AMD Reviews

Pros

People in AMD are downright good hearted people with brilliant minds.
I never ever felt I have to always watch my back. I had not met a Micro Manager here. Takes forever to hire (I've put in so many long hours) but they know to hire those who they can trust.
Very flexible so long am at work at 10am. I have to take kids to day care. Mgt understands parent duties very strongly.
Management encourages use of vacation/time off.

Cons

Promotions take forever. You know other companies are always eyeing AMD people so one's always fighting the thought of moving or staying.
Constant change in leadership

Advice to Senior Management

Don't overlook your current employees. Promote as fairly. We are happy when there's a new engineer in the team. Next things we check is the title they were hired into.

Pros

-Flexible hours (core hours between 10am and 4pm, you can come in early to leave at 4, or come in at 10 to leave late.
-Great benefits (full-time get 90% dental - max $2,000, full drug, full massage, physio, chiro, orthotics, etc - max $500 each)
-Very friendly.
-Great place to learn.

Cons

-Located in Markham (horrible traffic).
-Small percentage of women.

Pros

- work with cutting edge technology
- quarterly team events
- good pay

Cons

- could be boring if you wind up with a bad team

Advice to Senior Management

good work, keep it up

Pros

Can negotiate good pay before joining.

Cons

1. Nor respect.
2. Extremely process-oriented, no-technical work. Most of the time you don't understand why are you doing something.
3. Bad work environment.

Pros

Easy going company . They will always remain a no 2 company

Cons

Very slow company with no direction

Advice to Senior Management

Hire if u need and donot fire just to make u r senior happy

Pros

Can learn a lot. For a beginner not a bad firm. But do not stay longer than 3 years

Cons

pay/bonus is bad. So not so pleasant

Advice to Senior Management

None

Pros

most people around you are nice to work with; good working environment; innovative products; free gym; on-site cafeteria; up to 4-week vacation annually;

Cons

being the underdog almost all the time, the company constantly in surviving mode, which means layoffs, budget cuts, pay cuts or freezes, priority changes, etc.

Advice to Senior Management

right the strategy, innovation, execution, then be profitable

Pros

Very competitive compensation packages. Many of the positions require working on the cutting edge of technology, and can be very challenging.

Cons

The company does not believe in investing in their people. Attendance to seminars and conferences are treated as perks rather than opportunities for staff to upgrade their skills and abilities. The company's market niche is being eroded at both the high end and low end by its competitors, and so far the product roadmap does not appear to be capable to address this situation.

Advice to Senior Management

The company needs to source and develop more of their technical staff. Many significant fellows were lost and not replaced in recent years. Address the cons above. All management should be focused on the product, how to produce it, and how to develop their current staff to assist in this effort. Figure out what AMD's niche should be and make the necessary painful decisions in the roadmap before it is too late. Opening new sites in cheaper locales distracts management attention from the product that delivers revenue, in favour of dubious cost cuts that get eaten up by increased travel costs.

Pros

The salary seems very competitive in this area. Work is near bleeding edge of technology. Some very smart and capable people to work with and learn from.

Cons

At intermediate levels (manager) and up it gets increasingly political. Competence and contribution seems to matter less. Much activity is spent to support VPs and director efforts to look good in their constant jockeying for position. Layoffs occur every 2 to 3 years in numbers big enough to make the papers. Never sure if you will be laid off.

Advice to Senior Management

CEO and management team would do well to clean house in management levels from director to CVP and rebuild the culture.

Pros

Great people to learn from and work with.

Cons

Long hours. No job security as the jobs are being shippped out to Asia.

Advice to Senior Management

Strategy leaves low morale.