ARM Holdings Reviews

Pros

Good benefits
Nice vacation policy
Dominant supplier for the processor products
Good reputation
There's still some left over good things from the early ARM days

Cons

Some people in key management positions are incompent
Products other than processors are not all competitive
Organization deficiency

Advice to Senior Management

Put competent people in management positions, not just those who only say yes.

Pros

Big Name on your CV
Good for technical improvement
Good work enviroment

Cons

Salary is not very competive
very expansive living in Cambridge

Advice to Senior Management

Review salary to be more competitive

Pros

Surviving just because of the processor division and brand name

Cons

Doesn't care about employees
Very few talented people run the company, and you find many story tellers otherwise
Inefficient people are employed

Advice to Senior Management

Do not just go by number of years of experience. Judge the candidate by his worth.

Pros

Dominant player in Cell Phone CPU market
Great Benefits
Attempt to provide good corp comms

Cons

Weak Exec. Mgmt (Engineers that think they can manage)
If you aren't Brit, you are out of luck
Lost in the fog - insufficient mgmt capital for the size of the company. ARM has grown beyond ARM's ability to manage (and mgmt doesn't realize this is the case)
Exec Mgmt that don't know how to win / what the goal is.

Advice to Senior Management

Throw out VP and above Engineers playing as Managers and hire real mgmt team to take ARM to next level
Realize SS isn't capable of fixing PIPD, flush majority of SJC

Pros

ARM is a good engineering firm to work. You get a really good balance between work and life. Very friendly and smart people.

Cons

Salaries in engineering tend to be low, but ARM salaries are competitive compared to other engineering firms. Can't think of anymore

Advice to Senior Management

Due to the nature of business it's hard for young engineers to get opportunities to lead. I would advise the management to create a kind of leadership program that helps employees to develop.

Pros

Very nice facilities. The company is extremely flexible with hours and vacation time. Innovation is appreciated and encouraged. You have a lot of leeway to do what you are assigned.

Cons

At times, I literally had nothing to do, but this had more to do with my position.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep up the good work!

Pros

Great Benefits - very good vacation (can even sell back 1 week), 6% 401 K match, very good stock grants.
Good brand and relationship with other companies, opportunities to get info on ARM and partners
good opportunities for training etc

Cons

Not all sites/divisions are good places to work at
Very political, some individuals have undue influence, it is a very us vs them kind of place
Need to stay on good side of Cambridge people
cooperate services like HR, IT, legal are not friendly , even your boss's boss can not help you with them
Real communication with management is very week, can be very bureaucratic

Advice to Senior Management

Rethink divisional structure, make cooperate operations like IT & HR etc more responsive to local/divisional needs
Provide more real training to managers and directors
have real communication with engineers, dont just talk about it

Pros

Great atmosphere working here, as most chaps are highly technical and fun to play with; very easy going and friendly relationships between colleagues; exciting technologies, on-going learning opportunities; free gym

Cons

this must be the salary: it is under-average for the work carried out - a starting salary for graduate being only 18k for such a renowned firm? also food in the canteen can really be improved..

Advice to Senior Management

well, the management teams are doing a great job there, or one could say - there's no such management teams as the firms structure are so flat that you don't normally feel a hierarchy thing.

Pros

Very good benefits (you start off with 4 weeks of vacation). Lots of focus on people development; Quite open to people moving across the company to different roles; It is the market leader in processor IP and the brand really helps in other markets as well. A truly global company. They give young people early chance to succeed.

Cons

If you're not based in Cambridge (UK), you're out of the loop. It's a very political company. And senior executives push their boys onto the big stage. Suddenly out of nowhere, you'll see young and very smart (but woefully unprepared) people being thrust into senior positions. Or mediocre people out of Cambridge sent to fill key roles in the satellite offices.

Advice to Senior Management

Focus on synergies between the different business units. There's not enough real communication between the different business units. This is mostly due to the silly rivalry/feuds between the different GMs.