Freescale Semiconductor Reviews in Austin, TX Area

Pros

If you can keep your management happy, or even just keep them baffled enough, you can do quite well here without having to work too hard. You can probably make opportunities to use some new tech, and it is pretty easy to surf through.

Cons

If you want to change the world, better to look elsewhere. The mid-level management is completely without a clue. Mid-level meetings are posturing, turf wars and acronyms. Don't expect them to know what work is actually getting done, or for that matter, to be able to understand the technical details.

Advice to Senior Management

Somebody has to know who all the empty suits are, just get rid of them. If you really don't know, just ask the top engineers, they all know. And for goodness sake, don't listen to anyone with the word "Marketing" in their title when it comes time to make technical decisions.

Pros

THe environment is more competitive and less about bureacratic processes

Cons

Revenu growth is still an issue

Advice to Senior Management

Need to incentivize employees to remain motivated. Execs seems to be paid well and it gets worse as we go down the layers.

Pros

Good place to work, people are good hard working people. Make good products. Deliver high tech products with high quality. Great resources.

Cons

Debt. This company is really burdened by huge amount of debt. As a result, they can't pay people competitively. Compensation parity is extremely bad. But one shouldn't expect any better - the company barely makes enough money to stay afloat. The debt is very hard to get rid of - tons of it. Even with potential IPO, there's no end in sight. Anyone joining should expect such uncompetitive compensation for a long period to come - until this company unloaded all of its debt or when it gets bought out.

Lack of visionary Leadership. This company is undergoing IBM & HP type of transformation which tend to focus on cost cutting & efficiency - not other key factors.

Advice to Senior Management

Unload the debt - it's choking this company

Pros

Flexibility to work is very. First level Managers are very good. Good work atmosphere.

Cons

compensation/salary has not been updated with market

Advice to Senior Management

move to Austin and prove you are really committed to the long term

Pros

Great benefits (5% 401k match, decent medical/dental/vision, life ins, blah blah blah)
Occasional Bonuses when company has a good quarter.
Workload and pressure to perform not too hard, compared with other companies.

Cons

Get the feeling company focuses a little too much on the hardware side of things, and software and support are kind of an after thought.
Doesn't seem to be any direct financial insentives for individual hard work and performance.
IMO, company does not have good growth prospects or innovation, more of a "follower" approach.

Advice to Senior Management

Reward talented people (with money mostly) who make key contributions to bringing in revenue and the like.
Reduce duplicated tasks among different teams.

Pros

1. Good Work life balance
2. Good amount of paid time off (starting at 22 days per year)
3. Lots of opportunities to use your engineering skills
4. Lots of freedom to complete tasks in your own way
5. Hard working 1 level managers
6. Engineers with lots of experience

Cons

1. Senior Management is incompetent. They don't have long term plans. They seem motivated only by self-gratification. They act like lame ducks waiting move elsewhere once the time is right
2. Business and Marketing teams are not decisive. They make decisions too soon and think too short sighted
3. Company is still under lots of debt. Which translates to eternal 'lay-offs are around the corner' feeling
4. Lots of middle managers are just middle men preparing excel sheets
5. Forced distribution in performance rating is very un-fair
6. Failed promises to the customers is hurting once a great company
7. Most of the managers are Engineers with a manager title

Advice to Senior Management

Stop promoting engineers with no management skills to be managers. Middle managers should stop acting like middle men. Start rewarding (in cash) top performing engineers before they all leave

Pros

I'd have to quote management on this one " at least you have a job"

Cons

Raises are not based on performances, metrics, results and or abilities. Perception, appearance and just finding yourself in the in crowd is all that matters.

Management is out of touch, rude, unappreciative, and they don't care about their employees.

They are glorified politicians pretending to care as they saturate their days with meetings and buzz words in an effort to avoid working on anything or helping out in anyway.

Advice to Senior Management

Change management , and I don't mean rotate them I mean get rid of them and replace them with managers who can:
1.) provide career direction for their employers
2.) provide professional feedback and assistance towards your goals.
3.) have ethics and MANAGEMENT training as a prerequisite.
4.) stop acting busy as a middle man and DO SOMETHING.

Pros

Friendly environment, work from home when needed, great heath benefits

Cons

Favoritism, political, hard work doesn't necessarily mean you you recognized, not a lot of room for promotion

Advice to Senior Management

Recognize employees for their efforts and accomplishments, less politics and favoritism

Pros

Fair hours leads to a good work/life balance. I didn't see too much micro-managing. It's a large organization, so moving into something new is feasible if you've developed another skill set.

Cons

There's a strong trend of pushing many jobs offshore. It was manufacturing first, then sustaining engineering, then new product development and design activities as well. Many layoffs in 2008-2009. Having a flat salary for many years straight doesn't inspire higher work output.

Advice to Senior Management

The review / advancement process should be more clear. The process is clear, but pushing people into a curve and crushing people who are successfully performing their jobs unless they are purposely performing above their grade is not fair.

Pros

- Freescale has typical complement of employee benefits
- Freescale has room for growth in extensive facilities in Austin, TX, and Phoenix, AZ, areas.
- Although some product lines were discontinued, freescale still has several major product lines to offer many interesting and challenging jobs.

Cons

- Limited opportunities for lateral and/or interdepartmental employee initiated transfers.
- Has an employee evaluation methodology that is sometimes brutal - rating and discharge requirements seem distant and unrelated to project needs, resulting in disruptions and slipped schedules.

Advice to Senior Management

Management needs to re-evaluate the IT support program. Windows-based system support is outsourced and seems to receive acceptable response. The Linux-based systems, where most of the ASIC and IC development engineering is done, are supported internally. Unfortunately the internal support group is severely short-handed - so responsiveness is sometimes non-existant. Management needs to properly support this most critical part of the company.