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    Samsung Research America Reviews

    Updated June 19, 2017
    165 reviews

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    Full-time Part-time
    3.0
    Star Star Star Star Star
    Rating Trends Rating Trends
    Recommend to a friend
    Approve of CEO
    Samsung Research America President Yongje (YJ) Kim
    Yongje (YJ) Kim
    25 Ratings

    165 Employee Reviews

    Sort: Popular Rating Date
    Pros

    • Good benefits, smart colleagues, Silicon Valley management is good (in 18 reviews)

    • At the time I was there they were loyal, reasonable about work/life balance and the benefits were Best in Class (in 9 reviews)

    Cons

    • work life balance and hq management (in 10 reviews)

    • Too much interference from HQ in Korea (in 10 reviews)

    More Pros and Cons
    1. Featured Review

      Helpful (1)

      "IP Manager"

      Star Star Star Star Star
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - IP Manager in Mountain View, CA
      Current Employee - IP Manager in Mountain View, CA
      Recommends
      Positive Outlook
      Approves of CEO

      I have been working at Samsung Research America full-time (More than 10 years)

      Pros

      As a person who is involving the IP matters, anybody could get the best opportunity to learn all about the IP matters because SRA has been developing the cutting-edge technologies like VR, AR or AI so that it definitely could provide the environments to experience all IP matters from prosecution to legal claim or litigation incurred in U.S. I really have been satisfying with my carriers in SRA.

      Cons

      There is no Cons at this time.

      Advice to Management

      None

    2. "Analyst - Finance Operations"

      Star Star Star Star Star
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Former Employee - Analyst in Mountain View, CA
      Former Employee - Analyst in Mountain View, CA
      Recommends
      Neutral Outlook
      No opinion of CEO

      I worked at Samsung Research America full-time (More than 3 years)

      Pros

      You do get exposed to wear different hats. You will interact with many different teams and departments for collaboration. Many employees are extremely smart and hardworking.

      Cons

      In-house systems are outdated and older management cannot keep up with change.

      Advice to Management

      For management, if securing headcount is too difficult, then at least use contractors to do some manual work (due to old system) and let others to improve in all areas that the whole company is aware of.

      3. Join the Samsung Research America team
      See Our Latest Jobs

    3. Helpful (1)

      "Interesting Experiences"

      Star Star Star Star Star
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Former Employee - Staff Engineer II in Mountain View, CA
      Former Employee - Staff Engineer II in Mountain View, CA
      Recommends
      Positive Outlook
      Approves of CEO

      I worked at Samsung Research America full-time (More than 3 years)

      Pros

      Great people, some very interesting work. Last manager really new how to be a buffer between his team and upper management.

      Cons

      It's not for everyone, dealing with Samsung's unique culture can be challenging.

    4. "Diverse innovative community"

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

      I have been working at Samsung Research America full-time (More than 3 years)

      Pros

      Working with top tier professionals from diverse fields makes the daily work always challenging to learn a new thing each day

      Cons

      Its a research center relying on funding from the big Samsung. Less flexibility to do super new innovative study

      Advice to Management

      Making a distinguished culture in the valley is not easy but ought to do!

    5. Helpful (4)

      "Not the best place for a software engineer"

      Star Star Star Star Star
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Staff Engineer I in Burlington, MA
      Current Employee - Staff Engineer I in Burlington, MA
      Doesn't Recommend
      Positive Outlook

      I have been working at Samsung Research America full-time (More than 3 years)

      Pros

      Salary and benefits. Work-life balance. Not too stressful. Reasonable expectations. Job security. Opportunity to work on projects that reach millions of users.

      Cons

      Lack of vision. Working with HQ (in Korea) is more than challenging. HQ reshapes all planning yearly. Most software products only competitive because they are bundled with hardware.

      Advice to Management

      Have a vision and don't let HQ hijack it.

    6. Helpful (1)

      "Principal Professional, Business Development"

      Star Star Star Star Star
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Principla Professional in Mountain View, CA
      Current Employee - Principla Professional in Mountain View, CA
      Recommends
      Positive Outlook
      Approves of CEO

      I have been working at Samsung Research America full-time (Less than a year)

      Pros

      Great work place environment. Illustrious coworkers. Competitive salaries and benefits. Get to know broad scope of technologies from systems, devices down to materials. Learn how to get things done, a strong point for Samsung.

      Cons

      Stock options are not available.

    7. Helpful (1)

      "Nightmare"

      Star Star Star Star Star
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Former Employee - Anonymous Employee in Mountain View, CA
      Former Employee - Anonymous Employee in Mountain View, CA
      Doesn't Recommend
      Negative Outlook

      I worked at Samsung Research America full-time (More than a year)

      Pros

      Food, location, that is really

      Cons

      I disagree with some of reviews that mentioned this is a good place only for new grads. If you are on OPT/H1 visa and have other offers avoid this place, their constant sudden lay-offs will danger your immigration status. If you are hired to work on a research team the chance is even higher that you get laid-off in less than a year simply because HQ do not like your manager or they want to steal the project.
      This is not a merit based company, your promotion and staying power depends on how much you pleased your Korean counterpart in the Asian way.

    8. Helpful (2)

      "Locally fine"

      Star Star Star Star Star
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Former Employee - Senior Software Engineer in San Jose, CA
      Former Employee - Senior Software Engineer in San Jose, CA
      Doesn't Recommend
      Positive Outlook
      Disapproves of CEO

      I worked at Samsung Research America full-time (More than a year)

      Pros

      Good benefits, smart colleagues, Silicon Valley management is good.

      Cons

      Deadling with HQ in South Korea is trying and difficult. Way too much time spend on internal politics. Poor understanding of US work culture. Utterly useless evaluations.

      Advice to Management

      Figure out if you wanna be korean company or not and communicate that to employees.

    9. Helpful (3)

      "Frustrated!"

      Star Star Star Star Star
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee in Mountain View, CA
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee in Mountain View, CA
      Doesn't Recommend
      No opinion of CEO

      I have been working at Samsung Research America full-time (More than 3 years)

      Pros

      Smart people
      Decent cafeteria
      Has potential

      Cons

      Teams like TTT are amazing with great vision and leadership. Besides that, leaders as well as team members struggle to get approvals on the smallest things from HQ.
      Its a very frustrating environment for engineers, designers and researchers. Huge turnover of leaders brings instability in the teams. HR doesnt help much.

      Advice to Management

      Bring in better leaders across various disciplines (tech as well as non-tech)

    10. Helpful (5)

      "staff engineer"

      Star Star Star Star Star
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Former Employee - Staff Engineer in Mountain View, CA
      Former Employee - Staff Engineer in Mountain View, CA
      Doesn't Recommend
      No opinion of CEO

      I worked at Samsung Research America full-time (More than a year)

      Pros

      You can always cheat your manager since he/she may not know projects/code/research.

      Cons

      --All of politics, like "politics in south korean"
      --Very bad culture
      --Very close
      -- No real-world product, just for "demonstration purpose"
      -- Research also very bad
      --- All big name people left, such as ACM fellow, IEEE fellow, etc.
      ---Many managers do not help employees to grow up, instead only squeeze the surplus value from employees

      Advice to Management

      If you have any other choices, do not work there.

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