I had a long and mostly good career at Intel. I remember the early days, when it was demanding, but in exchange, there was a meaningful employer/employee relationship. Towards the end, and sadly like so much of tech, it is now just transactional, you are here for the moment, then not. In the last chapter of my career at Intel products side (DCG), I felt our mission and goals were always shifting with the rotation of VPs, job clarity and purpose were low, and you spent as much time navigating politics, turf and survival as you did actually focused on delivering anything to our customers. Still, I always saved, maxed out 401k, additional savings along the way.
When our team was hit a year ago, I took the money and ran. We only have one shot at our lives, so for the next chapter, I focused on finding a job and organization that had more meaning to me, and not about the pay or title. I landed a role that pays about 1/3 of what I made at Intel (was double digit grade level), but I have very clear job clarity, ownership, accountability, I have direct line of site where my contributions add value, there isn't a re-org every quarter, the management is stable. This is a much better space than the nonsense of working on ever shifting goals, and one day you are told what you do matters, and the next day the team is CPM'd.
The key, if you are there navigating Lip-Bu's 'you are born to suffer and work hard' mindset, is save, save, save, and as you have more and more socked away, your options beyond Intel, and beyond tech, grow, grow and grow.
I am grateful for the wealth accumulation Intel provided my family and I over the years, and I do wish the remaining Intel colleagues the best of luck, I hope Intel and those that are there succeed (still have stock), but have to say the employment experience - from the perspective of meaning and purpose - decreased significantly from the Intel I joined in times past.