Cree Reviews

Current Employee – been working at Cree full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – -Incredible experience in a fast pace manufacturing environment
-Plenty of great minds to mentor you in first few years out of college
-Industry changing products
-Great bonuses and stock program which can lead to big bursts of income
-Great career paths are possible but extremely competitive, however lateral movement for better career fit is frowned upon and sometimes denied.

Cons – -In my experience, management is a direct reflection of their superior, this causes narrow mindedness and rushed reactions
-Very shortsighted for immediate revenue gain and stock movement
-I always get the same answer from management, "I want you to improve the process without changing the process."
-Extremely demanding. It is difficult to have the proper work life balance. Work late nights and weekends when needed.
-As a standard the practice the management tries to get as much production and development with as few resources as possible, this includes people and equipment

Advice to Senior Management – Please, please, please stop micromanaging. There is a reason you pick the best engineers and brightest minds, USE THEM! I have heard of so many ideas get shot down without ever getting any real consideration.

This company will continue to grow despite itself. Incredible technologies in a growing field and some of the leading minds in their fields make this company something special.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Cree full-time

Pros – kinda quick in responding to stuff

Cons – Many.. the position that I was interviewed for did not have any technical specifications and I did not find it even in their interview over phone. Just general questions were asked and I have no idea why they rejected me!

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

Pros – Work attire is extremely casual- as in, jeans and tshirts
Gym and cafeteria

Cons – This place reminds me of high school- and not in a good way! Imagine all the socially awkward and nerdy kids you went to school with. This is the place for all of the nerds to gather and compare their vast knowledge of everything among each other. There are bullies and just very inappropriate people here. Very stressful environment. I actually have anxiety even thinking about this place.

Advice to Senior Management – Stop the micro management. Hire people with some personality for a change! The atmosphere is awful...company morale is very, very low.

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

Current Employee – been working at Cree full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Paycheck. Quarterly bonuses. All you can stand overtime. Benefits are ok, nothing special.

Cons – Plans change far too frequently. Insane lack of planning and forethought. Lack of processes. Lack of manpower. Lack of equipment. Frustratingly inept IT dept. Frustrating work environment.

Advice to Senior Management – Listen to your employees. Stop letting marketing dictate product development.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Cree full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Lots of hard work needed. Fast Growing place. Has potential to be an industry game changer.

Cons – Hard to get a life work balance. Lots of time and commitment needed.

Advice to Senior Management – Keep working at it.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Cree as a contractor

Pros – Co-workers are intelligent, sometimes friendly.
Good mentors, if you can find them.

Cons – This company does not respect its employees.
Company does not promote "energy efficiency" or the "green movement" internally (i.e. company does not authentically live up to the values it portrays to customers)
Management is erratic.
No self-growth.
Work environment is tense.
Long hours.
No work-life balance.

Advice to Senior Management – Respect your employees more. Authentically.

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

Current Employee – been working at Cree full-time

Pros – 1. Plenty of (mandatory) overtime
2. Decent health benefits
3. Decent starting pay
4. Diverse workforce

Cons – Most of Cree's cons are ultimately due to the fact that it is cheaper to make LEDs in China and the fact that its main manufacturing facility is really just an overgrown research lab.

1. High turnover at all levels ranging from operator to low level management--no one is happy to be working here. If they are, they are either very new or have tons of Cree stock.
2. Severely understaffed, both because of the high turnover and because of management's reluctance to hire new employees.
3. Middle managers are at best impotent and at worst active yes-men for out of touch upper management decision making. Some low level managers try their best to look out for their employees, but are usually surrounded by an aura of defeat.
4. The gym is only really usable by salaried employees working M-F 9-5. Most people are too exhausted after a 12 hour workday (or night) to gym it up and hourly employee break times are not long enough to use the gym facilities during the workday.
5. Complete lack of individualized employee development. Some classes exist, but like the gym membership they are either unusable or generic and irrelevant.
6. Rigid caste system with no promotion from within. Experienced operators interviewing for open technician positions are asked much harder and more obscure questions during their interviews than external candidates who are usually lobbed softballs. Same goes for technicians interviewed for engineering positions. Oftentimes even engineers attempting merely lateral moves are stopped by upper management.
7. Petty politics dominate the corporate landscape. Favoritism, disparate salaries for the same position, and the "divide and conquer" management style used by micro-managers with poor people skills that pits employees on the same team against each other are ubiquitous at Cree.
8. Close to zero career growth potential.
9. Live to work philosophy.
10. Profit over people. Cree is geared towards short term gain over long term investment.

Advice to those offered a position in the LED chips division here:
1. If you have an engineering degree, consider other engineering offers first. There are places out there with slightly lower starting salaries, but much more growth potential.
2. If you accept the job offer, do not stop applying to other engineering opportunities. This company will not make you more marketable, so there is no point investing time here career-wise.
3. Negotiate a high starting salary. You will not be getting promotions or raises anytime soon.

Advice to Senior Management – I have no advice for Cree's management as their goals do not remotely align with the goals of most of its employees. The CEO seems to be putting his best foot forward for the shareholders and upper management seems to be squeezing every penny out of the company for their coffers.

For a company that touts it's 21st century relevance, Cree is woefully behind the times in its corporate culture, its inability to retain new talent, and its decrepit internal infrastructure. Cree seems to be a company where the semiconductor industry's equipment and careers go to die.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Cree full-time

Pros – I do not think there are any pros to this company, they make you work long long hours, managers yell and scream at employees and make it seem like its normal (!!!????), the work you do here will not help you if you move into any other semiconductor industry

Cons – Managers are completely immature and do not know how to behave civilly, employees are not valued, their ideas are not valued, you're seen as being a "good" employee if you spend 14-15 hours working there everyday, no matter if you finish your work in 10 or 11 hours.
Their high turnover speaks for itself, this is not a place to waste your life in!!!!

Advice to Senior Management – NONE, the culture there will never change, you might fit in if you fit the mould or if you're a YES MAN.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Cree full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Benefits - The medical benefits are cheap if you don't have to pay for a family.
Exposure - You can quickly get some knowledge with semiconductor manufacturing.
Wont get fired / laid off - This company wont even fire the worst employees. You can do nothing and still get paid. This goes for engineers, techs and the operators.
Starting pay is decent for the jobs out there.

Cons – Need hip waders for the BS. There is a lot of it.
Overtime is mandatory 365 days a year. Double mandatory is very likely for 6 - 8 months a year.
Yearly raises don't even cover the year to year inflation rate.
No clear cut skill level matrix for advancement.
Movement within company is impossible. Have tried moving to a new division for the past 2 years. People I have spoken to have said it is easier to quit and then reapply later for the position you want.
Jobs are moving to China. Obama continues to give this company money but they continue to migrate overseas. I sit in meetings where people literally say "send it to china it's cheaper" when we have able american bodies and a division able to do it.

Advice to Senior Management – Management doesn't lead by example. They often are in meetings all day and makes decision based on what they feel is in the best interest. No questions or feelers are sent to those affected by their decisions. Management does not spend time within the areas they actually manage.

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

Former Employee – worked at Cree full-time for more than a year

Pros – Great benefits and ave pay. Surrounded by great people at the bottom of the ladder..

Cons – Management detached from workers and you seem to be tracked on every little thing and where you go.

Advice to Senior Management – Need to show your face more

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company