Great place to learn, if you enjoy a challenge
Pros
* Always challenging * Many smart people, and almost all of them are willing to teach you what they know * Very casual culture, engineers are generally approachable and friendly. Dress code is non-existent. * Technical ideas usually succeed on their merit - anyone can offer up a good idea and impact the product, no matter how junior * Can-do attitude still exists, despite occasionally getting burned out * Generous work from home policy and fairly flexible hours * Flexible career path - managers are open and supportive of changing groups if you want to try another job (at least between verif/DFT/RTL/synthesis teams) * Lower to mid level management all have engineering backgrounds and are technically competent * Mid-to-senior level management has improved substantially on the engineering side - Jim Keller is an engineer's engineer which is great to have at an executive level
Cons
* Always challenging * Workload can be very heavy at times, and additional compensation is rarely offered. It is easy to burn out and largely your individual responsibility to manage your own workload and say when enough is enough * Benefits are standard to sub-standard, have substantially declined during the no/negative-profit period and seem unlikely to improve any time soon, despite profitability * Consistent low level attrition (this is maybe to be expected, as Austin has a very active market for chip designers) * Cost cutting measures can make you feel like you're getting nickled and dimed to death sometimes * It's not always clear what impact your work will make on the company's success until long after the fact. Being highly self-motivated, enjoying a challenge, and being able to ignore high level distractions and just focus on the immediate project are requirements to work happily here - which is fine, as long as you fit that description. If you don't, you may not enjoy it at all. * Emotional stability is a requirement here. You have to roll with the punches, including annual layoffs, and not get overly distracted or distraught. The longer you work here, the easier it gets, and management is supportive, so this becomes less of a con over time.
