Cypress Semiconductor Reviews

I have been working at Cypress Semiconductor full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – Good people
Good Employee Stock Purchase Program

Cons – Too much mangement overhead
Bad weather

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

I worked at Cypress Semiconductor full-time

Pros – The company has a technical focus and engineers are well respected in the company. Easy access to information and management to get the work done.

Cons – There is a high pressure to get it 100% right the first time and this low margin for error tends to create a lot of tension for managers.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

I worked at Cypress Semiconductor full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Original Company Core Values respectable and correct--corrupted over time by self-seeking company managers

Cons – The Company does not respect the personal values of it's employees. Lying, subterfuge, and cover-up is expected from employees, so as to proliferate management " tall tales" on issues throughout the company. If one stands by thier principles and tells the truth regarding company issues, one is told what to say, such that it matches the "story" management wishes to tell. If one refuses to just "go-along" with the dictated "story", one gets the privilidge of attending countless meetings on the subject of the "story", pursued and told to "conform" to management's line, much like one would endure in a Communist re-education camp.
  I once attended no less than 10 "meetings" as described above, all with the intent of wearing me down so I would just accept management's "version" of the facts on an issue. This is much like brainwashing.
  HR simply reinforces Management's "tales" and behaviors. Cypress cannot handle the truth....worse, the Company does much psycological damage to all that must work there.
  I escaped to a better job. I hope all that hate the above behaviors can get out.

Advice to Senior Management – Examine yourselves, your behaviors, and change them into something respectable

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

I worked at Cypress Semiconductor full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – Benefits is just standard.
You can learn a lot.
Lots of talented people (but being used as a slave).
Cultural diversity.
Work location closed to Mall of America.

Cons – Compensation is terrible. Work load ratio is 5:1. Management sucks. Competition is not healthy.

I spent years in this company. In the beginning there were lots of enthusiasm and energy because I thought this is a good company to inspire one's passion. However, overtime things degraded from bad to worst when the management are scrambling on how to make TJ happy - and this became the only motto of the company. Nothing else. Very frustrating.

The organization in Bloomington is very dysfunctional, currently ran by a former navy "rescue" guy who doesnt know anything but to intimidate people and full of BS. An operation guy on "roids" who loves to pull up a lot of power trips and do lots of self promotions. This place is RUN BY POLITICIANS and kiss up people who only knows how to survive TJ's wrath. And that's all they know. Management is not the only problem, the HR is as also very dysfunctional who doesnt have any human factor in dealing with people. HR worked for the management, they dont care about the rest of the people and that's a fact. The performance review process is really terrible - It is really based on how good you kiss up with your boss. If your boss dont like you then start looking for a job because sooner or later you'll end up at the bottom. A lot of good actors/actresses in this company. Very difficult to know who is your enemy and who is your real friend. People love to gossip and start a rumour and that's very frustrating and it's a fact. 2 to 3 people leave this place every month and the HR/management dont care because the mentality is they can replace anybody anytime. People are loud - always trying to make a statement that they are better than everybody else. Really, the competition is based on how loud you are, and you'll be rewarded if you have this kind of attitude. Every meeting reviews are like courthouse, anything you say will be used against you and in contempt - It's terrible. Management ask too much things to do and they think it's easy - seriously!

Lots of good companies out there. Based from my frustrating experience, I would not want to waste my time with Cypress.

Advice to Senior Management – Start looking on how to motivate your people by looking on the human factors of management. All you care is keeping your own job and looking on numbers. Too much politics. Too much BS. Too much favoritism. Change your performance review based on accomplishments, loyalty, attitude, and quality. All you know is only looking on the quantitative side of the job. This is the reason why every day the life in Cypress is only to survive. The management in this place dont have any vision at all. Section managers dont have balls to stand up for their people. Stop compromises. Stop ruining people's lives.

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

I worked at Cypress Semiconductor part-time for less than a year

Pros – Great, down to earth people who love to have fun, but work extremely hared

Cons – As an intern, my manager was never there to help me out. She thought that I should know everything about corporate finance when it was my first job in the field.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I worked at Cypress Semiconductor full-time for more than a year

Pros – Interesting technology, interesting CEO with good core values on paper. Stock options, ESPP, RSUs were good, got worse, might get better.

Cons – Company core value claims to "deplore" politics. The reality is the opposite. TJ, surrounds himself with yes-men. The most recent VP is notorious for being obsequious in public to the CEO that it's embarrassing. It's not even yes-TJ - it's always yessir.

The most interesting product (core PSOC) doesn't really work. USB is boring and in decline. Memories are boring and in rapid decline. Anyone who points out problems in any business gets shoved to the side and out.

It doesn't matter how bad or good you are. You should be a yesman (no women appear to be allowed) and be a CY NCG hire. Outsiders get all the abuse and blame.

CEO pushes to move to being a "systems and solutions" company, but doesn't let anyone who understands systems and solutions to even speak in front of him. His obsolete ideas on SRAM are used as a model for logic design and fw/software design.

Everything is done by rote and checklist based on decades old obsolete waterfall strategies which might work if you're designing transistors (SRAM), but they don't apply to systems and solutions which are built iteratively. There are periodic fits of initiatives - the current one being Design Win Replication, which means if big customer asks for a particular solution, they try to rebuild it for that customer's competition as a generic part. Customer problems get reviewed all the time in the board room and heads roll frequently.

TJ will issue a mandate, VPs follow it blindly and 6 months later TJ will forgot he set it up a recent way and VPs will scramble to go back to the old way. Weeks are lost preparing for these meetings, with all levels of employees on call and standby to be verbally abused and questioned by the CEO himself on problems years old.

A chinese or indian engineer got fired once as he didn't understand english and annoyed TJ on the call. Oh, you better understand american foosball, as TJ is a Packers fanatic thinks that somehow that's relevant to chip design.

The VP of HR isn't an HR person - he's another old employee who's drifted from one project to another. He's cut stock grants and RSUs to the bone, complicated the hiring and firing processes to the point where it might take 6 months to hire someone in a low cost region, but only after you fire someone in a higher cost region. Salaries are by design at the average market point or a little below, but they want to hire "only the best." New college grads are reviewed by the VP staff and must be at least at the top in the grades, but have to accept average salaries.

Worst job ever.

Advice to Senior Management – Same advice you give to everyone else: "Fix it. Right now. Or your fired!"

Since this is a family channel, I've censored the language. The lingua franca of Cypress is replete with four letter words.

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

I have been working at Cypress Semiconductor full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – After nearly 30 years, CY still manages to succeed in an extremely volatile market. While many semiconductor companies come and go, CY stays the course. The technical ability of employees is well above average, which is attributed to the core values (we hire only the best) and the rigorous interview process (recently ranked as one of the 20 toughest interviews in corporate America.).

Cons – Management is stifling and has a poor track record of execution. Many product lines have gone by the wayside because of the management style, and the demeaning dictatorial style of the CEO. Further, the bloated overhead of processes makes it difficult to compete in the rapid product cycles of the tech industry. Effectively, anytime something goes wrong, a process must be added to ensure that it never goes wrong again, and everyone gets punished for one engineer's mistake. In the end, the "law code" of these so-called "quality checks" appears more like Congressional law code, and one might argue that it takes an "act of congress" to get even the simplest product out the door.

Advice to Senior Management – If you believe your core values, and you really have hired "only the best", entitle your workforce to develop and manufacture products without all of the micro-managing and unnecessary pencil pushing.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I have been working at Cypress Semiconductor full-time for more than a year

Pros – Liked my coworkers. Lots to learn. Lots of opportunities to undertake greater responsibilities if you work hard.

Cons – The unwritten culture is "keep TJ happy". Often this means follow specs or metrics blindly and not considering what the best course of action actually is.

Advice to Senior Management – Pay more attention to the employees rather than just the numbers. Even with all the metrics that Cypress has it doesn't account for everything so they shouldn't be followed blindly. Don't micro manage.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

I worked at Cypress Semiconductor full-time for more than a year

Pros – As an Executive Admin I learned a lot about how to run a flawless meetings; how to function in the background and not be seen or heard. There are some nice perks such as a nice on-site cafe, hair-stylist, masseuse, and gas station.

Cons – TJ Rodgers has a very different style of managing his company. It's widely publicized and anyone can read about it, and should before taking a job here. The culture follows right behind him. As an admin, you are the lowest of the low and are expected to get your boss his lunch, never leave your desk unless someone is covering (if his phone goes to voicemail when TJ calls, you and your boss will pay). There are not many women in leading roles are Cypress and TJ has his "reasons".

Advice to Senior Management – As far as pledging allegiance to TJ, that won't change, TJ has ruled in the same way since he started CY and he will not change for anyone. If you aren't willing to march to his drum you can't succeed at CY. However, it would be nice to see more women in more leadership roles.... Lookup TJ's response to the nun who asked why there wasn't more diversity on his BOD.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I have been working at Cypress Semiconductor full-time for more than a year

Pros – You will learn a ton in a short amount of time. You will always be expected to work at 1 - 2 grade levels above your pay grade, which means you will develop a lot of useful skills that you can take elsewhere (and use to negotiate a better title & salary at your new company).

Cons – Expect to be worked to death. I spent the last 2 years working 12 hours a day without letup. There are no ebbs and flows; rather, it's like being forced to drink from a fire hose constantly. The problem is the company's near-obsessive focus on OPEX - the number of employees kept on the payroll is the absolute bare bones required to keep this place from collapsing. You will be expected to do the work of 1.5 - 2 people, simply because the company doesn't want to pay 1.5 - 2 people.

Because of the unrelenting pace of the work, Cypress tends not to be a place where women thrive. Very little work/life balance. Take a look around - in any given Ops Review, there might be 4 women present in a room of 75+ people. There are literally 3 women in executive-level positions here.

Advice to Senior Management – Pointless. Management doesn't listen to suggestions @ Cypress.

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