Smart People, Poor Leadership – A Frustrating Experience - Engineering Manager AMD Employee Review

3.0
Jul 31, 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- Good pay, benefits and bonuses - Great company direction - Great core innovation - Top leadership has vision

Cons

- Mid-level leadership often lack effective management skills, defaulting to excessive micromanagement rather than trust and delegation. - Senior individual contributors and even some managers are frequently treated with condescension, undermining their experience and autonomy. - Strategic direction is inconsistent or absent; priorities shift frequently based on ad hoc questions or whims from upper leadership. - There is a notable resistance to process — initiatives often feel reactive and chaotic rather than planned or structured. - Performance expectations are uneven: a small number of high performers are overloaded and held to extremely high standards, while low performers face little accountability. - Long workdays (12–16 hours) are common for the top performers, often spent chasing poorly defined or shifting objectives with little long-term value.

Explore other reviews about AMD

5.0
Jun 9, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Very exciting work, so much so I work 20hours a day. No distractions from silly/fun events. Food is meh so I can focus on work. Coffee is also very mid, not good, not bad but mid.

Cons

Not enough work, I only work 20 hour a day, I still have 4 hours to sleep. And on the weekends, we still have 3 hour leisure time. We still accept People who gets hired expecting to work only a measly 80 hour week.

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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