Pros
Before, the culture was great (work/life balance and team bonding opportunities) with so many manufacturing processes to learn about. This is no longer the case. Only pros left are to not be laid off and be only lightly exposed to different manufacturing processes. This is not like before because now, with so many engineers having left, you are expected to complete more deliverables, leaving you with little to no time to take the opportunity to learn about the various processes unless it directly relates to your current task.
Cons
The company is not the same place it used to be. There has been a mass exodus of engineers. Engineering teams are half the size they used to be only a couple years back. The company has been expanding its real estate footprint but not investing in having enough engineers to sustainably maintain the expansion. There’s almost no hiring and when an occasional person is hired, you can tell they were fished out from the bottom of the barrel. With CEO approaching retirement age, there are rumors that the company will be sold, which might explain why Applied is not investing in the workers. The company is saving millions by not hiring to replace all the engineers who have left the past 2years! Latest company update is that we’ve been selling record number of devices and we’ve got tail winds blowing in our favor and yet, we still don’t get bonuses. Raises have been capped at 6% (they try to not give you the full 6%). CEO said they did a lot to help workers through inflation but the only thing they did was not lay people off despite the company currently going through a good period. Morale is low amongst engineers. It used to be that despite low pay, the work environment was great. This is no longer true. Come work at Applied as an engineer only if you have no other options.
