Samsung Semiconductor Reviews in Austin, TX Area

Pros

The pay and benefits are above average for the industry; however, benefits were recently reduced. Vacation time is well above standards, starting at 4 weeks per year and increasing steadily to around 6 weeks as time with the company increases. The dental plan is extremely good and the medical plan is average with only a small contribution required from the employee. Also, the company offers a compressed work week schedule in addition to the normal 1st shift, which provides a four day weekend every other week for some. The camraderie amongst coworkers is generally high, but that will depend on your department.

Cons

Unfortunately, those aforementioned benefits are shrinking: insurance copays are going up, 401k matching has dropped from the equivalent of 4% to 2%, bonuses have been suspended, shift differentials have shrunk, tuition assistance has been pulled, etc...The semiconductor market is cyclical and we are entering hard times. Samsung says they don't have layoffs, but they do... they just hide them behind a mandatory number of poor reviews and then let the "poor performers" go. The whole performance review process is a joke. In order to promote someone they have to write someone else up, to keep things balanced. This bell curve mentality may have some merit in the larger departments, but in the smaller groups it just leads to performance evaluations that are far from fair. If you hang in there, you will get promoted (when your turn comes up) based on longevity, you will also get unfairly low scores (when your turn comes up) to facilitate someone else's promotion. It is difficult to keep up morale in our environment. Advancement through the technician ladder will also eventually stall and for those wishing to transfer over to the salaried engineer workforce, you can make it happen, just expect a large pay cut to go along with this "lateral move". If you do make that move expect to leave within a couple of years, engineers have a hard life at Samsung and nearly two-thirds of new engineers leave after they get two years experience in the job title. Finally, the clean room suits, which are a mandatory part of life in any semiconductor fab are uncomfortable. More so at Samsung than elsewhere as this company runs a warmer fab than its competitors. Saves money on air-conditioning, but results in a sticky plastic suit plastered to the sweat on the back of one's neck. The sense that the company does not care about you is much greater at Samsung than anywhere else I've ever worked,except perhaps with the military. Same idea as the military actually, great coworkers and comrades, but everything in your work life is somehow not in the hands of your manager, but rather the result of decisions made by HR or senior management or whatever nameless, faceless entity can be blamed. Also, like the military, do not expect your responsibilities to fall entirely within your job scope, you may very well juggle high level responsibilities and the most menial of tasks. Finally, communication from down the chain is horrible. No one knows what is going on outside of an extremely efficient rumor mill. We recently had a major maintenance evolution, which everyone had heard talked about, but no one had been officially told to enact. It was a mess. Furthermore, you can expect your management to make promises it can't or won't keep, then blame the failure to honor those promises on others.

Advice to Senior Management

If you have to lay people off, just lay them off, don't hide them behind unfairly low performance reviews. In the same vein, get rid of mandatory low reviews. If a department gives all of its employees high marks, let it happen, just divide the performance increase budget accordingly (I should note that my last review was above average and that I am safe from a layoff (at least more secure than most); nevertheless, I am leaving voluntarily for another industry). Senior management should also improve communications down the chain. Be honest about what you are doing and why and communicate those decisions in a timely manner.

Pros

Only Place left in Austin that was making money in semiconductors until lately.

Cons

Benefits not in line with other semiconductor companies even before they were cut recently.

  Pay OK , most likely due to someone trying to make up for lack of benefits and the desire to get qualified competent managment and engineers into a workforce made up mainly of SAMSUNG Austin trained junior engineers and supervisors.

  Mostly junior engineers working here and turnover is quite high. Junior engineers keep cost low but make major mistakes and since most have not worked anywhere else there is no point of reference for them in the industry. Samsung attempts to make up for this by having Korean engineers help out in the here. Most Korean engineers are extremely competant however there is almost a dual effort on every project. The American effort, usually lagging behind on information from Korea and the Korean effort which is up to date from Korea and informs the US side whenever they get around to it. A complete waste of resources.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop dual efforts on every project , reduce reliance on "dispatchers"

Also, Instead of getting rid of the lower rated employees join the real world and call a layoff a layoff and stop saving so much face.

