Maxim Integrated Reviews

Current Employee – been working at Maxim Integrated full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – Company isn't going to be going under
Has decent health insurance
Individual departments run themselves, so it's possible you can get an awesome manager and have a great working experience at Maxim.

Cons – Employees are expendable commodities
Individual departments run themselves, there are no company-wide ethics to support you.
The poorest "severance" packages I've ever seen, if you're lucky to even get one.

Advice to Senior Management – If you want the public to see Maxim as a good place to work, MAKE it a good place to work, instead of just trying to market a new image.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Maxim Integrated full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – Good benefits, they still provide two family based special events including a spread at Christmas time. Provide quarterly bonuses.

Cons – Unless you have an obscene amount of educational titles after your name you can be expected to be treated like office furniture with absolutely no hope of rising to a management position. There is no amount of time or company experience they will accept. They will hire from the outside before they will promote from within. Annual reviews do not give more than 3% raise no matter what and that is only if you preform perfectly. This is barely enough to cover tax increases and not enough to cover cost of living increases. Recognition for achievements in the company is reserved strictly for engineers. The managers do not recognize any support staff as being necessary and has said so.

Advice to Senior Management – Everyone should have a chance to advance, EVERYONE. Just because your employee spent the last ten years of their life working for you instead of passing classes does not mean they are not perfectly capable of advancing to higher positions. Especially when they have already proved that they can do that position.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Maxim Integrated full-time

Pros – -CEO is extremely smart and cool as a cucumber. BUT he is just one man.
-New campus is pretty nice.
-Their business is strong in some high-growth markets.
-Happiness when you leave Maxim for a decent compensation. Priceless.

Cons – If you have less than 10 years of experience or not a manager in your existing job, STAY AWAY from Maxim. They will pay you peanuts. They won't give you a significant raise either (expect 3% every year if you and the company perform well). You will get stuck...Come to Maxim if you are absolutely sure you are going to spend rest of your life in semiconductors industry.

Now more details:

-Talent is leaving the company at a fast pace. A LOT of the bright people I know have left or have plans to leave the company. Average performers are staying. Quality of talent is decreasing rapidly. I was forewarned. I made a big mistake and joined Maxim anyway. I don't want anybody else to make the same mistake.

-Nepotism. Be nice to new hires. There is a significant chance that they are related to a Director in the company.

-Compensation. This is critical: get an offer from a few other companies and compare. Maxim's starting salaries are below average...I have heard some people left the company and doubled their compensation...How to get paid well at Maxim? Come from a competitor with experience. Since they can't attract young and bright (I have heard this complaint from many hiring managers. I wish I could give you more details but I have to maintain anonymity here. Main point: You are warned!), Maxim is forced to hire experienced professionals from outside.

-Work load. No need to say much in here. It's well known in the industry and in the Silicon Valley that Maxim is a sweatshop. Expect long hours (a brilliant, experienced engineer left for this reason last year), very little reward and no recognition.

-No meritocracy. If you are in the beginning of your career, they will pay you or promote you based on X (Bachelors degree + X many years). NOT based on your contribution or accomplishments in your position. I want you to understand this.

Advice to Senior Management – Take good care of your few remaining talented employees.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Maxim Integrated full-time for more than a year

Pros – Market strength in analog SOCs'
Engineering talent strength

Cons – Executive directors focus on tactical compliance - the ball and chain of every business manager and design teams
IP development is ALWAYS secondary to legacy product development

Advice to Senior Management – Empower your employees to encourage creativity and innovation

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Maxim Integrated full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – Some excellent people still around from 5+ years ago

Cons – Company replaced the unique culture instilled by Maxim's founders with a watered-down vanilla version.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Maxim Integrated full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – quite stable company; good benefits;

Cons – 1, No opportunity for growth
2, No promotions
3, Senior management (SVP in the manufacturing operations group) makes all decisions including pay raise/compensation/bonus

Advice to Senior Management – Reward hard working people in manufacturing operations group and promote good employees

Former Employee – worked at Maxim Integrated

Pros – Benefits are good. Senior management (VP and above) are competent and want to do well.

Cons – 1. There is no team work. Even engineers in your own team backstab you on occasions.
2. Lower level management are either unethical or incompetent. One manager (now director) essentially outsources engineering jobs in the US over to Turkey; treat employees here with utmost disrespect, and backstab people left and right.
3. Too many people seem to be content waiting for retirement. You never see engineers younger than 30. At times it feels like a retirement home.
4. Base salary lower than any companies I worked for.
5. Project management with Project Success Method is extremely inefficient. It is good for project managers and management to play pass the buck.
6. Business management in certain Business units are incompetent. Some don't even show up to work!
7. Promotions are based on who you know and sucking up, and not on achievements or competence.

Advice to Senior Management – Maxim is still an engineering company. Stop treating engineers like second class citizens compared to business managers.

Current Employee – been working at Maxim Integrated

Pros – The very top management recognizes that the culture needs to change and they are taking every possible step to make that happen.

Cons – Support your employees career growth because when they grow, the company also grows. Any successful company knows this by now, why is it taking so long for Maxim to realize this?

Advice to Senior Management – There are many design directors and General Managers that are clueless about how to lead people. When they are faced with a low moral issue in the teams, instead of relaxing, they just apply more pressure.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Maxim Integrated

Pros – Decent benefits. Flexibility to balance work & life.

Cons – Management does not care about employees as long as their RSU and bonus is good. No desire to motivate employees or generate loyalty.

Advice to Senior Management – Go back to values that made Maxim in early years. Make employees feel part of the family and valued.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Maxim Integrated

Pros – Great products, lots of oppurtunity to grow, great company performance, a promise of cultural change, world class new building (2012)

Cons – Some senior management has very poor people skills, inconsistent to the culture the CEO or other executives are promoting, negative reinforcement consistent in my department

Advice to Senior Management – check that all departments are motivating good people to stay and avoid political agenda in managing people. This drives good people away from Maxim

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend