Cypress Semiconductor – “Great people, not so great upper management.”

Pros

Technical management (mostly) shields engineers from executive management.

The CEO is the founder (engineer turned businessman) - at times it does feel like Cypress is driven by engineering.

Cons

Business is changing. Lot's of restructuring on going now.

There are many corporate processes that are stuck in the past and basically set in stone despite the often heard phrase which promotes change: "follow the spec or change it".

An abundance of management layers - technical management and project management don't communicate well which has implications for project scheduling.

Unrealistic schedules dictated from the top instead of listening to the engineers that know how long the work will take.

Advice to Senior Management

When you tell us how good we are, put your $ where your mouth is.
Pay us what we are worth or we may go elsewhere.
Listen to engineers and agree to realistic schedules.