Shooting itself on the foot - SMTS Design Engineer AMD Employee Review

2.0
Mar 7, 2016
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

-Like many reviews before point out, there is a good life-work balance. Be careful though because many individuals interpreted the very same thing in a more negative way (lack of ambition, schedules are rarely observed, ...). -There is a very positive consequence of not being a successful company: people tend to be more grounded than in other tech companies. The constant chaos results in workers that understand what the important things in life really are, and understand that most of them happen outside of the workplace. -Strangely enough, you can get promoted fairly quickly (by elimination, everyone leaves but you), which may help out when you move to the next job

Cons

-The company is a mess. Upper management is there just to collect the $ and have no real intention to turn around the company (for starters, google "AMD Rasgon bonuses" and click on the Yahooo article) -Employees are treated like idiots. We are promised a never-ending list of things that are oh-just-around-the-corner and never happen: more share in emerging markets, the emergence of a semi-custom business (fancy way to describe two game console wins), gaining market share back from NVIDIA (according to Lisa Su in 2014 "there is no reason why AMD's graphics share should not be 50%", it now stands below 30%), and so on. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me (and then I leave) -Constant layoffs plus attrition = scarce engineering talent. It is very difficult for AMD to come up with good products considering the amount of good people who left, and the fact that they have been replaced by so-so engineers since top talent will land elsewhere -Morale is low. The parking lot is almost empty by 6.30pm. You meet strangers and five minutes they are openly making fun of the company. The ex-CEO is laid off and given $5M in cash but people do not see any salary raise when they are promoted. -As the result of all of the above, AMD's technology understandably is way behind, which results on a death spiral: less revenues -> more losses -> more layoffs -> products are delayed -> products are no attractive by the time they hit the market -> less revenues

Explore other reviews about AMD

4.0
Apr 13, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

It's a big company. So, a lot of great benefits and high pay. Also, a lot of opportunity for career advancement and internal transfers if a particular job/team doesn't fit (to avoid losing RSUs). Plus, they're not too hard on you regarding performance since all the performance reviews are qualitative rather than quantitative (that could be both a pro and a con, honestly).

Cons

It's a big company. So, a lot of bureaucracy. They get in the way of themselves requiring endless approvals for spending. Also small organizations within AMD being territorial about their particular domain rather than being as open as possible inhibits rapid progress. Also, pushing for "diversity and inclusion" is racist. They should ignore race, not try to have a representative sampling of the population. I give them a low score there because DEI is racist. But not minimal because it's only something the HR dept cares about, normal employees effectively ignore race from what I can tell. So even if management is woke, the company (the individuals) are not.

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