Hello All - I see that many here are unhappy with the company. I am on the other side of the spectrum, I am about to start as an employee, straight out of engineering school. I wanted to see if someone can tell me what I can expect as a brand new engineer, in short, what would be your opinion about working at Qualcomm (as a brand new person). Thank you in advance.
28 replies (most recent on top)
Agree - post by Anonymous115662 - is a good advice.
I work at Q and can tell you overall it is a good place to work. You get lot of exposure to technology and industry - If you take advantages of the resources provided to you (Learning center, networking with peers etc). Also as a new graduate, your goals probably would be to learn and grow and not really worrying about layoffs etc. All the best! hope you get into a great team at Q.
The problem with engineering at Qualcomm is that recently, they have valued R and if you want to get anywhere, particularly salarywise, you need to become a project lead, a manager, and play the usual backstabbing political games that get you to the nest level in the corporate food chain. Been there, did it for 7 years at another major corp., and the t-shirts weren't worth it. YMMV. Give yourself a 5 year plan--maximum. Learn as much as you can, then, if you are still primarily interested in doing more than putting sh*t on chips, find a start-up that's doing interesting work, and go there. IF you are going to put in 80 hrs per week, you might as well enjoy it.
You are the man, So you want to get in while everybody tries to GTFO?
Anonymous115792 gave you a good advice OP
At starting level you don't need to worry about big picture for some time...if the tech guy your are reporting is good ( not manager you report too- beware matrix management concept ant its pitfalls ) the actual lead and project you work on is all that matters for 1st year (and may be 2)...
Company is in disarray in one of its major business unit but this is a BIG company with lot of variety...as many folks said its all relative....not a easy decision.
QC: You have all worked very hard and made sacrifices including time away from your families to assist in Qualcomm's success and now we do not need you anymore. So long, suckers!!!
You are asking about working at Qualcomm, but many folks responding do not work for Qualcomm any more. How would they know how it is to work for Qualcomm now, as they departed some time ago. This board seems to be full of folks who are disgruntled by being let go from Qualcomm and that's why they should not be responding to questions about how it is to work for Qualcomm now... Also, what does 'working at Qualcomm' really mean - there are many faces of this company, both good and bad.
You'll be given a lot of Q Kool-Aid during your first 12 months, and it's OK (but keep an eye of this forum as here you'll hear more realistic things and learn about the direction of the company). You do what people ask you to do, do your best and try to learn. Whatever they give you do the best possible job you can. All other is noise for you...
I think its relatively safe as new hire as most likely you will be going in to some futuristic project which will not have old QCOM baggage, 1st year you are likely to be immune from any layoff situation , I would say come here,keep a open eye , learn as much as possible and then make decision......I think its safe bet.( Relatively: If you have offer from more promising company then its different discussion...)...in one year things are expected to be very different here..
Anonymous115732 - there is nothing retarded about people responding here - we've always had a culture of mentoring, each of us started at some point and had similar questions. It's only over last few years that our culture started to deteriorate and it's a dog-eats-dog situation right now. The OP should rest assured that most of the junk we complain about here will not be visible to him/her for about 12 months, after that everyone is a fair game
Cannot believe this thread has 1,000 views - it's retarted
It looks like you are in San Diego area and since most of new joiners start with QCT, I'll make an assumption you'll end up here. You've made a grave mistake and you will not like it here - there is nothing to learn and you'll waste your time and talent. After 2 years you'll leave anyway. People suck, bosses suck, pay is dismal, work is stupid, etc. You get the point - it sucks (unless you are on H1B, in that case you do not care anyway)...
SM isn't any worse than Irwin, who dumped infrastructure and phone, and kept idiot programs like Globalstar alive.
QCT sucks in general, relativity low pay, unrewarding work, little chance to shine or advance and the VP's are all complete a-holes. That being said if you speak the right dielect you can do OK.
Thank you all, every opinion is useful - it's difficult for me to provide more detail as our start group will be relatively small and I do not want this thread to trace back to me. Growing up in SD Qualcomm was always a big name in Tech and I wanted to be a part of it. I'll do my best to learn and contribute and let's see where that takes me - I hear the concerns with the company getting too big and slow, while concerning I decided to give it a shot.... Thank you all again...
Just seeking for babysitter....
Past performance not indication of future performance ( its even more true for tech companies ) ,so be skeptical do your research and make decision.
You need to take info from this forum with grain of salt...Most are the folks posting here are currently not happy in QCOM so their input might be biased but same time they are willing to come here are post shows something about current state ( hint: compare it with posing on other similar companies board on this forum)
Its all relative...we don't know about the other companies you have offer from. In this forum folks are comparing good old culture to recently degraded culture.
Anonymous115694 is on the point. You need to compare your options and decide for long term.
You may get good feedback from people who are in good groups or people who worked here few years back.
Also cureent dynamics may be temporary and after cleaning house by our CEO "might" improve situation....
there is general degradation of QUALCOMM culture.... you have to think about future...
a) Your next job ..as to what you learn..corp R&D is something which is not good for job.
b) Qct software is more about firmware and perl scripting ( a lot of groups do that) .... they are not good...
Think what will you learn in Qualcomm for next job
There are many people who joined for green card.....if u are h1b ...even that will be looked into by the immigration guys .....now with layoffs....
Think future....!!
OP, QCOM is big company so it depends on group. However major part of QCOM chip division has very poor work culture, dirty politics and favoritism.... You you post group ( or bldg name where you will be working) than may be we can provide some more specific input.
Qualcomm used to be a great place to work. Most of the credit for that goes to its founder Irwin Jacobs. The company has done a 180 and going forward-watch out! When a company no longer considers its valued employees its most important asset it has lost its mission and its heart.
If you work in corporate R&D, you will be fine.
Since you are young and inexpensive relative to everyone else, you will be fine.
The most important thing is to always stay fresh. Don't let your age or inexperience convince you that you aren't ready for decent assignment.
Please ignore all the noises on this message board. Q is a great place to work if you are hired in a right division. RF, Modem system are couple examples. Avoid SW integration aka target SW at all cost.
Thanks for the feedback, and no, I am not fake, I am just researching what I am getting into. FYI, Qualcomm is still well respected with most of my peers and I do not think I made a mistake by choosing to start my career with the company. Thank you!
OP’s question might be relevant to layoffs. He is about to join a company that is going through some restructuring or cost cutting. Usually it is most cost beneficial to let go senior employees, but it is the least troublesome to let go junior employee. Heck, you can just fire anyone in their first 6 months without much justification, but a simple not meeting expectation. When it is left to the managers to pick the victims, new employees are the first to go.
1 - Ignore most of the negative replies. A good bet these are disgruntled or former employees with nothing better to do.
2 - You are a fake. No intern or new employee would seek advise from this forum. Whats your real Agenda? Douche bag.
it's good place to work and start!
god bless you.
You are kidding? Right? Out of all options, you selected QCOM?