Pros: You may work on interesting problems that depend on the group. You will come across people who are talented and skilled in the art, who will motivate you to learn and acquire new skills. My schedule is very flexible, but that depends on your group and where you are in the food chain.

Cons: The future of SanDisk and its rather unique position is in question after the pending but imminent acquisition by Western Digital, a rather stagnated, low-technology dinosaur that is trying to save itself by buying rather than innovating. With not much incentive on the horizon, key talented people will likely leave. WDC is not a company that can attract top-notch talent in Silicon Valley. Pay and benefits are average and don't compare to companies such as Apple or Google, but some of this has to do with the dynamics of the semiconductor industry. In a very good year when stocks are doing well and bonuses are paid 100%, you won't do that bad, but that doesn't happen too often. For a small company, there are surprisingly too many levels, something like 10 levels from a base engineer to a senior director. Worse, from an outsider, the company, especially technology groups, appear to suffer from an extreme lack of diversity to the point of almost appearing racially biased. There are way too many engineers hired from India. The executives of the company are uniformly Indian and unfortunately biased towards promoting from their own ranks only. As a result, many executives (not all) lack technical background, talent, and experience; in fact, most don't even have an advanced degree from a reputable school, which is really needed to lead a semiconductor company that thrives on the promise of Moore's law. They make key strategic errors that come to roost after some time. Overall, this is not a place where a PhD from a top 10 school will feel at home. Come here if you absolutely can't find a job elsewhere.

Pros: My particular first-hand experience was with "majority excellent" first- and second-level management and colleagues. YMMV... And a reasonable amount of freedom to grow.

Cons: Many recent, often overlapping acquisitions to digest; and the track record across all businesses (WRT executing mergers successfully) is poor, and SNDK has not achieved above-average results in this area. This leads to confusion and duplication of effort. Prior to SNDK acquisition by WD, there was strong systematic pressure to outsource all possible infrastructural engineering tasks to the subcontinent, regardless of impact to product delivery. Word has it that WD has instilled the opposite mindset, which if true is "a good thing". Switch from cubicles to "semi-open office" (tiny stalls with low glass partitionlets: only the feed bags were omitted...) was dispiriting and harmed my productivity.

Pros: A no nonsense company when it comes to anything not related to core business

Cons: Confused about its future and poor at execution, competitors have left it far behind.