Panasonic is a terrible work environment, driven solely by politics, pure and simple. If you're even considering it, I strongly suggest you contact anyone who has left there. Employees are overloaded with work, provided with unrealistic time-frames that aren't feasible or humane, and should anything go wrong they are scapegoated and vilified. Raises happen rarely, and not based on merit. Cronyism isn't just rampant, it's the norm and they act as though it's typical business practice. The negative impact of it probably creates the most problems at Panasonic, because severe errors made by management are never dealt with and get repeated while the worst of people are rewarded. The people who work the hardest never move and the salaries for engineers are capped by level. The company makes great sounding plans, then works as hard as it can to destroy the product by being careless and at the same time blaming anyone and everyone in sight.
I don't know anybody there in engineering who is happy, and the people I knew who left were ecstatic. Panasonic is a corporate nightmare, with few scruples and even less interest in recognizing dedication and the value of people. I saw the same pattern for years; people were paid a half-decent wage in the beginning, had some successes while they thought it was a moderately fair place, then after relentless antagonism from management and the blame game, their spirit slowly crumbled as more unrealistic feats were expected without proper resources or recognition being provided. They were lulled into staying because of the economy and because they didn't care much about a positive work environment anymore. They lost hope. Many turned -heavily- to alcohol. They eventually became so experienced that it didn't phase them as much, but were never treated any better and never given the resources and support that would have provided them with a fair, structured, comfortable work life. Moreover, the company always made it harder and harder to get the exact same job done which made the same job increasingly more stressful. I'm leaving out a lot, but trust me, you will find out within 1.5 - 2 years time how big of a mistake you made joining Panasonic.
Survival Tips (but please reconsider):
If you want to survive there, you'll need to make a lot of friends in every department. If you leave a door open for them to target you/blame you/use you and have no political protection, they will do so gladly. You can work very hard and never get promoted, or just do a mediocre but not totally useless job and probably get promoted if you never make waves. If you get overloaded with work, make sure you tell your manager you need assistance or perception will be that you have a total handle on things. Do not bother with HR unless you have a legal case, they will not react. Most of all, do not be weak with Panasonic. They (management) have no interest in you or your happiness. They want you to be successful, to make their department look 100x better than other departments (it's that competitive) and overcome all the obstacles management has created without saying "I didn't have the information" or "there wasn't time because this is a complex product and the schedule doesn't work". Most people who leave Panasonic are fired with their reputations ruined, luckily this didn't happen to me, but happened to many good people I knew who (by the end) thought themselves utterly worthless, until they found a normal job that opened their eyes.
