software engineer

principal software engineer

senior software engineer

engineer

r&d engineer

Broadcom

I was a technical support engineer for Symantec before it was bought out by Broadcom. I miss the Symantec days. Overall my role hasn't changed too dramatically, but the culture was much better with Symantec. One of the changes that Broadcom brought was an effort to break down product silos. I think that this is definitely a good thing, however through it's implementation, the product silos were replaced with individual silos. Broadcom tends to run in a very lean manner. Again, no fault to Broadcom for wanting this, it's important to ensure less waste. However, I feel that Broadcom runs a little too lean and as a result the burden falls on the individual employee and, in many ways, the customers. I feel like whenever I need support and collaboration everyone is too busy and help is hard to come by.

Broadcom has an unlimited vacation policy. Symantec also had an unlimited vacation policy. They feel like two different policies though. Under Symantec, I felt that it was truly an unlimited policy. Of course, we couldn't just take off "unlimited" amounts of time, but there was flexibility because we had a bigger team and better ability to support each others work when we were away. 

Under Broadcom, the teams have been reduced and as a result the stress of finding help while being away definitely creeps in. Often, I have felt stressed about work stuff even while on vacation because I know most of it is just waiting for me when I return. It's been much harder to unplug while away. This has been alleviated to a certain degree just recently as they have brought some folks back onto my product. Still pretty thin though, but not as bad as it was throughout this past year.

My co-workers are great, just really busy. My stress levels have definitely been higher under Broadcom than they were under Symantec. I feel that the training and development is much less a priority. Symantec helped to facilitate certifications and training, both internally and externally. This is no longer the case under Broadcom. I've been asked to cross-train on different products (mainly as a result of gaps that exist as a result of Broadcom cutting the workforce) but there is hardly adequate training. Mainly just a bunch of random outdated videos with no logical flow which makes retaining the information even harder. Under Symantec, there was a 6 month onboarding process which included training. And it was 6 months for a reason. Sure, I think that onboarding could've been streamlined a bit, under Broadcom the philosophy seems to be "watch a few videos, Ok now you're ready to support customers on these complex products." Again to be completely fair, that's a little extreme, but to be perfectly honest, that's how I've felt a lot of the times with the training that Broadcom provides. Of course, there is on the job training and mentorship from more advanced coworkers, assuming they have any time to provide that. But in my opinion the training and development portions of the job are definitely lacking. 

To be fair, I think a lot of this is related to the transition from Symantec to Broadcom. With this comes change, and changes isn't always fun. And COVID certainly has helped to complicate things further and may skew my opinion just a bit as well. Hard to say how things would be had we not been dealing with this through a pandemic year. Overall it's not a bad job but I feel like I've experienced the general feel of Broadcom's culture and unfortunately it doesn't hold the same excitement, comradery, and fulfillment as it did with Symantec. 

I can only speak to the operations department. The work is ok if you're drawn to semiconductor manufacturing, though information sharing is limited and can make it harder to advance. Pay and benefits are reasonable for the area. Some teams and supervisors are good, some really aren't. My experience working here has been challenging in ways that I haven't been able to resolve through conversations or HR. Broadcom has good policies on paper but getting them to hold someone accountable, especially management, is another matter. Workplace standards are applied unevenly depending on a supervisor's relationships. If you choose to work here, I'd recommend getting in the habit of documenting events.

The days are 12 hours long, the environment (in ops) is often loud, and the cleanroom suit isn't the most comfortable. The job is not very difficult, and there are many days when there is not much work. 

If you just want to hang out and collect a paycheck, it's fine. 
If you're looking for something stimulating and meaningful, it feels really empty. 
If you're looking to start here and move up - it might be worth it, but it's a bit of "good ol' boys" club, so make friends with the right people. 

They bring in people almost exclusively, at this level, through a contract company. It can be quite a while before you're hired on, so plan for that.

