Advice from long timers

You should definitely look for another place to start your career. Just look at the past 5 years, we've had layoffs multiple times every year, so you will always live in fear. Plus, there are many years (including this year) where there are no base salary increases or bonuses. Very few people get stock, so your best bet is to look for a stable company in a different industry that treats their employees well. Then you can focus on learning and developing instead of looking over your shoulder waiting for the grim reaper. You deserve better!

OP @1jrq+1mO71Uwl
Perhaps this is the best advice? This is the advice that I give to younger people.

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WD reminds me of Lucent Technologies in telecom. Lots of great technology but over time the organization became bloated and political. Eventually it was split up into pieces and sold off. Some portions like Avaya went into bankruptcy after years of trying to survive. WD feels like another formerly great American company that will be gone soon.

I dont tjonk people understand: WD isnt going to be fixed by HAMR, Elliot, a merger,or a market turn around. WD will continue to die slowly as top people take as much as WD can give them. Why should they stop? They have a plan that's working great.

Leave on your own terms, with a job lined up, before your shown the door.

Well, let's clarify the HDD statement. Yes, HDD has been the majority of the companies revenue with some years beyond 60%, but they keep passing away money into a lost endeavor (SanDisk) and now SanDisk can't stand up on its own legs with current economy and all the new competition. SanDisk products also have reliability issues. The HGST division that was acquired had the majority of the enterprise market while it's sibling that fell out of a tree landing on its head (original WD Fremont site) was behind in tech. Even now they struggle to make HGST products (Previously IBM). Acquiring HGST was the best thing this company has done. It was also the last good decision. Only path forward is to cut deep into the executive and remove those nepotistic orgs circle jerking each other.

To be fair, WD is losing money on SSD, HDD is profitable. So, please do not blame on HDD on WD's bad performance.

WD is targetting older employees in RIFs. I would not plan to work at WD after age 50. WD is a safe harbor for ex-CISCO executives, few others.

HDD will not vanish but would keep declining similar to tape. So it's definitely not a good choice for NCG. On the other hand, it's probably an ideal job for those who approaching retirement age. So for NCG, in addition to the famous GAFAM companies, go try your best to AI related field; Nvidia is one I suggest.

Over 10 years ago some of the professors I know were asking whether they could in good conscience start grad students on HDD related projects. The job market is shrinking and it’s very unlikely there will be a vibrant HDD business when those student retire.

Those professors branched out into other topics. Students can still learn skills applicable to HDD but they aren’t focused specifically on HDD projects.

The HDD side is a declining market with few exceptions so this is going to be fine for a person in the back third of their career but not for a young employee unless they plan to use as a springboard.

What’s the problem of HDD side?

Flash side is cr-p too. And according to my sources, the Cisco virus stays with HDD.

From a long time legacy WD person. The HDD side is not a good path for the young. Hopefully we spin off soon and be rid of the Cisco virus. The flash side will get better and hopefully merge happens. Again DG and his cohorts must go.

Thread regarding Western Digital Corp. layoffs

Advice from long timers

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