I’ve been with Intel for less than 2 years and I keep reading about how there are quite a few employees that are leaving or have left. The question I have is this. Did you make the decision to leave because you didn’t want your career to stagnate? Did you leave because you are not as vested as you hoped you’d be? Or did you leave because Intel is just a horrible company to work for?
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Mostly, we are smart peasants, who get laid off, but from time to time visit the board, because we care, others, certainly not smart people but know Intel politics very well and know, say, when to escape from a "trouble" group (potential target for elimination). They find another protection under another manager, weak intellectually, but politically strong having protection and coverage in high echelons of Intel power. You may always recognize them seeing how they move from room to room discussing the ways of how to maintain their presence at Intel for the sake of their own interests. They do not care of the peasants and think only about themselves.
Who are the RELEASES who get you laid off from Intel ?
Define career stagnate? Can’t transfer to different jobs because you are really good at what you do? I guess the Intel term is “Due to business needs”. Or your pay scale is too high for another group to pick up.
Also noticing you have job hoppers, like every 2 years they switch positions, provide small impact while in the department, more less a drain on team dynamics or productivity. Their focus is only themselves and not the team. But management loves them and thinks they are great asset to the group. Yet they play golf together. Yeah that click.
So I can see why people want to leave and move forward in life. I see x intel folks that have moved on to bigger better things and they look healthy. Like no stress and happy.
Makes you kinda wonder wtf am I doing.
Intel gives you free money while you prepare for interviews with real companies.
For smart people it’s a blessing.
Unless a person can't fit in with people or not have the skills to do what it takes, I don't know how a career at Intel can stagnate. You can change jobs every year or two until you find one that you like. I have worked numerous jobs, Technician, Engineer, Project Manager, Quality Specialist, Manager and I can tell you it is fun to move around. I was there 27 years and have nothing bad to say about the company other than the brownies in the cafeteria. Can they taste any worse!
@3vxo+1aPoBNSy. HR shows their presence again.
Not sure what all the fuss is about. Longtime intel employee here. Never had to kiss anyone's @ss. Raises were respectable. If it was low one year it was made up in the next year or two. Try another group to work in. Plenty of opportunities to move if you're stuck in a rut. Hope you find happiness wherever you work.
Agree with the comments here. The only thing works is playing politics and flattering your complete bozo the clown, incompetent and on top of those as a bonus, a-s-ho-e manager. But for most people, this goes against keeping your self-respect/self worth and building a meaning life. Most of us can’t do it. Hence the reason for many unhappy, frustrated people. On top of it, most of us can’t stomach working with back stabbing co workers who don’t deliver anything but are lavishly rewarded as the manager’s loyal a-s kissers. It makes you sick.
No CEO is going to be able to change this dynamic. I don’t agree with the a-s ho-e who wrote that these comments are from engineers working at Burger King. What a bozo. I work at intel. The problem is pervasive and across the org and all layers. If you are young, don’t waste your life. Leave. I totally agree with the gmail founder, being at intel saps your energy. If you are close to retirement, of course, wait. Hang in there...Changing to a new place close to retirement is not worth it.
agree with the comments -- to survive nicely one has to suck up to he immediate manager feed his/her ego all the time... the n politically you can survive will get projects and oppty's. otherwise keep listening to them whine u are adequately compensated but are performing slower than the others in the team-- will give no measurable items to improve upon and only the mgr determines u are exceeding not your customers... bottom line play the politics successfully suck up or remain stressed and frustrated fearful of quitting.
Thanks for this post. I especially enjoyed https://triplebyte.com/blog/interview-with-gmail-creator-and-y-combinator-partner-paul-buchheit.
I feel the same way. However at 57 with major repetitive strain injury and burnout need to hang in there somehow for 2 to 4 years before I have enough money to retire. However if I were offered a package I would take it.
On my part spending time outside the Intel bubble was eye opening. Politics is everywhere, the question is you are slowly and progressively dying for exactly what? For 5, 10, 20K a year did any finance wh-z kid actually compute what is the Net Present Value of that amount? I get it that sometimes we just need to bring home a salary but at some point if you are really interested in making a contribution you need to find a way to be around like-minded people instead of chest puffing leaders while violating Intel values. All that for that.
Worked in sw on interesting technology and was on the path to be promoted Sr. PE. The level of BS projects+politics and the realization nothing I would do in SW would tilt the scale at Intel convinced me I should rather spend my life working on something that would have a real impact. And yes, FANG compensation is much higher. The culture is also radically different, being driven bottom-up by engineers and leveraging people's strengths, which works for me.
Yes, Yes, Yes. One friend worked in PTD as a PhD grade 7. He left Intel after 2 years (more than 5 years ago) and is now making 300k+ as a SWE at Google (had to start back at L4). Another worked as a Grade 5 SWE from a top tier CS school. Intel lowballed him for several years (his terminal compensation was roughly 100k including RSUs). Left around the time his group was laid off (got offers before the last day). He more than doubled his Intel compensation at Amazon (~230k).
Here is Paul Buchheit, creator of Gmail, on why he left Intel. He left Intel over 20 years ago to do some great things.
https://triplebyte.com/blog/interview-with-gmail-creator-and-y-combinator-partner-paul-buchheit
Why did you decide to leave Intel?
Overall, the job wasn't exciting to me. I didn't have to work that hard, and one day I had this realization while sitting in my gray cubicle (I was in a sea of gray cubicles surrounded by gray walls, listening to white noise and all alone): I'm like, “Man I am so tired. I need to go home and take a nap.” I went home, but as soon as I got there I realized, “I'm not tired anymore.” Working at Intel was a draining environment, and I knew I wanted to leave.
Politics,pay,skills stagnation were my top reasons- grass is indeed outside Intel
Unless you only want to work in semiconductor manufacturing forever the skills gap you get here is pretty large. You can test that by interviewing at Intel vs. Other tech companies. People focus on their skills and move on, for better work life balance, and working with nicer people, and they want to spend less time worrying about what some recent freshly minted arrogant PhD is complaining about.
All of the above