Applied Materials FAQ

Pros

Many learning opportunities Established processes in place

Cons

High work load at times No night shift support

Advice to Management

Nil

Pros

AMAT does hire PhDs. It's a pleasure to work with them.

Cons

If your future boss in AMAT is an Indian while you are of another race, most likely your Indian bosses will only take care of and only be reasonable to their countrymen while giving the most amount of dirty and exhausting work to you. AMAT is an Indian-dominant company. In the Q&R org, most of the management levels are taken by Indians. AMAT's Q&R org in Santa Clara is only a shell (no proper equipment, no testing capability, no support, no proper resources) while the real headquarter of AMAT's Q&R org is located in India (all reliability tests are assigned to AMAT India ). Every year, Q&R engineers in India are directly given H1B visas and allocated to the US. Indian management does not give other races opportunities to grow and develop careers. They just don't know how to treat subordinates with respect, not alone what leadership means. Each meeting becomes their showtime and the moment to play politics. In the AMAT's Q&R organization, non-Indian engineers quit their jobs in 1 month, 3 months, 8 months, 10 months, and 1.5 years. I haven't seen any non-Indian Q&R engineer survive more than 2 yrs. Each non-Indian Q&R engineer works 12~14 hrs everyday without effective support and guidance from their Mgrs. When you ask for resources and support from your Indian Mgrs/ Dirs, most likely they just pretend not to see or hear. They talk the talk but do not walk the walk. As a result, other races in Q&R org are "rare species", and this Q&R position has a very very low retention rate. Moreover, the working culture in some BUs is often described as toxic. When you have an interview, if you are not arranged to interview with the team members, that will be a red flag. Most Indian hiring managers are dictatorial and afraid of letting you know the real group culture. In Lam, ASML, and KLA, there are product engineer position, quality engineer position, and reliability enginer position. In AMAT, in order to save money, these three positions are combined into one, the product quality and reliability engineer. 1 engineer in AMAT actually works on 3 people's tasks in the other semiconductor equipment companies but with a meager salary.

Pros

No 1 in Semiconductor Fab Equipment supplier, Excellent work culture, Competitive salary, Good Work life balance, Care for employee, Transparent policies for WFH, Job security, RSUs and ESPP

Cons

No Car lease policy, Other than excellent

Pros

Market leader good working environment

Cons

Travel is too much in application engineer role

Pros

Great pay Flexible time off Work from home Great opportunities to learn and grow

Cons

Can be challenging and fast paced with unreasonable expectations Flexible time off comes with the caveat that you need to be on top of your work, but you’ll always have lots to do Work can blend into your life due to the difficulty and volume of work