Mixed management experience with decent benefits and growth potential - Customer Engineer II Applied Materials Employee Review

4.0
Jun 24, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Good health insurance, pay is just enough to not quit, 4% 401k contribution gives 3% match, stock purchase program is 15% discount no annually. Work is hit and miss, sometimes your left to struggle and there very little support, other times things are planned out and well executed. This company promotes from within more often than not so there is a ladder to climb. The work is 12hr shifts which is good for long weekends, but if things are busy with lots of projects you will be asked to come in for overtime. 60hr weeks 2x a month is very common. You can say no, but it’s discouraged in a few ways 😉

Cons

Management is very hit and miss, for the last decade we’ve had the avg stay of a manger <1yr. If you have a good one, they get burnt out from unreasonable expectations, and if you have a bad one they’re so disconnected you get nothing out of it. As a whole, due to leadership being promoted from within they tend to be very resistant to making any changes to their system because it worked a decade ago. This industry moves rapidly, because it was the best a decade ago does not mean it’s the best today. The raise structure is silly. Every year they’ve changed to it to have more disconnect from you and the people who approve raises. Most managers claim they’re told how much each employee is getting from someone that the employee is never met, and then have to argue over how to distribute an additional 5% over the entire team. This means if you work as hard as you can, and really stand out from your peers, you can get an additional 2% for an annual raise and your manager will claim that the best possible.

Explore other reviews about Applied Materials

5.0
Jul 15, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great people, great technology, leading edge stuff.

Cons

Upper management continues to undervalue employees and brain drain is a major issue.

2.0
Apr 8, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Salary, I was compensated very well, the I hated working there so much that I resigned without anything even lined up. It was a good move for my mental health.

Cons

The leadership in general are not very intelligent, disorganized, and uncommunicative. They were decades behind in certain areas that lead to massive inefficiencies and overwork. (Out of respect I will not be specific). I suggested an improvement that would have taken task time down from 8 hours to virtually real time, but the executive Team, in their arrogance, did not allow me to implement the system. Sometime later, the cumbersome, unreliable system was not working and a deadline approaching. I worked 20 hours per day for 7 days and built an entire real time reporting system - then resigned. No one at AMAT was ever helpful. It always seemed an inconvenience to give a colleague outside ones group the time of day. I gained absolutely ZERO new skills or professional development at AMAT all my time there. Many of the employees at the time, including senior management, felt free to publicly express invectives against the current POTUS in their suffering TDS. Another reason I could not work in the environment. Rules for thee and not for me.

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