects, which is great for somebody looking to get horizontal mobility.

Bonuses are tied to Intel as a whole, so if Intel does well, so do you.

The onus is on you to maintain a healthy work-life balance. I've seen people get burned out here, and I've seen others (like myself) feel like the hours are very reasonable. I mostly stayed in the 40-45 hour range per week. However, I've seen others who worked closer to 60 hours a week.

The Austin site used to be much smaller. Over the last couple of years, it grew substantially. The Austin site develops and debugs for Atom, the mobile segment of Intel. Unfortunately, the huge design wins haven't come yet.

Management can vary largely from group to group. Personally, I loved my managers and they were great people.

Just keep working on hitting product timelines. We'll never get customers if we can't hit our own milestones.

I always felt appreciated there, and I'm very thankful for that!