Pros
#1 Semiconductor Equipment Company in the WORLD thanks to its EMPLOYEES. We hire the best of the best, and then TEST them to see if they're TOUGH enough to work for #1.
Cons
Working for #1 hurts more frequently than it might otherwise, if Executive Staff would realize the consequences of not being more observant and not listening to their most talented and Senior Engineers, who are not thrilled with the total compensation package when compared to Applied's competitors and adjacent industries. There isn't a "mass exodus" underway, but the core foundation of Applied Materials is aging out and retiring or getting fed up and leaving for greener pastures, leaving massive gaps that other senior staffers must stretch to fill until a suitable greenhorn can be hired and TRAINED by the same senior staffers who were already stretched to fill in the gap. So they stretch some more, tp train the newbies. Some of them get tired of being asked to do so much UNCOMPENSATED stretching, so they leave for greener pastures as well, and the downward spiral slowly gets wider and deeper. Executive Staff's aloofness is probably due to the fact that EVERY MS and PhD candidate and post-Doc wants to work at Applied Materials, so there is never a shortage of bright new talent to pick from. What Executives DON'T see yet (and BETTER see soon) is that there is a critical and worstening SHORTAGE of Senior Engineering "greybeards" to TRAIN these New College Grads (NCG's). We shake our heads in disbelief, and say what we can, but Senior Management's hands are tied because Executive Staff "doesn't want to hear it", so "quit rockin' the boat and be thankful that you have a job" and "why can't you just be a 'Team Player' and let's stay focused on the 'Long Game' ..." as if, presumably ... if we all just STOP making these frank and honest observations, that sometime in the future, the Corporate Justice Fairy will grace us with her presence, sprinkle us all with fairy dust, and all of these endemic corporate culture problems will magically disappear. Except, ... that's not how this works. That's not how ANY of this works.