Mindspeed Reviews

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

Pros – A group of talented engineers who can work on product execution and issue resolution

Cons – strategy not proper and limited resource

Advice to Senior Management – Invest properly on right markets per its limited resource

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

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

Pros – Great technology
The people "in the trenches" are very friendly & smart
The weather in NPB is lovely
Relatively little politiucs amongst peers

Cons – Absolutely appalling management, among the worst I have ever encountered.
Complete absence of strategy and minimal plans. As a result a lot of confusion, random changes of direction and very stressful sudden urgent deadlines.
A strong culture of blame, shouting and bullying from the top down.
Very poor communication.
Shareprice, revenue & profit all declining.
No co-operation or communication between groups: they might as well be different companies. No product line synergy or coherent planning.

Advice to Senior Management – Think of the shareholders: retire & hire better replacements

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

Current Employee – been working at Mindspeed full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – you get to wear multiple hats as an engineer.

Cons – Engineers are not respected. Very polarized place. Tons of politics for a small company like Mindspeed. It has a One-Man-Show culture. The company has no vision or outlook six months ahead. Everything is ultra urgent and needed to be finished yesterday.
Support structure (tools, network, etc.), system group is very weak.

Advice to Senior Management – Get competent middle and upper management. Set realistic goals and get rid of middle and senior management which is used to saying "YES" to C-level management. Respect engineers!

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Mindspeed full-time

Pros – - Opportunity to work with the latest technology, take on many tasks, and work on interesting projects as if working for a startup.
- Very competent and friendly engineering team.

Cons – - The top management is totally incompetent and/or corrupt.
- The company has a high turnover rate. Engineers are constantly trashed and treated as second class. Managers always take the credit for accomplishments and engineers always get the blame for problems. This has driven good engineers out of the company over the years and has eroded the base of the organizational pyramid to the point where the number of people in the technical ladder is now almost equal to the number of people in the management ladder. The management culture is based on finger pointing, trashing their own employees, covering up problems, lying to customers and their own engineers, and lack of communication. This culture starts from and is supported by the CEO and trickles down all the way to the lowest management levels.

Advice to Senior Management – Recognize that the value of a technology company comes form its engineers. Be open to criticism instead of punishing and silencing those who provide feedback.

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

Former Employee – worked at Mindspeed full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Good salary and good benefits

Cons – management only cares about $$

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

Current Employee – been working at Mindspeed full-time for less than a year

Pros – Good exposure to all aspects of an area due to extremely high employee turnovers.

Cons – Need to be a self-learner. Limited to no training in any areas due to high employee turnovers. Let's go of competent employees to hire non-competent employees to reduce cost but in turn have to hire additional heads to fulfill one person's job.

Advice to Senior Management – The answer to cost cutting should not always be restructuring.

Former Employee – worked at Mindspeed full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Great opportunities for beginners to learn various jobs due to high employees turn-over
Friendly working environment and hardworking employees

Cons – Too many unplanned changes
High employees turn-over
Unnecessary overtime due to lack of communication from management

Advice to Senior Management – Sr. Mgmt need to have in-depth planning prior to making decision on acquisition

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

Current Employee – been working at Mindspeed full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – If you want a job that covers all aspects of a product, from cradle to grave, with an opportunity to make relentless process improvements, then this is the place. For PMs, if you are a self-starter that needs little to no supervision and can take the hits when things go wrong, this is the place. If you are a good negotiator, speaker, presenter, leader and have great attention to detail, this is the job for you!

Cons – Mindspeed is sometimes like an accordian ... from feast to famine. From hiring like mad, to laying off like mad. Like many telecom companies, the life swells when the market is great, and then things tend to collapse around you. A little disconcerting, but you just have to stay on top of things and stay positive!

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Mindspeed

Pros – Great competitive benefits, vacation a bit light

Cons – Small company, too many layoffs

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Mindspeed

Pros – Great location and fairly flexible hours. There is opportunity for advancement for those willing to take on extra work outside their assigned tasks.

Cons – There is a problem with understaffing that causes many people to wear down while working under these conditions for extended periods

Advice to Senior Management – Work to improve employee morale by reviewing the formulas for year-end bonuses so the amounts given to all employees are meaningful