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    Arm Reviews

    Updated September 19, 2017
    84 reviews

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    4.0
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    Arm Chief Executive Officer Simon Segars
    Simon Segars
    46 Ratings

    84 Employee Reviews

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    Pros

    • Excellent learning opportunities and work life balance (in 66 reviews)

    • Good work culture , people are friendly and helping by nature , Good place to start the career with (in 21 reviews)

    Cons

    • bad work life balance / stressful most of the time (in 17 reviews)

    • The company is growing, but still rather small (in 6 reviews)

    More Pros and Cons
    1. Featured Review

      Helpful (12)

      "13 months into an ARM leadership role"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Director of Engineering - HPC Tools in Manchester City Centre, England (UK)
      Current Employee - Director of Engineering - HPC Tools in Manchester City Centre, England (UK)
      Recommends
      Positive Outlook
      Approves of CEO

      I have been working at Arm full-time (More than a year)

      Pros

      The people are nice to work with, appreciative and bright.

      The work/life balance is respected and many people have a keen focus on diversity and inclusion.

      ARM focus on their strengths of solving tough problems and where appropriate use third parties and build success with partners. ARM don't try to do everything or win at everything. My perception is that ARM focus on an area they add value and then do a polished professional job of delivering it.

      The overall compensation is highly competitive - some of my team are starting to take their sabbatical's (4 week paid holiday every 4 years - only 3 years to go :-)

      I love the trust and autonomy. Despite ARM having over 4500 employees it does not feel like a bureaucratic machine. As a leader I can honestly say that there are few things which you must do in a particular way or slow me down. The processes are pragmatic and mostly there to be made up or tweaked to fit your purpose.

      Cons

      The nature of the work and lack of previous attention to diversity in team building has led to a narrow set of types of people you get to interact with. I appreciate ARM is taking steps to address this with a Project Everyone programme - I've got involved and hoping to see the positive impact over time.

      ARM was formed in Cambridge for designing cpu's. These are not cons, but they weigh heavily as perceptual baggage. ARM is rising up as a company in many world wide locations, who can develop world class software and become dominant in IoT. Despite this Cambridge and hardware sometimes seem to be the perceived places you must be.

      Advice to Management

      Keep focussed on the ARM values and make sure the rapid growth and shift into new markets do not demotivate and confuse people and create slow downs in some of the key foundations that the product teams rely upon e.g. hiring, legal.

      Look to learn lessons from organisations that have gone through big transformations and growth in the past e.g. IBM one of my previous employers.

    2. Helpful (1)

      "Physical Design Group is Great!"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee in Austin, TX
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee in Austin, TX
      Recommends
      Positive Outlook
      Approves of CEO

      I have been working at Arm full-time (More than 10 years)

      Pros

      - Awesome pay
      - Great benefits (5 weeks vacation, sabbatical policy)
      - A growing company with a small company feel
      - The Physical Design Group is involved in designing IP for the latest process technologies with the world's best foundries
      - Arm's culture encourages everyone to be open about their opinions
      - Arm is focused on providing a diverse and inclusive environment

      Cons

      Arm changes their core beliefs and values every few years. Usually this change happens in the middle of a review cycle. So you may be focused on improving in one particular area, then you find out that behavior is no longer important to Arm and you will be judged on a different behavior.

      Advice to Management

      Point out the benefits of the Physical Design Group. The company tends to focus on the great things that are going on in the Internet of Things and the various processor groups.

      3. Join the Arm team
      See Our Latest Jobs

    3. "So far, so good!"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Director in San Jose, CA
      Current Employee - Director in San Jose, CA
      Recommends
      Positive Outlook
      Approves of CEO

      I have been working at Arm full-time (Less than a year)

      Pros

      Only 3 months in, but I am finding people are friendly and willing to help you ramp. Benefits are great. Very focused on culture, giving back, development and diversity. Very smart folks. Global in nature. Collaborative.

      Cons

      Nothing major that I have come across, so far.

      Arm Response

      Sep 18, 2017 – Employer Brand and Social Media Specialist

      Thanks for leaving a review!

      -Rick C.
      Employer Branding & Social Media Specialist

    4. "Director of Marketing"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Director in San Jose, CA
      Current Employee - Director in San Jose, CA
      Recommends
      Positive Outlook
      Approves of CEO

      I have been working at Arm full-time (More than 5 years)

      Pros

      Great CEO; good culture; access to the industry.

      Cons

      Can be chaotic at times.

      Arm Response

      Sep 18, 2017 – Employer Brand and Social Media Specialist

      Thanks for leaving a review!

      -Rick C.
      Employer Branding & Social Media Specialist

    5. Helpful (1)

      "Incredible Place to Work"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee in San Jose, CA
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee in San Jose, CA
      Recommends
      Positive Outlook
      Approves of CEO

      I have been working at Arm full-time (More than 5 years)

      Pros

      - Conservatively managed
      - A Growing business translates to a lot of opportunities
      - Extraordinary ecosystem of partners helps expand personal connections

      Cons

      - Some growth pains with the ramp-up of new employees

      Advice to Management

      Keep us pointed in the right direction and be willing to experiment

      Arm Response

      Sep 18, 2017 – Employer Brand and Social Media Specialist

      Thanks for leaving a response!

      As we have grown incredibly fast this last year, we do feel some of the growing pains you mentioned. Our People team are working on implementing new procedures to... More

    6. "ARM is still a growing company."

