Qualcomm

• One of the best companies in the embedded industry.
• Better than average pay.
• Fairly good HR policies, but these are also available in all good companies, so they don't make it stand out from the crowd.
• Good work, depending on the team.
• Free food.
• Pay and stock options.
• The company is very dynamic.

• Bad work-life balance. Indian managers try to boast their performance, so they keep the team strength low, which increases work pressure. In the US, this is not the case, so the US office is better.

• All 3rd grade works are passed on to India for maintenance when they become obsolete (but in most companies, this is the case in India). However, there are still teams where work is genuinely distributed with equal quality between us and India.

• Don't go by the workplace rankings because they are too old and valid for the US. In India, it is truly a very bad place to work. HRs don't have any voice. If you think Qualcomm has better HR policies, then most Indian startups nowadays have these kinds of policies, so this doesn't make them any different.

• Pay-wise, it's also not that great, as nowadays you will get similar pay in many companies. But yes, they pay a good amount (not bad).

• If you have any problem or concern, there is hardly any mechanism where it can be addressed, as I said, the HR department here is useless; they don't do anything.

• Cafeteria food is really bad. Unless you are a bachelor or you have some problem, you will never like to eat. Even that's worse than a college cafeteria.

• Team outings are plagued by budget constraints. There are 3-4 team outings every year: lunch, lunch, half day, full day. Half-day and full-day outings are meaningless once you stay more years in the company, and the same thing happens every year. They will take you to a resort, but if any sport needs extra payment, that cannot be done. So virtually, you only go to one place, play cricket, which normally comes with the package, and come back. Even no one is interested also.

• Many managers have a medieval times IT company attitude; they don't see whether work is done or not but are more interested in keeping you busy. In Qualcomm, 85% of the time, you will be busy; there will never be a free day. Even all the days, you have to put in more than 10-11 hours for work. But if, at all, one day you are free and you leave the office on time (not early), then some managers start giving you junk work just to keep you busy.

• No proper documentation in the work you do, so you have to learn all by yourself.

• Slowly, they have made the company like a school with a lot of tracking. They are increasing manpower who will track but really fewer engineers who work below. So, it's becoming like a reverse pyramid.

• Ratings are 2 times a year, so you will get some hike every 6 months, but ratings do not match your performance. There are a minimum fixed number of cycles after which you will get promotion, so it's irrelevant if you work better or bad. If you are a top performer also, if that takes 2.5 years to go to the next level, an average performer will make that in the same 2.5 years or 3 years in the worst case.

• There is a false hope in some employees also. HRs try to show during the offer letter that there is an opportunity to change teams after you are bored in the same kind of work or shift to other geographical locations across sites for your career growth based on your interest. This is almost non-existent. Once you apply for a team change, your ratings will be affected by current managers. There are few good managers who will be encouraging you to change teams, but that's very less. Opportunities across geographical locations are almost NIL. Don't be fooled by the hollow statements. Now, with all checks in the India office, it's almost impossible. Upper management in India has made such processes that no one can even think to apply across sites.

• Most of the Indian managers don't have any voice; they are always running the rat race to prove some non-existent things. Simple formula: you work on the same thing as your US counterpart is working, then tell Indian upper management that you did it yourself.

• There are no recreational options within the office; no Foosball table, even. There was one Foosball table earlier, but as people were playing much, it was removed on the pretext of productivity. Such is the attitude of managers here.

• Occasionally, there are a few activities by HRs like CSR activity, dance, etc., but due to enormous work pressure, employee participation is NIL. Even people don't get time to attend a few HR sessions where they talk about any changes or policies. Even your managers will never encourage you for that. But if there are any meetings conducted by your manager's manager, then your manager will pull you to the meetings to increase the crowd.

• There are 20+12 leaves per year, but most of the times managers start cribbing if you take more leaves. This does not happen in the US.

• US/Canada offices are better as they have better work, better culture, and managers are not like Indian IT managers.

Bottom line: It is a good company but not a best company as believed to be. There are a lot of Indian companies nowadays who pay similarly and also have better work culture and policies. US offices are far better. So, if you are looking for a job in the Indian office, join only if you don't have any options.

Advice to Indian managers is useless; they know everything and are too arrogant to accept this.