I work for Broadcom. Have been doing so for 10+ years in a couple semiconductor divisions. You would be an id--t to leave right now, before the acquisition is finalized. Yes, BRCM is no frills: little HR, very little IT, the administrative staff is kept at a minimum. No corporate parties. No Friday donuts, unless your manager pays for it, no la-di-da inclusion events, co---e style design-by-committee retreats in the mountains or knitting clubs. No internal meme forums. Little collaboration outside your own division, with notable exceptions. Very much focused on personal responsibility; you own your work and are responsible for it. Very flat - with some exceptions. Slim project and product management. Do-it-yourself is highly encouraged. E.g. engineering development teams have taken on their test automation in some cases. Very thin sales dept. All so you can divert more of that money towards shareholder return. I don't feel like the company doesn't invest in R&D. Ask and it's usually provided : tools, servers, measurement equipment, etc. Hock doesn't lay people off; general managers do - they're entirely responsible for the performance of their own division. The dreaded line of doom - you fall below certain metrics as a division, for more than 4 consecutive times, expect layoffs. OTOH you work for one of the most prestigious semi/sw companies in the world. 99.9% of all internet packets cross some BRCM HW, we're in all major consumer electronic products.
I get several hundred RSUs a year x share price, on top of a decent salary for a Principal Engineer position. Plus a decent size bonus 50-100k at my level, if you meet certain metrics. It's not as bad as some people would have you believe it.
17 replies (most recent on top)
Totally agree with what @1zjm+1iRmThdw said.
Cultures at vmw and bcom are so different which is the sole reason of so many engineering folks leaving vmw.
OP... must be satire. Good one, or getting a BJ from HR lady..
It IS ridiculous. Thanks for at least admitting you might be biased, living 5 mins from BC headquarters. For others it means 2 hours... each way. That is not tenable and lot of people will probably quit if forced to do so.
Another thing that doesn't get mentioned but is important is the culture clash between these two companies. Might as well be oil and water, fire and ice because the cultures at VMW and BC are completely and totally diametrically opposed. Culture is often overlooked. But its a key part of a company's overall success and IMHO- the upper ups didn't think that one through. It is a key reason why the attrition rate at VMW is what it is.
OP said: "Engineering, optimizing returns, shareholder value IS front page."
So if you are in a customer-facing role, his omission regarding anything customer-related is telling.
OP here - answer to @vuh+1iRmThdw : I won't deny it, the most ridiculous aspect is the WFH inflexibility. There are others out there, QCOM, INTC, NVDA, GOOG to name a few who've survived and thrived with partial WFH programs most by doing 3 days WFH, 2 in office. The general frame of mind both in upper management and at the IC level in BRCM, is that everyone will eventually succumb to coming back to work 100%. I don't necessarily agree and this may well be enough reason for some to find opportunities in other companies. I'm 5 min from my office location, don't have to spend too much time in traffic hence a bit of a bias perhaps.
A few responses to the OP. This is so stupid. Really really stupid. Making people go to an office. Why? Like what good does that even do? Its clear to anyone with even half a functioning brain that working from home saves companies a ton of money- not having to maintain an expensive office building for example. That and you get MORE work out of people who instead of wasting hours and hours sitting in a car doing nothing will instead get up and turn on their laptops. I know that as soon as we were all sent home at the start of the pandemic that I not only started earlier but worked longer- because I wasn't spending 2-3 hours a day in a car.
And secondly? Why would anyone be an id--t for leaving? Why should anyone be surprised? BC's past history and what it seems to predictably do to the companies it acquires is well-documented. Someone else on another post here said it the best. That if you burn down a few villages then eventually the other villages upstream figure it out and prepare accordingly. I left as soon as I could. Not because I wanted to but because I did not want one god-damned thing to do with what we all know what was going to happen to us.
So again...... This is stupid. Making people come to the office... just " because" is ridiculous.
OP here - by "Hock doesn't lay people off" I mean to say, not directly. He doesn't make those decisions. GMs do, based on their revenue/cost calculation, which has to fall into a pre-agreed upon BOD range, usually at the beginning of the fiscal year. Forgot to mention: yes, you will have to work from the office, although I'm hearing in some rare circumstances, critical SW folks in CA in Symantec were allowed to WFH. The farther you are from a physical office location the shorter your lifespan maybe with some exceptions in critical support functions, where it's ok to be located near a customer. If you're very worried about "culture", "inclusion", "diversity", "[insert favorite minority] rights", Broadcom is not for you. That doesn't mean people are not common-sensical, we do organize our own beer bashes, politicize on the corridors, bi--h about our management. We're not robots
Also, not to say BRCM doesn't respect those values, they're just not on the front page of the agenda. Engineering, optimizing returns, shareholder value IS front page.
BC will downgrade everyone n there won’t be certain levels in mgmt either ICs will be focus (good!) but those will all be notched down salary probably too but too early
lol
People are id--ts that leave now ? I think you forget that not everyone will be able to work for Broadcom even if they wanted to. If you sit in a boat of 40k people with a possibility of 70% layoffs over three years, you think people are id--ts to leave rather than waiting and potentially compete against 100s for the same job ? I think I’d rather leave when I compete against 10s.
This post is a great example that makes me realize getting the he-l out of there was a wise decision.
Hi Hock 👋😂
""""""""I get several hundred RSUs a year x share price, on top of a decent salary for a Principal Engineer position. Plus a decent size bonus 50-100k at my level, if you meet certain metrics. It's not as bad as some people would have you believe it.""""""
Sold.
It is enough to have a look to web sites like glassdoor, level.yi and similar to see that salary levels between the two companies is very similar per level (P4 vs ICB4, P5 vs ICB5 ecc...). Don't expect any raise. Probably they will keep our base salary (already above the market average in almost all countries in the world), bonus may be a bit higher in Broadcom depending on the level, unvested RSU will be converted to Broadcom RSU. Maybe, but I wouldn't bet on this we will receive other RSU when we sign, but I don't expect this to be a very high amount (not so more than the usual VMware refresh policy). In exchange of this we will loose: 14 days off (EPIC + take a break), 5K for training per year, gym allowance, flexibility and likely WFH. The only difference I think is that old employee are happy because Broadcom stocks increased a lot in value in the last few years while VMware ones didn't. But we can assume that it will be the same in the next years.
Hock doesn't lay people off; general managers do -
Oh, so glad that Hock doesn’t personally lay people off, just his policies. So much better!
The pay question is a good one. VMware pays more than most in the industry. Is some how is make 230k base in North Carolina for example, going to see a 10 - 20% bump like some have said?
Most Broadcom jobs I've seen posted don't pay as well as VMware.
This is good intel. Its not what some would like to hear, but its good to know. The problem right now here, is no one knows how deep initial cuts will go, and who will be included. Yes working for Broadcom could be good for those who are kept, but we also need to know what our individual odds are of being kept. From you said, it sounds like most in sales, IT, and HR are doomed. So those folks should be looking right now, and who could blame them? And still for the rest, its a squid game. Sure if they survive, they will get a lot of money, but is playing that game worth it?
Are we sure this is going to happen? Or maybe they will just downgrade levels in order to pay as we are now? I mean... why Broadcom should increase pay or add RSU up for 15K new employee (I said 15K considering 10K will be lay off on day1?)