Pros
Had a scrappy, start up feel to it until a few years ago to the point that it was famous as one of the most nimble big companies around. Personally I had a great career at Qualcomm, starting as contractor and ending as Sr Staff/Mgr in 8 years. I consider myself fortunate to have joined while the start up vibe was still around.
Cons
Sadly, in the past 2-3 years, the company began to rest on its laurels and shun all risks. It was as though the entire senior management collectively went into "rest and vest" mode. Management kept talking about "Adjacent markets" to phone/tablet business without ever tracking it seriously. This despite the well known risks of depending on just two major customers for the bulk of its phone business. The results are now painfully obvious to see. Sadly, it is the rank and file engineers that are getting laid off and not the execs that blundered in the first place. The topping on the cake was labelling this the "Qualcomm way".
