Altera Reviews

Pros

Good people to work with.

Cons

Bad mangement, no views for employee developement and future path. Soft skill seems to be way important than technicial skill. Promotes politics in the group!

Advice to Senior Management

try to find profit-quality balance. try to see the big picture and treat employee well.

Pros

- Pay was pretty good
- Facilities were nice
- Cafeteria food has improved

Cons

- Senior executives are making too much money (CEO made $15 million last year from stock options)
- Backstabbing from manager and people close to the manager does happen
- Has little interest in hiring NCGs (only experienced people need apply)
- Obsessed on keeping the employee count to bare minimum (70% gross margin obsession)
- Tends to dislike people who voice differing opinions
- Little interest in the skills the employees bring to the company even if Altera doesn't know about them internally

Advice to Senior Management

I think Altera will perform better if it treated the employees better, especially the ones in San Jose.

Pros

good facilities
good benefits, but getting worst

Cons

Political environment
Must self promote yourself to succeed
Decisions made behind doors
Low value of employees
Very little recognition for good work or results

Advice to Senior Management

Must increase the focus on the staff level employees and recognize the performance of the organization
Must demonstrate some leadership as to where the company is going in the future

Pros

It is a fast growing devices company so there are lots of opportunities for new growth and learning. Also, there are many number of ways to get involved in something innovative.

Cons

Their new employee orientation is horrible, they don't do a very good job of giving you the information you need to start. So, I would say HR overall is pretty bad.

Pros

Friendly co-workers, good infrastructure and facilities.

Cons

1) Noncompetitive salary for current employees compared to new hire who entered with a similar position level.
2) Over-aggressive project schedule given limited resource, resulting in heavy workload and engineers have to work over time to meet the challenging schedule.
3) Career advancement is limited. The longer one works here, the less value it gives to one's resume (the longer you work, the less you know) since the work scope is too narrow.
4) Not much R&D opportunity nowadays, more to reuse and operational works

Advice to Senior Management

Over-aggressiveness is killing the quality, please give a space for R&D culture and the engineers to breathe.

Pros

- Collaborative environment
- Opportunities to grow

Cons

Ultra conservative culture
Run very lean

Advice to Senior Management

Push the organization to be more open to risk and creativity

Pros

Attractive campus
Associated with a solid foundry
Tools are better than competitors
There are a gym and cafeteria on campus

Cons

Long hours
No recognition
Too conservative
Too political
Back stabbing by co-workers
No interdepartmental sharing of information
Management has put itself on pedestal and rewarded themselves handsomely while ignoring and demotivating the 70% of the working population that doesn't score Outstanding or Exceeds on their performance review - it's not what you know or how well you do it, it's who you know and shameless self promotion and how good you can make yourself look - even at other peoples expense.
Worst political environment I have ever been involved with.

Advice to Senior Management

Get rid of performing at Altera or subject yourselves to the same harsh standards of evaluation.
Senior management to have meaningful interactions with staff below them - not the token 10:1 or skip-level( which have recently disappeared) meetings that are a waste of everyone's time.

Pros

High-quality colleagues, in terms of intelligence & skill.
Adequate tools & facilities.
Fantastic base of experience in staff (many who've been there for 15+ years).
Always execution-focused.

Cons

Management pigeonholes employees, and rarely lets them grow their scope of responsibilities, or even demonstrate talent that may stretch beyond their nominal job descriptions.

Management actively discourages interaction between functional departments (engineering & sales, for example).

Little-to-no opportunity to try new things, unless deemed "absolutely necessary" to the deployment of the next evolutionary product.

No risk-taking.

Advice to Senior Management

Expand your perspective. Try new things. Hire people from more varied backgrounds. Recruit back alumni who've broadened their experience elsewhere.

Pros

Best technology in the world. Easily beating Xilinx at world class programmable logic technology. Wonderful world class people in the trenches that work hard and have pride in their work. Compensation packages good.

Cons

Lay off 5-10 people a month in San Jose even though they just came off a year of 62% growth. Circling the wagons around "top performers" and leaving the other 50% to "take it or leave it". WAY WAY WAY overcompensating top management. Take a look at the RSU's and options awarded to anyone on executive staff. Ridiculous. Management team is highly political because if you aren't from LSI Logic or market your "accomplishments" you're dead. Endless "task forces" that consume immense amounts of time. Never satisfied with P&L, even making 40%+ operating margin, you still fly coach and can't hire anyone unless you're in R&D.

Advice to Senior Management

Understand that a company is a "family". Don't feel as if 30% of the people are the only important ones. Have the CEO take at least ONE walk around the company every now and then encouraging people. People that work on the SAME FLOOR he does don't even know who he is.

Pros

Competitive and learning environment
great employee facilities

Cons

Huge divide between salaries of employees and interns
interns not treated well enough by higher management
less exposure to the organization to the interns

Advice to Senior Management

Hire more NCGs