Toshiba America Electronic Components Reviews

Pros

Very good exposure to work with the latest technology in market. Good learning curve. Good Manager. Got a chance to attend many conferences.

Cons

Flexibility is a little less. No other cons. Good learning curve. Good management. Had a very nice time working for Toshiba.

Pros

Bonus pay and flexible work hours

Cons

No control, Japanese management, fragile

Pros

TAEC is a good place to work. Good salary and benefits. The people tend to be competent. They tend not to fire people unnecessarily.

Cons

They are very much a child company of Toshiba Corp (Japan), and exist politically to serve the parent's needs. Not a bad thing unless you want to change policies, affect products, or otherwise step outside of the boxlike enclosure of the child company.

Advice to Senior Management

Try to break down the walls a bit. There is a powerful sense of compartmentalization. Sharing knowledge and resources outside of the small silos would be a good move.

Pros

global relationships make for interesting work

Cons

First to be cut in pay and headcount worldwide

Advice to Senior Management

equitable pay and benefits for improving Toshiba financials is required

Pros

Its a great place to work... if one is looking to retire here. When one reaches a certain age group, lots of good retirement benefits are available. If one find the right group to hide under, even without completing any projects, it is possible to last forever here. The system is also heavily protective of poor performers.

Cons

There are no innovative products being developed here anymore. Everything comes out of Japan, and every little piece of information is treated like a secret, even to the US employees. The company is heavily age biased. The older one gets, the better one is treated and more likely to get the promotion. The only way to get a promotion is to petition (or complain and whine). The performance raise system is heavily skewed towards bad performers. The good performers are actually penalized in certain cases. The HR does not let one know the reason unless you press them. Marketing team doesn't understand the requirements and are forever pointing fingers at engineering.

Advice to Senior Management

Come up with ways to improve company moral. Promoting yourselves when everyone is getting a pay-cut is not a good way of doing it. Trim the deadwood and try to keep the good engineers instead of playing favoritism.

Pros

Interesting place to work. Excellent environment, cool and cutting edge technology. The employees are cool and love to help if you have any technical issue. Most of them are highly skilled and from Stadford Berkeley. Excellent balance of work and life. Lot of activities lunch, night outs ice rings sky trips etc. Best of a video games when you need a break.

Cons

It is a startup so you need to put long hours most of the time you need to work during the weekend. The marketing team doesn't get the reality of the market. As a reason we lost lot of valuable business deals.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop the polities focus on product development and marketing

Pros

It's good for a person in their mid fifties or anyone else looking to find a place to disappear into the woodwork and earn a steady salary. But if you're a dynamic person looking to get things done, being rewarded more for your hard work etc. you're looking at the wrong place.

Cons

Every decision is controlled by Japan. No room for career advancement from engineering to mgmt / biz dev. Turf oreintated mentality among management. Promotions given more by number of years you served than because of what value you bring to the company.

Advice to Senior Management

Have a good career plan for your US employees like you do for your Japanese ones. The Japanese guys get rotated into different roles, the promising ones get sent to do an MBA etc. There is nothing like that for promising US employees.

Pros

It is a cushy job with significant job security compared to its competitors. Employees get to see free movies every month (even in today's economy); get fed with ice cream every month; go for an annual paid picnic; and so on. Wow! what a luxury.

Cons

Incompetent people. It is hard to find yourself surrounded by smart folks. Don't get me wrong. There are smart people but with a purpose. They are waiting to get their green cards or finish their business school etc.

Advice to Senior Management

Come on wake up. You are not operating in a socialist country. This is america... you will lose your talented people if you don't provide them with TLC.