Qualcomm

Great company, good leadership, great benefits. It's easy to see why it's ranked #8 to work for.

Great location. Not being scattered across locations helps, I think. The other locations are independent and functionally different units.

The next 5 years look good for the company, as 3G ramps up across the globe.

There is an open culture and teamwork, and an environment for cross-group communication, though it is not exercised by overly focused engineers. There is good and bad there.

The learning environment is absolutely the best. One day you could learn about LTE, and then the next, you'd get to hear a Stanford Professor speak about finance. If you are a semiconductor/radio engineer, it is the best place, but in my opinion, it's the business guys who have the most fun at Qualcomm.

There's a tendency to not acknowledge what's going on out in the industry, especially in areas which are not core competencies as the company tries to expand its horizons.

A lot of non-chipset-specific ideas have already been baked at OEMs such as Nokia, etc. But sometimes I have noticed that this ignorance has acted as a bliss, because of Qualcomm's partnership and customer delight strengths to counter that disadvantage.

Another downside is that there are a bunch of people who are in their early and mid-thirties and are directors and above now, as they joined in the mid-90s and grew with the company. A lot are Indians, and nothing racist there, as I'm one too. But most are too tactical and not at all strategical. Some are bloated and in their comfort zone. Most have not worked anywhere else, and it shows.

Senior leadership is great and admirable. Paul Jacobs has a good handle on people, technology, and the industry. He's very approachable, too, and that sets the tone for the immediate followers. My advice is to keep that going.

I see opportunities to slim down middle management in some cases or be known to take a harsh decision. It's not because of too many levels, but there are a lot of scenarios where I see that people are better than their bosses, and that's when start-ups become truly corporate.