Pros
I’ve worked at Arm for 6 years now, and in that time I’ve seen a lot of changes - both as a company and in individual teams. As a company, I think the culture is very good. They (for the most part) value and take care of their employees and do offer a lot of benefits. I am not in an engineering or technicals team, so cannot speak for them, but I feel like, in general, work life balance is pretty good and there’s not a lot of pushback when taking time off. As with any company, there are very busy times and very slow times, but for the part, workload is consistent. Nearly everyone (and of course there’s always exceptions to the rule) is friendly and personable - most people, regardless of level, will have a chat with you. I think there is a good mix of older and newer employees which helps make it feel grounded and not overrun with attitudes and egos. Pay is good and bonuses and incentives through the year are good too. Sabbatical after 4 years is a nice incentive. I love how involved they are with philanthropy and making a difference - and it’s genuine. Not just something they put in the media to make them look good.
Cons
Communication is still something they need to work on. When we got bought the first time, it was out of the blue and people were very upset with the lack of communication. Leadership recognized this and committed to being better. In some respects they are, but we can take the recent sale to Nvidia as an example of them not being great. Even after Masa admitted in public that he was looking to either sell or take to IPO early, it was never even touched on at Arm. Obviously there are restrictions to what can be said, but for 3 months of rumors and uncertainty, to push it off and not even acknowledge it is in bad taste, and shows a lack of respect for the employees. Vacation is certainly better than most non-tech companies, but given most tech places offer unlimited vacation I’m amazed we don’t. Reasoning has been given that without a cap on hours people are less inclined to take it. Way around it - make it mandatory that people take at least a week every quarter. I’m not sure who would be against that proposal... Certain managers and supervisors are terrible and have no place being managers at all. Certain people have a fear of rocking the boat or making people upset if logical decisions are made...hence why people retain management status despite it making no sense when it comes to the structure of the team. Not enough career growth - I’ve been talked out of progressing multiple times by the same manager and gave lost out on good opportunities because of it. This can also be said for being promised promotions and then being told it won’t happen as it was never approved...huh?!
