Conexant Systems Reviews

Pros

Good people to work with. Although need to work overtime to meet deadline, it is not as bad as other company.

Cons

Management has made very bad decisions for the past few years. Management has had very bad vision.

Advice to Senior Management

Get a clue. Management should have a long term vision, and not short term.

Pros

3 weeks starting point for vacation, some flex time, some people can work from home, once a month beer/wine and snacks gathering. Most managers do not micro manage - that is nice.

Cons

no raises, no promotions, mislead people as to their responsibilities, they reduced vacation -ceo didn't think it was a big deal, reduced holidays, they've had a number of layoffs but haven't bothered to readjust their schedules so they heap work on the few remaining. Management deals with issues by running away. In 2012 they had 2 weeks time of 'forced vacation'.

Advice to Senior Management

manage! Check for demand of a product, focus resources where they are needed. SHOW and express appreciation for employees. Stop the forced vacation and give back vacation days along with the holidays. Most everyone is sadly overworked. No work life balance for some.

Pros

Fun coworkers
Team environment; everyone pulling together
No "not my job" mentality; initiative is welcome
Underground parking garage in Waltham

Cons

Even though software was critical to the proper functioning of their products, any money spent on productivity-enhancing software development tools was only spurred by customer demand. Local management didn't recognize the importance of crafting maintainable software, resulting in a large body of legacy code that is more of a liability than an asset. The emphasis was on getting it working today without any time allowed to go back and fixing messes. All the extra hours necessary to tame that beast were seen as dedication and heroism instead of an unfortunate consequence that could be overcome with discipline. Management preferred to hire young inexperienced workers and make them work tons of hours over hiring seasoned software engineers who can do better work in less time. Software "quality assurance" were only co-ops who manually tested everything as a service to developers.

Advice to Senior Management

Invest in sending your employees to seminars and conferences to further their skills. When faced with new development techniques which have success in other companies, instead of saying "that can't work here because..." ask "how can we make that work here?" Welcome the perspectives of new employees.

Pros

Coworkers and Engineering Management are very good to work with. Engineering work is good. The engineering team is able to bring a lot of products to market.

Cons

The companies had some of the worst CEO's who were/are neither good marketing executives or have the engineering grasp or salesmanship. The current CEO is an operations person, who does not have a marketing, engineering or sales background. Company revenues are in a free fall due to weak marketing and sales leadership. Golden Gate capital made a mistake in buying the company and now are chopping engineering to the bone and beyond to be able to show the company is breaking even (after a huge debt interest payment) as revenues have tanked. The buyout by Golden Gate has hurt the company more than it has helped. Expect a lot of good people to jump ship. Lack of coherent strategy/ vision is hurting.

Company is selling chips that have very low ASP and competing with Asian companies in audio/video space. That's a very tough market.

Dont see good growth prospects. This company will continue to muddle along and will eventually be sold in pieces. Golden Gate will never recover their investment. Employees will be financially better of at other companies. No stock (exept for top executives) or bonues here to make the stay worthwhile.

Pros

One good reason was that it had a lot of opportunities in India for a person to grow and achieve success.

Cons

Too much of politics, too fast hiring. Did not hire good managers and no motivation for the juniors to do good work.

Advice to Senior Management

Please leave politics aside and make things that people really need. Please focus more on execution than on planning. Also .

Pros

work time flexible. Good relationship between team and collages. Good engineer team. Good operation support team. Company is at good location

Cons

very bad executive decision of previous CEO Mr. Decker. Drove down the company from a S&P 500 member to nothing.

Advice to Senior Management

Conexant has good engineer team. Marketing team needs to come up with new idea and product line to grow the revenue

Pros

Work with smart people, many of whom pioneered relevant technology
Great compensation/benefits (unsure if this will still be the case)
Excellent environment

Cons

Uncertain future
Lots of seemingly random downsizing
Uncertain policies of new management

Advice to Senior Management

Coherently communicate management plans in terms of individual future expectations

Pros

There are many good, talented people around. Engineers are the best I have ever worked with and you can learn a lot from them.

Cons

Management, management, management. Too many VPs, not enough employees. Engineers work too many hours and are given ridiculous schedules to meet. Management treats engineers like a number.

Advice to Senior Management

Respect your talent. Fire half of the 20+ VPs and hire some good engineers. Figure out a vision and go for it. Saying "This company doesn't have a vision" in an all-hands will not cut it.

Pros

Some of the manages were great to work with.

Cons

Some of the managers didn't care about company policy and looked the other way.

Advice to Senior Management

Make sure you have competent people working for the company.

Pros

The job was flexible so that you can get good work vs life balance. With dynamic and choatic inside the company, smart people got chance to learn.

Cons

There is no good project around for a long time. The company moral was down and depressed. There is no confidence in any working in progress.

Advice to Senior Management

Identify and encourage talent and hard working people. Make feasible schedule rather than unrealistically good looking schedule but never possibly meet.