There is a lot of discussion around a "shortage of labor" in the semiconductor sector, but is this actually true? The semiconductor industry keeps parroting this, but maybe there is no "lack of workers" it is just the terrible way the industry is run.
TSMC and Intel have been sponsoring training programs for fab workers, yet these companies do not actually follow through with hiring [1]. A quick search on LinkedIn for each higher-end engineering role opening in the semiconductor industry shows that, there are dozens, if not over one hundred, applicants, just from those applying through LinkedIn. This doesn't seem like much of a shortage at all, or one that will readily take place. In fact for years the US actually has a vast oversupply of STEM graduates, those who could be effectively leveraged with a bit of on-the-job training should the need arise [2].
The likely reason the industry perpetuates these notions is to push the US government to expand the H1-B visa program for semiconductor companies, allowing them to build a workforce that is more loyal and has lower salary demands. Just look at TSMC on
Glassdoor; the issue isn't a lack of workers but rather that some semiconductor companies treat their employees poorly and don't even balance it with higher pay. Working on semiconductor devices can be a demanding job for operators standing all day in the fab, to tool owners always on call, to those arguably solving the world's toughest design challenges. Though despite all of these challenges it appears the semiconductor industry is unwilling to adapt or to more competitively compensate workers which is leading to a high turn over rate.
Maybe we should instead hold these players accountable? If changes to the culture and compensation were to occur any type of issue with worker loyalty should be resolved.
[1] Business Insider:
"The chip industry's false promise."
[2] IEEE Spectrum:
"The STEM crisis is a myth."
To use Galssdoor.com employee feedbacks to measure a company's culture and management is not a reliable method. Glassdoor.com provides a very small data set with unknown quality and accuracy. Even worst is that if a single person who wants to skew a company's rating, he/she can easily achieve that by giving ratings repeatedly with different identities. I know that because I logged into Glassdoor.com three times with three different identities myself. The TSMC Phoenix Arizona site got 2.4-Star Glassdoor.com rating based on 131 current and former employee feedbacks while there were 2,200 TSMC employees on-site back in April 2024. Can we generalize those feedbacks to get some meanings from them? I doubt it.
A 50-minute driving from the TSMC Phoenix fabs, there is the Intel Chandler fab campus. Intel Chandler site got a 4-Star rating based on 1,292 current and former Intel Chandler employee feedbacks on Glassdoor.com. Is Intel a great company to work for? It's not If you read through and agree the following feedbacks on Glassdoor.com. They are the 20 most recent one-Star feedbacks spanning between 2019 and 2024. Based on those negative feedbacks, can we come to a conclusion that Intel is a horrible company to work for? I doubt it too.
One thing for sure though: working for a semiconductor fab is not an easy job.
Partial Intel employee feedbacks on Intel Chandler site on Glassdoor.com:
1. Current Employee, more than 10 years:
Pros
Good pay and home life balance good.
Cons
Nepotism in company and good old boy system.
2. Former Employee, more than 1 year:
Pros
Colleagues are friendly and smart.
Cons
Working overtime and not getting paid properly.
Managers only care about deadlines but not their employees.
No longer have free lunch.
Stock going down everyday.
3. Former Employee, less than 1 year:
Pros
I made it through all their training. Was being shown around the site. Took about a week shadowing someone.
Cons
On my second-day of non-training assignment, I texted my contact at Intel (20mins before shift). I wanted them to know I may be running late. Her response "no worries, a lot of machines are down. Don't worry about it." Within 15 minutes I get a second text from my recruiter "Intel has cancelled your contract. Do not contact anyone at Intel. Go to security and turn in your badge". My shift hadn't even started yet.
4. Former Employee:
Pros
Not much to say besides the food
Cons
Lack innovation or proper leadership that have any aspiration or interest in tech
5. Current Employee, more than 1 year:
Pros
Good WLB and good team play
Cons
Compensation is not that competitive compared to fabless companies
6. Current Employee, more than 10 years:
Pros
Incredibly passionate and talented coworkers. Technical teams try and make do despite being under-resourced.
Cons
Pay will likely be significantly lower than equivalent roles at competition, coworkers leaving due to being underpaid is widespread. Cost cutting efforts will likely impact your ability to do your job, and is widespread within manufacturing.
Advice to Management
Consistent messaging around the need for cost cutting and the need for layoffs falls flat when you can Google search and find that Sales recently got a cruise. Previously, Intel has sent its sales teams to Disneyland, so I suppose quality of life has gotten worse for them.
7. Former Employee, more than 3 years:
Pros
Send you for training, makes great promises
Cons
Breaks most promises to employees in order to achieve short term profits. The culture rewards those who deceive others to do work for them and steal credit. Highschool clicks taken to the extreme thrive here due to them cutting people every 4 years.
