Texas Instruments

Working on multiple projects in a challenging environment.

I worked for TI for over 10 years and saw how the culture changed over the last few years. TI used to care for its people, but that seems to be a thing of the past. Too many experienced people have been let go or forced to leave, and TI is getting a reputation of being a "puppy mill," hiring almost exclusively new college graduates to do the job of multiple experienced people with less resources and experience.

I witnessed multiple people (colleagues and people reporting to me) having mental breakdowns and anxiety disorders due to overwork and burnout. People with very low experience get promoted because they are "yes people" and/or like to follow a more bullyish attitude toward employees. This has resulted in very poor R&D investment and very high attrition rates.

I can say that salary is competitive, but it's still behind many competitors.

TI is a big company, and some business units are better than others, but this culture is permeating throughout the company based on discussions with colleagues.

Put people first and work harder to retain experienced people.

Seriously invest in health care programs, not just with cheap apps available through insurance, but by proactively having managers and HR prevent, detect, and care for signs of burnout and mental breakdowns.

Avoid bringing people with no experience in focus sectors (i.e., analog people with zero digital experience to drive embedded processing) since that is resulting in a bad reputation with customers and poor investment.