WD Staff Engineer reviews

3.6

81% would recommend to a friend

(214 total reviews)
avatar

Irving Tan

100% approve of CEO

67% positive business outlook

Staff, Engineer employees have rated WD with 3.6 out of 5 stars, based on 214 company reviews on Glassdoor. This indicates that most Staff, Engineer professionals have a good working experience there. WD is rated in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) by Staff, Engineer professionals compared to other employers within the Information Technology industry (3.9 stars).

Reviews by job title

214 reviews
1.0
Jul 31, 2016

Terrible

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

There was PRO when the stock was increasing every year. ESPP is reset every 2 years instead of 6 months like most companies. There is no PRO any more.

Cons

Management is high political. Nepotism and Cryonism are favored practices. Employees are last priority for the company. Bonus is reducing every year due to the losses that company is incurring on balance sheets. There is a lot of fat in management, more managers than actual people who work. People working in the company for 15 years or more have lost basic common sense. Solving a problem is too difficult for them now. They do no understand the market is highly competitive now and we have better methods and higher demands. Some of the managers/directors can't even speak or write English properly but they continue to get promoted or hold high titles. Older workers have no motivation to perform or listen to anyone. They know that they will be given a silver (or golden) parachute when fired so they act careless and pretend to be 'worry-free'. It is pathetic. They are only thinking about themselves & never for the company. Not willing to take risks, not willing to commit scientifically challenging tasks. Going for easy paths. Company will fail to deliver on high value projects if these lousy workers continue to work here. Of course there are many workers irrespective of age who are not just not productive either due to very little they are responsible for or they are just not smart enough to deliver. The management should review each department critically and cut waste everywhere. There is no social aspect in this company, no company get together, no gifts, nothing. You have to work hard & you get no recognition in return. There are no forums or platform to reach upper management for feedback. Nobody will speak in large audience. After Sandisk merger, they have cut down titles, now moving ahead will be even more difficult. Employees investing in ESPP are getting whacked due to falling stock price. With no bonus and dying stock, it is very difficult. The health insurance plan is horrible with super high deductible, going to the doctors is like committing suicide. Employees incur huge costs every year due to health plan. Most of the employees irrespective of age are simply waiting to get a best offer from competitors or waiting for their name to be on the list for next lay-off so that they can get good severance package

2.0
Jul 13, 2016

The bottom feeder of tech

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

-Unlimited vacation/off time (no PTO counted against you or tracked in the system), if you have an accommodating manager. -flexible working hours (depending on the department) and your place in the food chain -depending on the department your coworkers MIGHT be nice, knowledgable and in some cases both

Cons

Note that I become a WD employee through its acquisition of SanDisk, I would have never accepted a job offer to work for WD if it were my choice. WD is a cheap company. Compensation at WD is 10-30% below market median for engineers in Silicon valley. This is because the company is a bottom feeder, i.e. it doesn't attract the brightest and the sharpest, and neither did it need to do so running the rusty legacy HDD business. However, Sandisk is relatively a high-tech company that was one of the targets of talent in the area before the acquisition. Post this doomed acquisition, an increasing number of talented engineers have left and are leaving the company. Some high level folks are just waiting to get their package and open those "parachutes" Company has more than $15B debt. What incentives have you given your employees to offset the risk of your gamble? Leadership at WD doesn't have the technical smarts to run a chip company that thrives on Moore's law. The CEO is an accountant(?).They cannot comprehend the heavy R&D cost required to shrink things by 1nm or a couple of atoms, all they know is adding more plates to an HDD (aka spinning rust). I don't see a bright future, especially given the strong competition now that's already ahead. Terrible benefits, the health benefits are worse than those offered to an average college student. Super high-deductible plans, high premiums, in fact WD health insurance is about the same as getting Obamacare on your own. There are no perks, well maybe the free cheap coffee WD CEO is so proud of. (yes until recently WD didn't even provide free coffee to their employees). Bonus/RSU's suck. There is no retention package post acquisition, instead they reduce the benefits. The equality prices may rise short term given the higher margins of SanDisk compared to the spinning rust business, but it will drop faster than a rock once the high winds of competition will start to shake this rotten structure. finally the name "Western Digital" just sounds dumb!!! Who wants to say they work for "Western Digital" ? If you are ambitious, young, talented (especially NCGs from top university with advanced degree) this place is not for you.

2.0
Sep 26, 2015

Staff Engineer

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Work/Life Balance, Colleagues are friendly and helpful

Cons

Poor Leadership, no vision to the future, bureaucratic

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