application developer

product engineer

process engineer

software engineer

test engineer

Texas-Instruments

My experience at the company was very different between when I first joined 8 years ago and when I left. Important to note that each business unit operates almost as its own unique entity within the TI umbrella, so other experiences may vary. 

When I was initially hired I had the opportunity to do many things in my role which facilitated the growth and day-to-day operation of the group. Going to work was exciting and the challenges were not too daunting. Leadership was enthusiastic and cared about the happiness of the employees and making sure we knew how valued we were. 

As time went on it was a completely different story. A typical group member was putting in long hours trying to keep up with unrealistic deadlines promised to customers by the marketing team. These deadlines plus a "do more with less" attitude resulted in very stressful situations. A typical week was permeated by meetings which were mandatory (of course). These also typically ran long because anyone involved was stretched too thin and was too busy answering email to pay attention to the meeting at hand. 

I did have the opportunity to learn quite a bit in my role - TI provides good training to its employees. Often why it is joked internally that TI stands for "Training Institute" because once an employee is trained they quickly leave and take the skills acquired to another company. 

Management was stretched just as thin as everyone else, and always trying to cover their own hides. Many times it was promised that help would be brought on with the workload increasing, but this never happened. Coupled with employee turnover we could barely tread water. 

Workplace culture is very much look after yourself, because nobody else will. If you stay in one place too long your wages will stagnate and you will be pigeon-holed into the role, prevented from moving upwards. Of course during department meetings we love to brag about how big our sales force is and how much money we make - like that is supposed to make you feel better when you see R&D costs decreasing while SG&A costs are skyrocketing.

The hardest part of the job was having to explain to my wife why she should eat dinner without me, again, because of some unrealistic deadline to be met. That, and the realization that you can work for years to build something up from nothing, only for a higher-up to hand your creation over to one of their up-and-coming golden children and leave you with nada. 

The most enjoyable part of the job was the people I worked with. Very bright engineers with great personalities, never had a conflict with anyone in my group. At the beginning a force to be reckoned with, but by the end only bonded in a mutual suffering. The second-most enjoyable thing was that the projects always remained interesting.

This place has a very toxic environment. At least in the manufacturing side of things. I’m sure other departments are better. 

Pay and benefits will definitely lure you in, but trust me, it’s not worth it. This place is like a black hole that will mentally drain you. Everyone here seems very grumpy and I can see why. 

They have good benefits in place to try to get you to stay. I think that is the reason some people stick around for so long. They have an amazing profit scaring policy if you stay till the end of the year. But I wouldn’t stay just for that. You will find yourself trying to do 1 more year continuously and then you get stuck.

Training is very unstructured. It’s hard to do any type of work alone without relying on someone to help you. But the problem is no one wants to help you. Everyone hates their job as it is. They don’t want to add baby sitting someone to their list of never ending job duties.

You are assigned a lot of tasks with unreasonable deadlines. You’ll find yourself forgetting a lot of them. There is just too much. And you can’t just knock them out. You will need help and training. You will have to be waiting on people until they have time to help you. But first some of you will find yourself trying to build the courage to even ask for help. Because you already know people will give you nasty attitudes or disrespectful comments. It’s just a very uncomfortable place.

You will probably receive a decent looking offer. But don’t let that fool you. You will be working a lot more than 40 hours some weeks. You are on call 24/7. I’ve had days when I worked about 15 hours. You will not get paid extra for staying late. And people will laugh at you if you tried to complain about being over worked. These people have been over worked for 15+ years. They won’t feel sorry for the new person for being over worked. You will not be over worked at first. Your first few months will he extremely slow. You won’t be doing anything besides boring online learning modules.

I recommend for you to not take this job if given an offer and you have options. You will find yourself losing your personality and sense of humor. Will get home late and not feel like talking to anyone. You will wake up every morning completely dreading how miserable your day is going to be. This is from my experience. I’ve heard that I did get placed in one of the worst departments in the company so I’m not sure if this is everyone’s experience. But I am speaking from mine.

I've been working as a Production Specialist for a little over 3 years. The job in itself is not hard at all. However, for many there will be an adjustment phase initially because you will be working in what is essentially a "High-Tech Factory" called "The Fab". There are a number of activities you will be doing based on what "Module" you are assigned to. Think of the module as your department essentially.  

Working in the Fab will be different from any other job you have had, it still will not be hard but like I said it will take some adjusting to for the average person.

The work environment is generally positive and most people you will run into will be hardworking and laid back for the most part. Now, there are exceptions to this (Like in any job). My advice is to work hard, take notes when learning a new process, and try to learn as much as you can. 

When it comes to people the overwhelming majority of people you will meet at this company will be cool, but I would still recommend keeping to yourself when you are new. Really take your time to analyze the character of the people you work with. Taking my advice on this part is up to you. While most people in this company are cool there are some problematic individuals you just cannot trust.

