Pros
*company is in growth areas (mostly) which are high margin - this is good because the projects you work on (at least in my group) go into production. *fast paced *fun, but this is still work *company spends money on equipment. I have worked at companies where they were so tight fisted they never invested in purchasing new equipment. That's not the case here. *you work with intelligent people, who get stuff done *people will help out, give advice, if you ask them (and you are succinct, they're busy, too after all) I hate 'concierge help' where people won't get out of their desk to look at a problem you find in the lab. *at the engineer level, management is not psychotic, toxic, or insane. I have worked at companies where managers had some serious psychological issues, ranted about Jesus, showed up to work drunk, etc. There's only one person I tangentially work with who makes things interesting in a bad way. *The Techs are great. I have worked at companies where techs are union and give you an attitude about doing rework when you ask them to do it- I can't stand that! I don't see that here. I am so grateful for this. Seriously. *no minority diversity BS/racial attitudes. I worked at a company where we went to see 'Remember the Titans' during work hours to enhance our 'diversity'. What a waste of time! Nearly everyone you work with is good, regardless of race and no racial attitudes - refreshing. *managers are approachable. If managers are not busy, I can get 5-10 minutes of their time. I have worked at companies where 'open door policy' meant , " if the door is open, wave at me as you walk by" *no cliques. Nobody hangs out together after work but there are no clans that are very tight, hang out after work and get together and decide who is in and who is out like I've seen at another company I've worked at *managers are competent. I worked at a company where the director asked me what a 'wait state' was. He managed a memory group! At Broadcom, managers understand the technology and direction things are moving. *sr. managers are not stealing from the company. I worked at a company where the CEO stole from the company. Here, the Sr. Managers seem to be ethical.
Cons
*disagree with some of the high level direction of the company. Think some of the areas the company focuses on are too low margin *some BUs don't have project managers. This means projects are sometimes not realistic, schedules get rushed to the point where things get dropped/discovered by customers, not done, etc *Company is becoming big and centralized. The argument is that this makes things more efficient but I think it makes things slower and thus, in the market space that BRCM is in, less efficient. I think if the BU had the P/L responsibility for things like layout resources, analog designers, purchasing, they could do things faster and for less money. Overall though, I've been around the industry and I feel this is the best company that I've ever worked at. The negatives are far outweighed by the positives.