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Engineer in Portland, OR
      Current Employee - Engineer in Portland, OR
      Recommends
      Positive Outlook
      Approves of CEO

      I have been working at Arm full-time (More than 10 years)

      Pros

      good work-life balance, potential opportunities to learn, transparent communication, etc.

      Cons

      too conservative an organization to move fast, no innovation, etc.

      Arm Response

      Sep 18, 2017 – Employer Brand and Social Media Specialist

      Thanks for leaving a review, and your over 10 years of service to Arm. The efforts of the earliest Arm employees paved the way to where we are today!

      Our acquisition by Softbank is giving us the... More

    7. "Senior Product Marketing Manager"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Senior Product Marketing Manager in San Jose, CA
      Current Employee - Senior Product Marketing Manager in San Jose, CA
      Recommends
      Neutral Outlook
      Approves of CEO

      I have been working at Arm full-time (More than 8 years)

      Pros

      ARM has an open and transparent culture from the top at the management level and down to employees. Good communication within the company. It is a global company with presence in many placed in the world. The company is still growing. It provides good employee benefit in vacation and 401K matching.

      Cons

      The company culture is conservative so making changes can be very slow and frustrating. It is unwilling to take some risk. The internal career movement can be difficult due to limited internal career support. It does not have a good education support program for the employees. The internal organization changes very frequently in the last 2 years.

      Advice to Management

      Take more risk

    8. "Great environment and lots of opportunities"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Staff Design Engineer in Austin, TX
      Current Employee - Staff Design Engineer in Austin, TX
      Recommends
      Positive Outlook
      Approves of CEO

      I have been working at Arm full-time (More than a year)

      Pros

      ARM is a great company. Small groups and focused targets without management bloating. The environment is very constructive and laid back, while the projects and the day to day work is challanging and engaging. From what I can tell there are plenty of growth opportunities and the benefits are much better than any other company I worked for.

      Cons

      Depending on your role, you might need to travel internationally quite a bit.

      Arm Response

      May 9, 2017 – Social Media and Employer Brand Specialist

      Thanks for leaving a review!

      -Rick C.
      Employer Branding and Social Media Specialist

    9. Helpful (1)

      "Incredible Company Investing in Employees"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Engineer in Austin, TX
      Current Employee - Engineer in Austin, TX
      Recommends
      Positive Outlook
      Approves of CEO

      I have been working at Arm full-time (Less than a year)

      Pros

      Culture, benefits, and the proven investment in people. This company is small and agile. If you are lucky enough to work for ARM you'll really see what it's like to be part of a healthy company. Incredibly smart people working here that really know the value of teamwork.

      Cons

      The recruiting and offer process is a little strange and drawn out, but that may just be the way they filter out the best employees to find a good match.

      Advice to Management

      Keep the same behavior and beliefs that made this company great. Out of the box thinkers who did what nobody else through to do. Continue to keep those key contributors around who started the company. Use them to encourage the next group carrying the company through the next 20 years.

      Arm Response

      Apr 12, 2017 – Social Media and Employer Brand Specialist

      Thanks for leaving a review and the feedback!

      We're no longer at the "small" company size, though each of our offices has their own unique culture so it sometimes feels like we're still a scrappy... More

    10. Helpful (14)

      "It needs to improve or people will start leaving"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Senior Design Engineer in Austin, TX
      Current Employee - Senior Design Engineer in Austin, TX
      Recommends
      Positive Outlook
      Approves of CEO

      I have been working at Arm full-time (More than 3 years)

      Pros

      - I really enjoy all my coworkers. Generally speaking, everyone is nice and open to talk to you.
      - Health insurance and facilities are nice
      - I think company has a bright future, technology-wise. Intel should be concerned about ARM.
      - Growing company. Softbank acquisition hasnt affected day to day work.

      Cons

      My following comments come from the vast majority of my collegues, its not just my opinion.

      - No lateral movement within the company. Near impossible. Managers and HR will say the right things but its just not true (dont believe them). Only a single colleague I know of was approved to move to another team. The funny thing is that he actually had to wait two plus years after the approval to be able to move and that only happened because he threaten to quit ARM. Even within a single team, this happens. Eg. the "fetch guy" will keep working on fetch unit, he'll rarely get to do anything else (loadstore, commit, etc). Why does this happen? Cause management only cares about results; moving laterally is just risk for them, not growth. They acknowledged this two-three years ago (at least on a couple of teams) by asking employees what they wanted to work on but nothing happened. Colleagues are still doing the same thing.
      - Moving vertical is just as hard, if not harder. Its hard to get promoted. Even after "exceptional" reviews many ppl dont get promoted. This is because your promotion candidacy goes to a panel made up of many leads across several different teams. If they havent heard from you, you are screwed. Its just not fair and many friends complain about the process w no changes.
      - Staff/principal engineers keep doing what they do best, lots of cool stuff, and they pad themselves on their backs. Meanwhile, lower grade engineers are stucked with the 'extra' stuff even though you could argue they are just as qualified to do the more interesting work.
      - No free food, no free coke products, and a unclean-low-grade, soap-like, starbucks-wanna-be coffee (we tried to get a better local Austin coffee but request got rejected by facility manager even after presenting survey results showing everybody in the sute preferred the local one).
      - The cafeteria is "subsadicied" but its still better to just go and eat somewhere else given their prices/quality.

      Arm Response

      May 19, 2017 – Social Media and Employer Brand Specialist

      Thanks for leaving your honest review. There was a lot to cover, so please bear with me for the lengthy response.

      As you mentioned, we have a lot of great things going for us at ARM, with a... More

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