Arm Senior Software Developer reviews

4.4

93% would recommend to a friend

(136 total reviews)
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Rene Haas

96% approve of CEO

86% positive business outlook

Senior Software Developer employees have rated Arm with 4.4 out of 5 stars, based on 136 company reviews on Glassdoor. This indicates that most Senior Software Developer professionals have an excellent working experience there. Arm is rated in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) by Senior Software Developer professionals compared to other employers within the Informationstechnologie industry (3.9 stars).

Reviews by job title

136 reviews
3.0
Apr 5, 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Good name on CV. Opportunity to work on latest technology which has become a de facto standard in quite a few markets. Good work life balance.

Cons

Software is not the main focus of the company, but just something that comes "free" with the hardware IP's. Hence there is an evident lack of focus on execution as no pressure comes from (not) having SW products that need to be sold to customers. Recently the company is trying to market itself as not only an HW company but the culture is too distant from US big names (Google, Facebook, Microsoft) and also from US based, product focused semiconductor companies such as Broadcom or Qualcomm. The SW teams are also hugely involved in political games between managers, poor communication with other groups, frequent reorganisations to shuffle managers around resulting in projects being abandoned and people frequently jumping from project to project. Compensation is improving but not enough for the Cambridge area.

2.0
Feb 17, 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Good work life balance, this is to be expected as lot of products are matured and not much challenging work left to do. Pay is Ok, it improving, although not enough if want to live in Cambridge with family. There are still some excellent people in the company. Good brand name.

Cons

As many products are matured, not many challenges nor opportunities for growth. Self serving management, constant reorg only to promote managers. Many managers, sometimes it is hard to figure out some managers function. Although a global company, lack of awareness among managers and engineers about this fact and have unfair expectations on behaviour and communication(English) irrespective of people's origin, unconscious/conscious bias is seen. Key to career progression is visibility, visibility and visibility. Being difficult to work with and micro management gets you recognition. Lots of useless process, using of Agile where it is not suitable for example.

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Arm Response
8y
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.
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