As far as hours you will be working long hours but will still have multiple days off weekly. We have what is called "Long Weeks" and "Short Weeks" (These weeks alternate). On your long week you will work 12 hour shifts for 4 days (For example if you are on "A shift" you will work 6:36am-6:42pm from Sunday-Wednesday. You will be off for 3 days after). On your Short week you will work 12 hour shifts for 3 days, and be off the following 4 days.

The long hours are tough for some people starting off, keep in mind you will spend the majority of your shift on your feet completing processes for your module. But the long hours are worth it for the days you will have off. On your off days you can focus on relaxing, family, school, side business or hustle etc. 

I do think the pay could be better as Texas Instruments is a Billion Dollar Company but overall I still would recommend this job. 

• Coordinating with the Requirement Teams and SMEs (Subject Matter Experts from client) to understand the requirements and explaining them about the approach of implementing them and discussing the defects.
• Design and develop COBOL and DB2 modules and changes for the existing modules as per work request.
• Developing and changing the complex SQLs, executing and test the SQLs, fixing the issues.
• Analyzing the existing Mainframe Focus procedures and JCL’s and modified Focus programs and JCL’s as part of SVA integration project.
• Coordinating with the Testing team and discussing the defects and analyzing them if they are valid or not.
• Coordinating with the offshore team.
• Developed new programs using COBOL, JCL, IMS DB and DB2.
• Analyzing the existing JCL’s and PROC’s and writing new JCL’s.
• Performed code review for code developed by other programmers.
• Preparation of Unit Test Plan and carrying out unit and Integration testing. This involved meetings with business to replicate the production scenario, scheduling the series of jobs and validating the results.
• Providing permanent fixes to the Production related problems.
• Provided operations support during batch process, problem resolution.
• Troubleshoot production problems.
• Monitoring the Batch jobs to prevent and /or immediately respond to problems.
• Provided fixes to a number of Application related issues of different Severity / Priorities and completed many Work Requests as per requirement.
• Involved in analyzing the existing WSMMART (WebFocus) Reports and Report caster reports, modified Reports to populate Long part number in the reports as part of SVA integration project.
• Created SQL Server views and altered views as part of SVA integration project.
• Modified WebFocus procedures and prepared test cases and test data to test the
WebFocus reports.

I started with no experienced in a semiconductor manufacturing however with my foreign educational background, TI given me opportunity and utilized my college degree. I was trained and I learned it quickly. I started working in 5 day week Monday to Friday on a weekend shift but soon it changed to compressed work schedule due to the demand in manufacturing. I then work 3/4 12hour shift in the frond-end night. I started Sunday to Wednesday 6pm to 6am and every other Saturday. With the changed schedule, it was best for me since I had young kids. I was very interested and  I requested to cross-trained in all process of the area assigned. Since certified more than one equipment, my co workers nominated me to be a lead and eventually engineering department trained me as the sustaining tech. I worked well with my team mates and everyone respected each other. Actually we had self-directed team with no supervisor but only a facilitator. Each member in the team had its role such as trainer, attendance coordinator,lead, back up lead, test wafer control. Each week we had a meeting with our facilitator to hear our voice and he then relayed to HR. I liked this kind of management however when one was not responsible there was a problem. It only happened for a short while when one teammates keep missing work but it was resolved quickly by HR. The management resolved quickly when an issue arise. I enjoyed working hard since we were awarded when exceeded goal numbers. The hardest part was when the company move the technology to their huge facility in Dallas Texas by then, I was not yet  prepared for relocation so I decline the offer.

The Mobile Customer Care (MCC) Team is responsible for providing first & second level support for mobile devices on all TI approved carriers. Mobile devices supported can include BlackBerry Smartphone, standard feature phones, & pagers.
MCC is there to insure the customer has the ability to access their TI email, contacts, and calendar. Should the customer have issues viewing their personal / Non – TI email, contacts, or calendars support is limited to best effort as an accommodation. Best effort is defined as follows:
· Minimal troubleshooting – Just get the basics of what is the problem
· Quick and simple fixes requiring minimal effort
· Referring the customer to their phone’s manufacturer Support Site or Service Provider if the fix does not work
· Time spent on providing best effort support for personal email, calendar, and contacts should be limited to 15 minutes of less.
Service Information
a. Customer base – U.S. based employees with a few travelers from other regions
b. Responsibilities include:
a. Receiving, documenting, resolving and/or escalating service requests.
b. Setup, configure, optimize, troubleshoot, upgrade, & update of mobile devices and related software applications.
c. Provisioning of mobile devices.
d. Investigating exceptions as part of the monthly cost recovery process.
e. Providing bill analysis and optimization.
f. Interfacing directly with carrier support teams to resolve TI issues.
g. Tracking/receiving of mobile device shipments.
h. Providing walkup support.
i. Documenting & using knowledge in TI Knowledge Base.
j. Assist in supporting projects led by TI Level 3 support.
k. Documenting and updating mobile devices in TI internal database.
l. Support requests received via phone, web tickets, e-mail, and in person.

