Applied Materials reviews

* Frankly not a company for Software Engineers. Software divisions are very neglected in the company. From pay, bonuses to team outings, Software Engineers (and also Software Engineering managers) are treated like 2nd grade citizens. * Very poor growth: One level-up costs you many years. Change only in designation, literally no change in role. Applied Materials recruited high-calibre people (people from premier instituties like IIT, BITS, NITs etc) during 2005, 2006 and 2007 for it's Automation Products division. In a matter for few years, all (I repeat, all) of them left the company for the same reason: lack of growth. * Poor pay compared to rest of the software industry. We were always told that "Applied Materials is a very good payer, we stand at 90% percentile..." - but unfortunately that statement was made based on comparison with just a few other companies that constitute only a very small fraction of already-small semi-conductor industry.

Doesn't really matter how hard you work or what your contributions are, you're either 'One Of The Boys' or you're not. Lower level managers are TERRIBLE about taking care of their buddies while disregarding the real performers. Upper management either doesn't know about this or more likely they don't care. Very little work / life balance. They basically feel like they own you. Benefits get whittled away little by little over time.