CA is a great place to work if you want to be on the cutting edge of IT infrastructure management.  Over the decades it has grown from a company with the fastest sort utility for IBM mainframes to the recognized leader in IT on many fronts.  For me, as an instructor, there is no typical work day.  Sometimes I'm teaching a class thousands of miles from home or I'm teaching to groups of students live over the internet and spanning multiple continents.  Other days I am writing/editing/testing new curriculum or learning to teach new products.

Over the years I have become extremely competent on a broad spectrum of IT areas including, enterprise monitoring, help desk, asset management, knowledge management, process automation, agile design, test data management, test generation, service virtualization, to name a few.

Management here is focused on allowing employees to maximize their potential and I am proof of how well that has worked.  Everything is highly dependent on a culture of collaboration and communication because so many employees work from home or a scattered over vast distances.

Perhaps the hardest part of the job are the hours travelling.  I travel between one and three times a month.  It has ranged between 12 and 24 hours per trip.  Sometimes it can turn a 40 hour week into an 80 hour week.  But then, IT people seem to put in lots of overtime industry-wide.

For me personally, the best part of the job is the relationships I've built with my co-workers and students.  These are lifetime friendships that transcend decades and are deeply cherished.

Broadcom is a very large company which is run extremely lean. New employees receive little training and there is a mindset of "just figure it out," if you have any technical support issues, etc... Employees are brought in with promises of incredible stock incentives, but often times they are laid-off due to RIF's before the stock is vested, so employees lose all of the stock. The company continues to acquire new companies, needing to cut the workforce. The decisions to cut don't always seem to be in our customers' best interests.  It leaves employees feeling as though they are completely expendable and upper management doesn't care very much about people. You may hear the CEO speak to the value of your role one week, and the following week you become part of a RIF and receive your walking papers.  More loyalty would be a plus. Also, the company can be ruthless with customer negotiations and take an extremely hard line to make customers feel as though they, too, are expendable.  Some of those viewpoints were in direct violation with my personal values. However, one plus is that because the company is so lean, there are not multiple chains of command to follow in order to communicate.  You can literally reach out directly to leadership if you have questions or ideas to share.  That was refreshing.

A typical day in current position would start with me checking my e-mails and seeing what would need to be done for the day, or if any hosts need troubleshooting in the data center. I would then make sure all the hosts are up in running and periodically check on them throughout the day. We would usually get new equipment to rack, power, and cable in the data center. We would first need to plan out where this equipment would go (ex. what rack/section/location) figure out what cable it would need, and find out what circuits we would hook them up to. Once we find that out and get it done, we follow with the engineer to which the host belongs to. We would make sure everything is good on their end and make sure it's up and running. I've learned a lot since working as a data center technician for Broadcom. I have learned how to installed servers, all different sizes and brands ranging from Dell to HP to Isilon and learned how to cable them as well. Also learned how to troubleshoot Cisco and Brocade switched. Management has always been helpful when it comes to walking me through a process I might not understand, and will go into detail to make sure we are on the same page. I get along with my co-workers very well and we work on many projects individually as well as together. The hardest part of the job may just not understanding how to troubleshoot new equipment that comes in that we may not have ever worked with before. Times like that is when troubleshooting or installments take longer. Most enjoyable part of the job is learning and soaking up as much knowledge as I can.

A typical day for me was opening emails, review and prioritize importance; check calendar for the day, confirm list of things to do.  I learned to be prepared for any last minute requests or projects to include shipping, expense reports, calendaring immediate meetings and last minute travel arrangements and caterings for meetings.  Request for preparing visa letters for international business travel to include coordinating and facilitating a meeting or event.  One needs to be proficient with organizational and time management to maintain efficiency and completion of tasks assigned.  Multi-tasking skill is definitely a requirement when you have to assist more than one person coming to see you or on the phone at your desk.  I interacted with all of my co-workers and management team to know their needs and demonstrate team work to have a great working environment and make it less stressful for one another.

The hardest part is getting quick responses from others who delay more than necessary.  I remedied this by being proactive and seek help with network of personnel that would be able to assist or find a solution on my own to meet my timeline.  

