Arm reviews

Thank you for you for taking the time to let us know how you feel about your experience of working in our Loughborough office. It’s disappointing to hear that you feel you had such a poor experience of working with us. This isn’t how we want Arm to be perceived, or experienced by the people who are part of our team. Everyone who works at Arm is a valuable member of our team, irrespective of their individual skill sets, experience or location. You mention that Arm is primarily a hardware company. As you will know, Arm is making considerable investments in software development in our ISP business and in new areas such as AI and IoT. We need people with the capability and skills in those areas our software team is growing to support our growth in these new markets. Regardless of whether your background is in software, or where you are based, everyone in Arm has access to the same level of development and opportunity so we are sorry to hear you don’t feel this to be your experience. All our technical and product decisions are based on expert views from relevant parts of the business and backed up by data. Arm would not have been as successful as it has been so far if product choices were based on individual preferences. We have a strong culture of collaboration and collegiate decision making. I’m sorry if that wasn’t clear to you during your time with us. We have a strong People Team presence in Loughborough which provides a forum to address local employee concerns. We are sorry if you didn’t realise that you could have spoken to someone or that we operate an open door policy within Arm where anyone can approach the senior management team to ask questions or raise issues. We expect all of our people in Arm to embrace our values. They should be embedded in everything we do the way we operate as a company and the way we treat colleagues. We can only apologise now if you feel that this did not happen. Finally, we appreciate you taking the time to bring your concerns to our attention. We welcome all feedback as this provides us with a valuable insight into our organisation and our employees experience.

Thanks for taking the time to let us know how you feel. It’s disappointing to hear you aren’t happy working at Arm anymore. It’s clear some of your frustration comes from working on less challenging more mature technology. As you know, Arm is investing in software development in new areas such as AI, IoT and security. We encourage people to develop and grow as human beings and in their career. Have you considered moving to a different part of the organisation that will offer you the challenge and mental stimulation you are looking for? Arm has grown a lot since you would joined. The company is almost five times the size. That means it’s inevitable that the proportion of managers, including senior management, has increased. Becoming a manager isn’t an easy option. Leading teams, coaching and developing people to make sure we deliver on our promises is fundamental to our success and ability to scale. As you are aware becoming a manager isn’t the only route for progression. We also have a technical career path where you can progress through the grades into very senior positions. We employ lots of brilliant people in Arm which makes it a highly competitive track to join. I can appreciate that’s why you may feel that it’s a tougher path to follow. Finally, your comment about the importance of visibility and great communication skills for career progression is fair. We value collaboration and teamwork very highly in Arm which is why one of our core beliefs is “We, not I”. The ability to share your knowledge with confidence and influence colleagues is a big part of that. As this permeates the organisational culture a consequence is that we are placing more importance on soft skills when it comes to promotions. On paper that may put non-native English speakers at a disadvantage. It isn’t an insurmountable problem if you have the will to develop your communication skills, as proven by the number of senior employees who come from non-English speaking countries. I would encourage you to talk to your manager about how we can support you to develop your career in Arm.