Intel

Working in intel used to be my dream...

• WLB, if you're in a lucky team
• Decent sabbatical but not unique in the industry

99% of people are just cruising and do the bare minimum.

Lots of things you learn/use are outdated/incompatible with industry standards. Untransferrable skills make it super hard to find jobs outside.

There are still few teams here and there with smart people and strong technical backgrounds, but it's extremely rare. Most experienced people have jumped ship already, so all the know-how is gone. Those who left used to call Intel their dream jobs... ironic.

Management is complacent and happy with the numbers. They don't care about losing talent as long as they can hire new college graduates to fill the vacancies. The outcome: even the core technology development department is full of newbies with insufficient knowledge and/or irrelevant backgrounds.

Very political-driven culture. URM hired/promoted first whenever possible. New external hires always get fatty juicy packages, yet the old employees get the bare minimum, fueling attrition and killing morale. Thus, everyone is doing as little as they possibly can.

Hardware/silicon inside Intel is a dead end, proven by the new title/pay change. SW-related jobs now earn 10% more base than HW guys. Clearly an IBM wannabe.

Stop acting like everything is fine if you really care about the company.

Or keep doing what you're doing, and the Titanic will sink faster than you think.