My most enjoyable part of my job was my interaction with my colleagues and being able to get that great smile or gratitude for their needs I assisted with.

Broadcom is a mediocre employer. Upper management does not care about its employees and does not support individual professional development. Although technically they have a education reimbursement benefit, (up to $10,000) such requests are not approved. It seems as if they would rather have one stagnant in their role instead of investing what is considered chump change for a multi billion company, because despite the obvious benefits that go along with increasing one’s skillset, that would mean they would have to compensate the individual accordingly which they are too cheap to want to do. The only good things they offer is 401k matching and ESPP discount on its valuable stock. There is no company culture and it’s a total drag working here. They don’t even stock the break rooms with snacks/beverages like most other Silicon Valley tech employers do, so you’re either forced to bring your own food or go to their overpriced cafeteria which is only open until like 2pm. Also, despite the fact that most employees can perform their work remotely, they have required that everyone return to the office and monitors attendance. Overall this is a shady employer that regularly does lay offs, so if you do end up working here don’t expect any job security regardless of performance.  

Most engineers I encountered at broadcom were competent and enjoyable to work with.  Everyone was very relaxed about flex time, and there was never an issue if you needed to step out of the office for a bit.  Work had the potential to be varied, and depending on your manager, there were occasional opportunities to learn new tools and skills (time permitting).

The problem is the workload for the available resources and erosion of any work-life-balance.  When the company was LSI, I felt we had enough engineers to release a product we could be proud of.  I rarely stayed late, and stressful releases were short with enough time in between to recover.  BUT after the purchase by AVAGO and Broadcom name-change, it turned into a highly stressful 24/7 job with a constant lack of resources.  Releases were made without telling the verification engineers, Deadlines were agreed to that were impossible, and the feeling of producing a quality product was replaced by constant firefighting caused by tight deadlines and a lack of staff.  

Over 4 years, the team I was on went from 9 engineers down to 6 while the workload tripled.  It was not uncommon to have meetings at 11pm, and pretty much everyone would be online answering emails and running sims late into the night throughout the week and many weekends.  Product re-releases became very frequent eating up any available time.

I'm a veteran of my profession and have worked for several world class companies in high technology and IT services. LSI though is distinctive as an employer for a number of reasons.

- Excellent working environment including work life balance, education, training, values, integrity. Polite, open, collegial and friendly culture. Highly motivated workforce
- Extremely strong sense of ethics and fairness
- Transparency - staff, management and executives are trustworthy, good people, stable, high caliber
- Keen focus on quality of product and customers, and quality of working experience for employees. Combined it is extremely motivating.
- Excellence in product innovation and execution - LSI is the world standard for several technologies and markets
- Little, if any, bureaucracy. It is an extremely easy company to work at in the sense that you can get things done and focus on innovation and execution much more easily than other companies
- Retention and growth focus for employees
- Incredibly high skill density. People here are more knowledgeable and better at what they do per capita than any other company I've ever seen.
- Outstanding benefits and very good compensation
- Tremendous growth and backlog of business

I am truly proud to be an employee of LSI. I honestly hope I never work anywhere else.

• Leader of the infrastructure projects and technology for the bank branches in the whole country. Coordination, Planning, Execution, termination of teams and technological services of the units of business. Implemented network security where none existed previously through use of Cisco PIX, Knowledge of VoIP communication systems Nortell, firewalls and VPNs between remote offices and central office.
• Leader for projects of technology of high impact for the whole infrastructure of the Bank López of Haro. Elaborate the plan of systems of the organization annually, implementing processes of revision of the computer necessities and proposing appropriate solutions. Supervise all the incorporation processes, modifications or elimination of computer technologies in the organization, establish contingency plans for the critical functions, verifying their operation periodically, approving the procedures, norms and procedures general safe-deposit physics and logical, so much in what refers to the computer technologies as to the communications, manage resources to maintain a high readiness (24/7/365) of services in the systems of business information, administer the resources and to supervise the projects and requirements of the users of Swift, Credit card, etc.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
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