8. Current Employee:
Pros
The company is doing very bad
Cons
The company was a leading semiconductor once
9. Former Employee, more than 3 years:
Pros
they had good employee incentives. those are gone now.
Cons
said they would communicate and didnt. said they would train and didnt. allowed me to be harassed for months and never did anything to help. bet the policy is the same even after all the violence thats happened.
Advice to Management
promote leaders, not egotists.
10. Current Employee, more than 10 years:
Pros
Good health care and there used to be good benefits
Cons
An employee murdered another employee on campus and we didn’t shut down. We were routed around the murder scene and expected to go back to work as if nothing happened.
11. Former Employee, more than 3 years:
Pros
nothing good about this place -
Cons
everything, you get rewards for stabbing fellow employees in the back
12. Current Employee, more than 10 years:
Pros
Inclusive and challenging work culture
Cons
No downsides, great company to work for
13. Current Employee, more than 3 years
Pros
some nice people, free fruit
Cons
everything else; salary, HR greyhairs, complex processes, impossible workloads
Advice to Management
Change your culture or continue to lose people faster than you can replace them
14. Former Employee, more than 10 years
Pros
I worked at Intel for 18 years. Every organization that I worked for demonstrated a high level of ownership and accountability. I also worked with some of the most intelligent people I have ever known.
Cons
I left Intel because of their discriminatory policies with regards to raises and promotions. When I started at Intel, the culture was very much about ‘meritocracy’ meaning the rewards were based on what you accomplished and the results you achieved. Over the last several years, your contributions matter less and your race and gender matter more when it comes to advancement in the company.
15. Current Employee
Pros
They leave you alone in terms of your job, so you can work independent without too much interruption.
Cons
Too much corporate spin. Toxic environment for the past 7 years. Currently on a death spiral in terms of market share. Things are going to break up soon. Stay away.
Advice to Management
Quit telling us how to run our personal lives with your false and divisive diversity campaign. You are driving your talent elsewhere. Enough is enough.
16. Former Employee, more than 1 year:
Pros
The pay was good. Facility was cool, but no time to use it if you want to get your work done.
Cons
Work 80hr weeks to be on-call 24/7. Worst culture I have ever witnessed. 1/100 employees actually work. Hard to move to better positions. Accountable for everything under the sun, including your bosses job.
Advice to Management
Stop promoting people into management when they cannot cut the mustard in a less important position. Fire all middle management and get the hard hitters from the prod floor/eng and put them in power as they actually know what is going on.
17. Former Employee, more than 1 year:
Pros
Can learn about some pretty awesome stuff
Cons
Way too many to name
18. Current Employee, more than 8 years:
Pros
Work-Life Balance, Pay is OK, Sabbaticals, that's about it...
Cons
There's increasing feeling of unease from within the company. I've been in multiple organizations across Intel and the last few years have been filled with reorganizations and "shifts in management." It almost feels like there's no one strong at the helm that is willing to make the tough decisions to make progress. IT is in shambles so productivity has hit an all time low with outsourcing abound. We're behind in process technology after being the leader of the pack for so many years, and the gap is growing. We also can't seem to find an industry where we can land a hit on so we acquire hoping to gain market share and then when we fail we sell off at a loss. Culture health within Intel has also hit an all time low. We have many managers that are in high places within the organization that have zero understanding of how to manage, plan, provide vision and lead. They're essentially YES men/women pleasing those above them. Backstabbing is rampant in order to advance in your career or become "visible." If Intel doesn't start making some hard calls and clean the slate of leadership bad apples and fix the culture we're in for a catastrophic next few years.
Advice to Management
Focus on doing the foundational elements right, get your culture up and running in a collaborative and positive environment. Recognize folks that are excelling at delivery AND working well as a team (not just backstabbing and **** kissing to advance). Scrub leadership thoroughly and focus on those that can actually manage high performing and collaborative teams. Let managers manage and not be IC's with a sprinkle of people management. Listen to your employees and let transparency run rampant instead of striking fear at reprisals/retaliation. Without these changes Intel will fail and fail HARD.
19. Current Employee, more than 3 years
Pros
No benefits to working at this company.
Cons
Idiots in management need to be fired
Advice to Management
Fire all the managers and rehire from scratch
20. Current Employee, more than 8 years:
Pros
Good work life balance in most groups. Management is mostly sensitive to this.
Cons
Pay is way below average. There is absolutely no real "data science" going on. It's a large company largely run by finance and planning engineers who make decisions politically or by intuition.
Advice to Management
Stop underpaying your data scientists.
