Merciless workload, which is not a problem by itself, but in many roles, that hard work resulted in limited intellectual pay-off and recognition. In the 1-2 years leading up to when I left, the company was in a constant state of cost-cutting which meant a lack of people for the work to be done. This of course led to constant stress and long hours in an endless cycle of tape-outs, sampling dates, and process changes. In more than a few former colleagues, all this stress directly impacted health.
For most roles, the overall company culture values quantity of work and expertise in a narrow set of skills vs. a diversity of experience and employee development, which makes it extremely difficult to move within the company. Applied to dozens of internal opportunities during my last 6 months when I wanted to try something new, but got only one interview. I consequently started to doubt my own abilities as an engineer until I was hired by an arguably more-prestigious employer, which made me realize maybe it was the Qualcomm (especially QCT/QTI) culture and not me.