Pros

Good pay and benefits. Leading edge technology which exceeds competitors. Excellent long-term survival in difficult DRAM and NAND flash market

Cons

Samsung way is company first, everything else second. Usual day is at least 12-14 hours long and weekend (Saturday) is a usual 4-5 hour affair. The stress of incessant work and curtailed family life can lead to health issues and is a reason for extremely high attrition rate. It is not unusual to see people fleeing in droves as work hours increase and other opportunities arise. Not a lot of very experienced people from other companies, as they leave after 2-3 years for less strassful pastures. This leaves a lot of inexperienced personnel trying to solve complex issues with subsequent impact on all aspects of production.

Advice to Senior Management

All work and no play makes for short-term employees

Pros

Out of the semiconductor world this would probably be the most stable company. The employees are great and many people are good friends outside of work.

Cons

Too many hours, too little pay, poor communication from managerment, very little real engineering work done here

Advice to Senior Management

Promote a healthy work/life balance and create a culture of improvement versus the culture of copying direct from our Korean fabs.

Pros

Samsung has competitive salaries and excellent benefits. Working for the leading memory manufacturer has advantages like market strength and the ability to ride out market fluctuations. These frequent market fluctuation tend to hurt smaller, less powerful semiconductor companies.

Cons

Samsung does a poor job of recognizing work/life balance. As a company based on Korean ideals, family life and extracurricular activities take a distant second to being at work.

Advice to Senior Management

Imposing Korean work ethic in America makes working for Samsung difficult.

Pros

Salary, compressed work week, Employees, Promotions, Bonus cash, Company functions

Cons

not always fair, lower management is terrible, The all mighty knee jerk reaction every time something goes wrong, work load

Advice to Senior Management

Sometimes its good to think of the little people

Pros

Compensation package is competitive and the benefits are all right. Get to learn a lot about laying low and surviving. Work expectation are high.

Cons

It is a sweat shop. Long hours and no positive feedback is the norm. You receive little to no feedback unless you have screwed-up and then watch out. There is little consideration given for work/life balance. Better not ever have a serious illness or family problems because as soon as you FMLA runs out you are a gonner. The culture does not reward creativity or innovation. It rewards those that can survive by laying low and never calling attention to themselves. No opportunites to participate in outside activites or community events.

Advice to Senior Management

Provide a forum for work/life balance. Give opportunites to really hear and follow employee feedback.

Pros

The pay and benefits are comparable, if not slightly better than competitors. The amount of responsibility is dependent on your department but in general, if you apply yourself, you can succeed.

Cons

There is a lack of work/life balance as well as a discouraging of taking PTO

Advice to Senior Management

Communicate direction better to employees

Pros

As long as you can manage to work there for several years you'll move into a leadership position because they'll be forced to promote you through the low retention rates. The benefits are great and you accrue lots of PTO, its just very hard to use it. Coworkers are amazing and there is very little backstabbing because there's no time for playing games in this workplace.

Cons

Really little to no work life balance since the company is run with an asian work ethic = no regard for employee satisfaction or well being, just get back to work now. Its amazing how much passion and dedication to a company name Koreans have towards Samsung.

Advice to Senior Management

This obviously doesn't flow with any successful business model, but more focus on employee happiness needs to be made because I'm sure that productivity and motiviation will increase if employees feel like the difference they make is appreciated.

Pros

The Samsung brand is very strong right now. The clout that comes with the name should be useful for credentials. The jobs are challenging, and those who exceed expectations are rewarded. Young people have the opportunity to take on much more responsibility than similar positions elsewhere.

Austin is a growing city. The cost of living is repeatedly mentioned various publications as being one of the best for similarly sized cities. There is lots to do in the city for young people, and the suburbs are growing quickly, so land value should appreciate rapidly as well.

Cons

Disclaimer: I can only speak for the engineers.

The number one complaint is the business culture. The number two complaint is the stress.

It should be noted that as of 2008, the company has two large divisions: the new, growing fab, and the old, mainstay fab. Those in the new fab will bemoan the competitiveness, and the restrictive and demanding management style. Those in the old fab will bemoan monotony, and the lack of "real engineering work" there is to do. Generally speaking, frustrations with either are mostly due to Korean management culture and the current state of the industry.

Advice to Senior Management

Some employees can be motivated with the "we just need to work harder for the next week" method to achieve bonuses. Others can be motivated by militaristic discipline or cut-throat competition. I think these employees are both addressed very well by senior management.

There is one other category that I do not think is well addressed, and that is the type of person who is better motivated by "this is where we are now". There are frequent manager meetings, and there is some information available to the company on the intranet, but I think there is room for a very cohesive summary page with the bonus goal progress more neatly laid out in detail, and current customer demands, large projects, and market conditions.