I was one of the lucky ones beginning through the staffing agency at at time where a permanent offer would be made to me in less than a year. I have had a difficult time working these long hours, overnights, for lets face it, mediocre pay. And I was doing all this work week after week, not thinking about how it will pay off when made permanent, but rather how could I possibly change this workplace enough for me + my coworkers to be living our best lives by remaining here. I am not sure it's possible. We are all repetitive-strain-injuring ourselves due to high demand in semiconductor industry right now paired with medieval tools and equipment our work area is outfitted with. But for every one of my coworkers I see working hard, hustling day-in-day-out like I thought unsustainable when I first started, I regularly see a corresponding employee nodding off with nothing to do, or abusing breaks + lunches for twice the allocated time away from work, because of the honor system. It's not even a seniority thing here, there are just as many experienced vets pulling 150% work ethic while newer younger folks move at their own pace. Upper management might as well be military, they will go though the motions of asking for ideas and input on how to improve processes in the fab. But true intentions are confusing and hard to pin down at all with upper management. My direct supervisor is as caring and effective a manager as any I have ever had, probably more so. Their positive energy is swamped by higher-level managerial ineptitude. It's hard for me to hear about our ideas getting stonewalled with even the most basic, common sense practices and improvements that you would think to already be part of our spec. But no, we just suffer through it.

We are expected to keep a high pace and product turnout with ancient machines that are broken down as often as not (many 30-40 years old). Despite management knowing of mechanical failures, the blame is placed on employees consistently.  

Due to a lack of equipment technicians, age of equipment, and often a lack of parts, equipment can sit dormant for weeks to months, or break down multiple times a day.

Supervisors frequently berate employees to the point of rage. On multiple occasions I have witnessed a shift supervisor berate an employee to the point where the employee lashed out and struck an object. Complaints have been filed through HR, but affected employees tend to quit before anything happens. Long term employees appear resigned that HR will do nothing about the toxic culture.

There is no room for advancement. People stay in the same pay bracket for years at a time, waiting for one of the older employees to finally retire so a slot comes open. 

Pay raises cap out at around 4%, and are merit-based. Expect raises to be under the rate of inflation.

Due to many job functions being locked off to higher pay grades, tasks become backlogged due to a lack of qualified employees. Again, management knows this but has made no moves to fix the problem aside from threatening mandatory overtime.

High turnover has increased burnout among long-timer employees as they've had to frequently pick up the slack when positions go unfilled for months at a time.

When asked how the company can better hire and keep employees, the topic of pay raises was broached. Management's response was that they could cut health benefits to make the base pay larger instead.

I worked at TI for about two years back in 2015. I was extremely nervous starting out for a few reasons - I had worked at my previous job over 10 years and knew everything there was to know there, but it was a different field. I knew nothing going in to this, not one thing. They do a good job preparing you for what you'll be doing, but there's no better training than getting in there and actually doing it. During training we were told to write everything down once we start, but the person training me asked me to put away my paper and pen because you'll always go back to your notes if you have them and he wants to train my with repetition and that ended up being the best way to learn there. I shot up fast, everyone liked me and said I was learning faster than anyone they had seen in their time with the company except for one person. I got the job through a staffing agency and was never hired on to TI, but was next in line. The only reason I'm not still there today is because I had to quit to take a state funded vacation, which also disqualified me from being employed there again for 7 years. 

All of my coworkers here got along for the most part, there was the interoffice gossip circles like there is anywhere else, but nothing that created tension between each other. I worked the night shift, which is the PERFECT shift for me because I can stay up all night easily but waking up is extremely difficult for me. The nights I spent in the fab with the people I worked with were the most fun I've ever had in a work environment and I really miss it.

The management is awful and  the work culture is absolutely horrible. People are bullied and picked on with no help from supervisors or HR. You work VERY hard for little to no recognition. The hardest working employees get taken advantage of while the lazy ones can do absolutely  nothing and get away with it. Being promoted is few and far between. 
Shifts start at 5:45 am or 5:45 pm. 12 hours, in a clean room in a bunny suit. They tell you its ok to sit and take breaks, but its not. You'll be ridiculed by everyone around you. It's like going back to high school, everyone is mean and you'll constantly be talked about behind your back no matter what you do. You're surrounded by older adults 35-60 years old is the average age. The hardest part of the job is by far dealing with the ineptitude of the upper management. The most enjoyable part of the job is the set schedule and consistent pay. Overtime comes and goes. Nights will make you the most money with the differential but you'll have no life and be absolutely miserable. I don't think I can stress enough how mean the employees are, not only to who your on shift with but the incoming and outgoing shifts as well. I worked there for 4 years and only stayed that long because of the schedule, pay and 401k matching.
They just recently became competitive in their pay scale. I received an over 35% increase in pay in 3 years simply because the starting pay was so low they had to eventually increase everyone. They pride themselves on being SAFE, Right then Productive. Thats not the case. Your entire job is to be fast and productive. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Application developer 18 salaries reported	$110,500 per year
Product engineer 19 salaries reported	$103,232 per year
Process engineer 25 salaries reported	$103,940 per year
Software engineer 13 salaries reported	$114,784 per year
Test engineer 13 salaries reported	$110,977 per year

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