Here’s are my thoughts on the subject:
San Diego or San Jose:
First, if you’re a tech person, you’re looking at Qualcomm and deciding if you should choose them or one of the MANY tech companies in Silicon Valley. Yes, Qualcomm pays at a higher level than other San Diego companies, but not necessarily in comparison to San Jose even when you factor in the cost of living difference. Also, if you do join Qualcomm, and move your family to San Diego, you’re stuck there. There are no other companies in San Diego that compare with regard to size/pay or technology. If your manager is a jerk, guess what? You’re stuck. What are you going to do, pull your kids out of school and sell your house? No, you’ll suffer and accept the “golden handcuffs” of Qualcomm’s higher pay.
BUT… if you took one of those jobs in Silicon Valley, and your boss so even dared look at you funny, you could have a new job in the same town in very little time. So many places to choose from, all paying well, all with exciting technology. The choice is pretty simple – go where the jobs are.
Is Qualcomm a Good Place to Work? Well let’s look at the facts:
This is a company that in late 2015, suddenly woke up and realized they needed to lay off approximately 15% of their workforce (and they let the fear of being laid off cause a few more percentage of employees to flee). They suddenly and without warning realized that their numbers were going to s--- for the upcoming shareholders meeting. What should we do? Let’s cut our overhead and make the numbers look better! So they announced this plan at the shareholders meeting MONTHS BEFORE doing the layoffs. This caused mass panic in the company, because nobody knew if they were going to be part of the 15%. Clearly if this was well thought out, they would have planned better, but no – it was a spur of the moment decision. So what happened? Well, any employee who was smart started looking for a job just in case. And the ones who were talented found another job and left even before the layoffs. If you’re still at Qualcomm and reading this, you’re neither smart nor talented, sorry to break the news to you this way. You missed the boat. Also, if you're working for Qualcomm and in San Jose - ask yourself, what the hell are you waiting for?!?
Ok, so they did some layoffs. Sounds pretty normal though, right? I mean, this happens in companies all the time. But the fact that it came as a surprise means that they really S--- at predicting the future (even the near future). By comparison, love him or hate him, Steve Jobs could see straight into the next decade. These Qualcomm clowns couldn’t see ahead several months?
OK, so let’s give them the benefit of the doubt and say they COULD see this coming, but they just screwed up the timing and delivery of the message. Well, then perhaps they should be prosecuted for fraud and corruption, because their spending doesn’t reflect a company that knows they’re about to cut a sizeable chunk of their workforce:
At the end of 2014, they gave Paul and Steve $118 MILLION in bonuses (and they kept this money while all those normal workers were being laid off shortly afterwards - after all, those Ferraris aren't cheap, people):
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-01-22/qualcomm-pays-mollenkopf-jacobs-combined-118-million
Qualcomm also managed to scrape together enough money to buy another G650 Gulfstream for executives for $65 MILLION. What’s that make now, 5 private jets for the company? Glad they have their priorities in order:
http://corporatejetinvestor.com/articles/qualcomm-takes-delivery-of-second-g650-147/
And lastly, they had a little bit left over to slap their name on a Formula 1 racecar. Sweet:
http://www.poderpda.com/wireless/qualcomm-y-mercedes-se-unen-para-anadir-tecnologia-a-la-f1/
Bottom line: The management is either incredibly stupid, or terribly corrupt. Or both.
Decline in Culture:
Let’s see how they treat their employees as the years go by, shall we? For comparison, let’s just use the anniversary parties as an example, and we can see the cheapness settling in (every buck counts, let’s not spend it on a morale boosting party this year).
For their 20th anniversary, they rented out Qualcomm Stadium (which they do not own) and had massive buffets, fireworks, Bill Clinton on video giving his congratulations, and Natalie Cole singing! But that’s about the time Irwin Jacobs, Qualcomm’s founder, retired, and things started to go downhill fast:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/kevlar/sets/486178/
For the 25th they had a smaller party in the parking lot across the street (free venue) from the headquarters and booked the Dave Matthews Band:
http://www.xconomy.com/san-diego/2010/09/24/qualcomm-hosts-dave-matthews-band-for-25th-anniversary-festival/
Ok, so then the 30th anniversary rolled around in 2015, and one would expect a MASSIVE party, right? I mean, 30 is a big deal. Well no. Instead of a party for the 30th anniversary, every employee got one cupcake. A. Single. Cupcake.
https://twitter.com/lovemisscupcake/status/627134358172901376
Why? Well, it would have been distasteful to throw a party when they were laying off so many people at the same time. However, rumor has it they hired the Red Hot Chili Peppers to play for the 30th anniversary party, but instead, after the layoff announcement, canceled the party and had to let the band keep some or all of the deposit! Talk about a waste of money. Who authorized the booking of the band? Probably the same people who were planning the layoffs, don’t you think? So once again, how did they not know the layoffs were coming when they booked the band? Anyway, as you can see, the culture and “giving back” to the employees has declined over the years. But it goes deeper than these parties – you can feel it in the hallways. It used to feel like a family business, and now it feels like you’re working for Evil Corp.
Inhuman Resources:
What you may have heard about Qualcomm’s HR department is true – they are not on your side. Their only concern is to prevent a lawsuit against the company. So you can’t rely on them to solve your differences with bad coworkers. Your only choice would be to leave the company. Lastly, don’t be fooled by the fake over the top postings by HR on this site to fool you into thinking everything is wonderful at the Q. It’s not. They're just trying to convince the people doing job research that they should apply because they've seen this site start to have an effect on their ability to attract the top talent away from San Jose.
Compensation:
Back in the day, Qualcomm gave out stock options – the holy grail of compensation. Now they only give out RSU’s (except to the top executives, of course), which essentially are just a twice a year bonus, if your manager likes you. No chance of paying off your house with those, and they won’t make you rich. Nothing you do will have an effect on the value of those no matter how hard you work. Plus, bonuses have been reduced drastically. Promotions are scarce. The healthcare plan used to be incredible, but they used Obamacare as an excuse to cut the Qualcomm health plan back so deep that it is now garbage. They didn’t have to change it so drastically, don’t believe what they say, they just wanted to cut out another perk to save some extra operating expenses. When they rolled the new plan out, even the people explaining the plan didn’t believe the spin they were putting on it. This declining culture trend will continue – count on it. The new CFO only cares about maximizing profits – employee satisfaction and morale is irrelevant. And Steve is a poor leader – the physical embodiment of buzzwords stuffed into a starched shirt.
Final Thought:
Do your research before you accept an offer. Don’t take my word for it – most of this is easily found online to confirm – Google it. In my opinion, this company is circling the toilet bowl, and all it really needs is someone to jiggle the handle. But it does take a long time for it to show when the company has massive cash reserves. The things described in this article over time will cause a reduction in the quality of people Qualcomm can attract, which will result in a decline in competitiveness.