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Applied Optoelectronics

Engaged Employer

Disorganized and going nowhere - Anonymous employee Applied Optoelectronics Employee Review

1.0
Mar 3, 2022
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Some of your coworkers will be friendly. Shame they won’t stay long.

Cons

Do you want to be underpaid and overworked? If yes, this is the perfect place for you. If not, do yourself a favor and stay far, far away. One year is about as long as anyone will stay here before they run. There have been negligible or NO raises for several years, which means you are actually taking a pay cut every year. Ouch, with inflation as high as it is. There is almost no room for career growth and any promotion you may get will often be the title alone, with no added compensation all while managers brag about flashy cars and buying homes far north of half a million dollars. Turnover for engineers is so high that you will be on a team of people who have almost no idea of what they’re supposed to be doing. You will often be assigned tasks that are outside your area that you don’t know how to do. You will also find yourself being told to do the same thing over and over again, and berated when the end result expectedly does not change. You will frequently be told to work late and on weekends. Do you speak Mandarin? No? Then you can expect to attend meetings where you suddenly can no longer participate because everyone is no longer speaking English. You will be an outcast if you are not Chinese or Taiwanese, and the answer to “are they talking about me?” is yes.

Explore other reviews about Applied Optoelectronics

5.0
Dec 14, 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

A lol company that brings you nightmare?

Cons

A company that makes you pick a mental health insurance

1.0
Jul 16, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Growing industry, the Sugar Land headquarters is a nice facility.

Cons

The organization does not position itself as caring about the individual development of its individual people they need in order to stay around. The company is exclusively focused on the growth of the organization and meeting a staffing headcount, that it completely disregards the value of putting its actual people first. Then leadership has the audacity to wonder why the attrition is so high, especially from the non exempt departments. People will not stay here and deal with condescending leadership, passive aggressive or not, and inequitable pay for long hours and work task well above the titles you insist on keeping them in. Lack of a nepotism clause, lack of leadership or any real change initiatives, inequitable pay, condescending leadership, treatment of non exempt employees as a second class workforce.

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