Sandisk

May (I must repeat MAY) get to work on cutting-edge technology for Memory/System Design and FW Eng, with nothing for the rest. Talented people.

Favoritism, lack of effective execution, lack of vision, mediocre middle management lacking motivation, and lack of talent-respect are top on the list, and one of the worst places to work for S/W engineers.

Favoritism is another name for the SanDisk Culture, and more so, top management has a very different definition for it. A lot of other problems are because of it alone. Wrong people at the wrong places make it even worse day by day.

Top management is happy making plans after plans, but falls short of execution and has new plans to start again. Hardly is there any root-cause analysis, and if there is any, there is no learning from it. Frequent shifting priority of projects, internal resistance over getting the priority for similar projects. No knowledge sharing platform.

Too many bad acquisitions over the last few years, wasting big piles of cash. It survived till now just because it is in an ever-expanding storage market and because of a few amazing engineers who worked so hard over the years there.

Middle management is mediocre, which is a praise. They lack the ability to bring the best out of engineers like enthusiasm and motivation, let alone innovation. Survival is all that is in their attitude, action, and words, which flows down throughout.

Not much for talent retention, variable pay, and a lack of a plan for personal and professional growth. A lot of HR gimmicks, but falling short in serving the results.

Too many layoffs in the last few years; being profitable and riding high displays most of the above.

No work-life balance, as for some there is "too much work" and for others "too much life".

Oversee, don't overlook (especially how middle management operates). For WD, good luck cleaning it up before making it a worthy investment.