Pros
* Estimates are respected. Good work life balance (at least as of 2010 it existed) * Work From Home facility and flexible working hours * Opportunities to interact with colleagues/customers from multiple geographical locations
Cons
* 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.