Altera Reviews

I have been working at Altera full-time

Pros – People are fun to work with and work well as teams

Cons – A bit of a learning curve

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

I worked at Altera full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – - Compensation is OK
- Work Area is very clean
- Cubicles have adequate space, desk area for most (some engineers and others with a lot of equipment may find it a bit cramped but most will be OK)
- Gym is nice
- Plenty of parking
- First job I ever had (and I had a few before) where my work area and all equipment was ready for me on my first day

Cons – - Very political organization - several times peers were moved - or promoted - into new roles which were never advertised to the staff. A few times I would have been interested in the job, but I never knew about it until it was already filled.
- Some members of management lack integrity. On a couple of occasions I was promised opportunities only to have the person who made the promise renege on it.
- Some managers are unqualified for their roles and only get their opportunities because they are "Yes Men".

Advice to Senior Management – Have more integrity. If you make promises to your staff, do your best to honor it. Don't go "I changed my mind".

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I have been working at Altera full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – good business, good colleagues, work is always challenging

Cons – not much other experience to compare with

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

I have been working at Altera as an intern for less than a year

Pros – Think forward, take calculated risks, be agents of change, adapt quickly. Challenging and there is a lot of opportunities to improve the soft skills and technical knowledge. Provided large and cosy cube for employees.

Cons – Lack of documentation and guidelines for the engineers, have to define and answer to your area of responsibility

Advice to Senior Management – Be more transparent and interactive with subordinates

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

I have been working at Altera full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Benefits and flexibility are major pros

Cons – Long hours and lots of travel

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

I have been working at Altera full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – Everything about the office is pretty good. Pretty good salary, location, work, people. Nice office too. I've really enjoyed my time here.

Cons – Every once in a while headquarters seems to do something random.

Advice to Senior Management – Fix product planning! Also, increase the travel budget a bit - we're fairly isolated in Toronto and the message here is "don't travel unless you're dying".

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

I have been working at Altera full-time for less than a year

Pros – Can learn a lot of things

Cons – Too many intel managers who bring intel culture into the company...
No people will realise you even exist!

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

I have been working at Altera full-time for more than a year

Pros – Interesting work subject, sometimes given enough time to digest. Good gym. Good HR people

Cons – Hired too many new managers (upper and mid levels). Many of them are lack of technical skills and people skills but are talking heads. Even the very higher ups are new so they don't know much about the company, industry, etc but are attracted to the talkative. HR is short of means to expose them. Endless re-orgs just consume too much resources. Heard many times lots of great people had left and understood why. Exodus won't stop when this problem is not stopped

Advice to Senior Management – Do regular manager evaluations. Make them understand why they are hired.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

I worked at Altera full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Good pay if your manager likes you
Some people are very comfortable - look to the old-timers
Access to some of the best process technology around
Gym is pretty good

Cons – Politics - too many kingdoms
Design has no idea what they are doing. HR encourages this by making people switch roles every couple of years. So no one actually knows what they're doing to a deep level.
But then, there needs only to be minor design innovations with each generation. Recurrent theme is that "if it doesn't work, it's not a problem - the software guys will program around it"
Expect to be at the office past 7pm most evenings if you have to work with Asia - no you can't take the call at home.
Expect to have 8am meetings if you work with Europe - and again, no, you can't take the call at home
Too many layers of people doing redundant stuff that nobody is paying attention to anyway.
Senior management has a pattern of just throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks. Too many re-orgs.
No idea of how things get done outside of FPGA products.

Advice to Senior Management – Don't make promises you can't keep
You'll muddle through, but you'll never be a great company if you just carry on as usual

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

I worked at Altera

Pros – Salary environment schedule benefit location

Cons – Management, vision, lack of accountability