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: Brand image of the company, except that it is difficult to think on it. I cannot think of one.

Cons: Bad work-life balance. Compensation not equal to the industry. Politics and senior management at the plant force people to leave whom they don't like.

Pros: Good compensation. Nothing else.

Cons: Lots of idiots at the top. Excels and colorful PPTs are all you need to survive here. Everybody works for survival here, and technology is only talked about, but everybody's real job is the politics of survival. They have all the bad people from a few good old companies, such as LSI and NetApp. A recent round of firing of 5% across the board. The best part is that nobody got fired from the top, and all engineering folks got fired.