Note just a handful of the interesting reviews that talk about the good and the bad at AMD that have been posted over the past few months: 

In a review just published yesterday from a MTS Systems Design Engineer at AMD it makes you wonder if the writing was on the wall: 

Pros: Interesting technologies, decent company, flexible time off, fairly engineering focused. lone competitor to intel on the cpu front and the lone competitor to intel and nvidia on the graphics front does mean that it is still doing compelling cutting edge research and development. 

Cons: poor bonus and stock compensation, too spread out in terms of location. no espp, 401k match is now gone. apparently salary cuts. questionable merger in terms of payouts to on boarding ATI menbers. hiring freezes make it difficult to know whether an approved rec will actually go through, which makes planning difficult. too many contractors in critical software areas does not bode well. 

Advice to Senior Management: focus on core businesses, clean out the dead wood senior management “focus on core businesses, clean out the dead wood.”

A Senior Software Engineer in Marlborough, Mass. provides some interesting insight that perhaps the top executives at AMD can learn from as they hope to improve their balance sheet:

Pros: Flexible work hours. Managers don’t normally keep track of work hours or ask you to be physically in the office all the time. Good work-life balance. Work days and work hours are flexible as long as the hours are about right. I have never been rejected on my vacation requests either. (Of course I don’t purposely take days off during the busy time)

Cons: AMD is burning cash and not making enough revenue to cover the costs. Lay offs are depressing. Stock going down is depressing. I came from ATI. One of the first thing AMD senior managements promised in 2006 when they aquired ATI was to continue the quarterly all-hand meetings. They failed on the very first quarter after the merger. There hasn’t been enough visibility of what’s going on besides your own team. 

Advice to Senior Management: Need to come up with something exciting that energizes the company up when economy is bad and there is no quick solution to turning into profitability. Taking away benefits like movie passes and monthly donut day is not the best way to turn into profitability anyways.

 Lastly, a Senior Member of the Technical Staff in Austin, Tex. works to write the good and the bad about AMD, but is challenged by a sense of low morale:

Pros: Opportunity to wear many hats and learn in the process; There is a lot of chaos all around so good, disciplined work gets noticed; New campus in Austin with great views; and,  Less formal processes allow more creativity (but this could have downside as well)

Cons: You never know when your “very important” project gets canceled; Many managers are not skilled at effective management; Very low employee morale. Majority would jump ship if offered equivalent compensation (which in itself is poor compared to industry); No stock or bonus or raises worth writing home about; A very perceptible feeling of doom and gloom all around; Many Senior technical leaders (Fellow, Sr. Fellows) are below par in their performance and accomplishments creating a feeling that promotion/selection was not based on merit. 

Advice to Senior Management: Based on the dismal performance of AMD, most senior managers should be let go.

AMD Cuts 1100: Did employees see it coming? is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

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