Maxim Integrated Products – “Great work environment, dedicated staff engineers, management should pay closer attention to project that get started!”

Pros

You end up working on interesting projects with plenty of very good designers that would offer valuable feedback. Atmosphere is emulating and there is a clear joy shared by most of the designers in getting the job done. This is a place where any designer can fulfill his dreams of designing the chip that would end up in the next big killer application!

Cons

Some of the projects that are getting started are punishing unfairly members of technical staff that end up working on these projects. If the project gets cancelled you end up with a bad end of the year reputation/review. Luckily, there are still plenty of good people at the top of management preventing this situation happening too often.
Weekly goals, quarterly goals are more often than not putting a cap on people’s dedication and enthusiasm. I have not seen one designer at Maxim that wouldn't give it 110%, and not because of goals, but because of pure intellectual pleasure of getting things done...

Advice to Senior Management

Distribute wealth more evenly between upper management and lower level employees. Be more open listening on designers feedback when deciding which projects are worth starting. Sometime strong drive and wishful thinking can't compensate the lack of resources...