production assembler

senior operator

operator

assembler

production operator

Vishay

When I had my interview at Vishay I was excited to work there. It was an easy interview with a lot of friendly faces. At the time the pay was decent & the schedule was perfect. I looked forward to going into work every day with a smile on my face. Quickly I realized there were some individuals who complained about the location often & I never understood it until now. Not only is there a good handful of negative workers but also there are a lot of cons at this place.

1) the benefits vs the pay increase you get a year doesnt balance out at all. 20 cent raises. Applying to benefits is all done by the worker on their own time with short deadlines. Even then the benefits will still take a good sized chunk out of your weekly paycheck, no matter how cheap you go. Expect new employees to make more than you often. As well as many older employees complaining about demanding raises or threatening to quit over this issue. This is the #1 biggest issue at this location... pay.

2) HR has been missing on site too often in the recent years, causing management to take the brunt of most employee issues & complaints. Many seemingly unresolved or cause worker burnout. depending on the department or social politics there can also be some employees who are favorited, causing issues to go unresolved.

3) the whole place is laid back but it also let's many employees go unnoticed when they are slacking off & causing trouble. Some employees seem to come into work only to be social. You should definitely have a good time at any job but you shouldn't be doing it at someone else's expense. 

4) many on site work parties have been impacted by covid as of late. The employee appreciation lunch that happens once a year consists of a bag lunch [1 half a sub, 1 apple, and a bottled water or 1 can of soda]. That's litterally it. No free merchandise handouts or some type of positive incentive. You only get some of the merchandise on your orientation. If you want a worker tshirt you're going to have to buy it on the website. To simply put it, there is barely any actual on site party due to budget or covid. 

5) cross training is easy to do if you can even get it. The company has a workers pledge or goal to have all their workers cross trained in 3 different departments. For every department you are cross trained in, you get a certain credit of pay, as long as you are signed off on it. The location says it will do this for everyone. Be prepared to constantly remind management you are interested & to complete getting signed off. Also be prepared this can take a long time to do of expressing interest. 

Honestly, I can't even outlist the cons with a positive list. While this location is better than the average warehouse/plant work place in the area, it's sad to see better reviews at other locations. For a worldwide company, this location really cheapens on its workers. Look for a better place to work at because most surrounding places pay more & give more than this location. Maybe, if given more time, this location can make a turn around.

At Kent WA, they make load cells for on board weighing systems. Load cells range in size from 100lbs to couple ounces. 

Typical day of work starts in the morning with you bonding strain gages to the load cell body. Then you would wire the strain gages to the connectors. After wiring, the load cells are calibrated. Once the load cells are calibrated, you seal them for packing.

the work environment is old, rundown and dirty. all of the hand tools you are given are extra old and often hand down. the machinery are all old and never have i seen management perform maintenance on any of them in my years there. Getting anything new was a unicorn type of situation. 

the work culture is absolute madness. Assembly is understaffed, management forces excessive OT as a means of getting things done. one week can be just pushing it and the next it will be hectic and will stay hectic until all the work is done. The reason is because this company will not build for stock. They build per order only. so when a customer expedites an order, mayhem ensues. What was already priority is now #2 priority and that expedite order is now #1 priority. But don't blink just because they want #1. They still want #2 to meet its deadline too. You will be made accountable in front of your peers. Can't do that when you are understaffed. Oh and if you don't work the excessive OT, manager will make you a public specimen. 

Worst part of the job is the pay and raises. Starting pay was low. There are jobs out there just assembling cables and they pay more than here and is less technical. The raises were ultra low. In my 4 years here, the difference in my wage from when i left to when i started was not even $1. Thats pathetic for a global company! 




i am a former electrical assembler for the Kent WA facility.

the work is fairly simple once you get the hang of it. the production coworkers are awesome, management...well...

the starting pay they gave me initially was relatively lower than what i could have got at another place. i held on to the fact that maybe they gave good raises. well...no...

expect an under the market starting pay (even if you had loads of experience) and expect a 2%-3% yearly raise. this raise did not reflect performance and i say this because they gave the under achiever and over achiever the same percentage. im serious...
they also dont give cost of living increases, that is not good for this seattle area.

this has caused an ever changing roster year in and year out. alot of talented individuals have come n gone. so be prepared to be trained and then within a few months be training a new hire.

the facility consists of older machinery, hand tools and work benches. its so complicated for any individual to get their hands on a new set of tweezers.

bright side is taking time off. you can request for tomorrow off right now and it would be approved with no hesitation. also, its not a strict work environment, as long as the work is done.


Company doesn't invest into production as much they invest into getting contracts. A very large majority of all equipment (buildings, assets etc) is old and very outdated while marketing continues to sell more than what the company can produce due to unreliable machines that operators have no choice but to use. Shift schedules differ enough between production and maintenance to add up to lots of downtime. Higher ups will point fingers at maintenance for issues that require engineers to look over, this involves designing parts or creating solutions to reoccurring issues etc. 

Pay and incentives are not consistent across the board. What you start making Pay wise, you will be making the same pay for many years (do not expect a pay raise ever.) As far as having days off go, you will be expected to even work holidays or on your days off. If you do schedule to work on a holiday or on your day off (as an operator). Maintenance is not able to be consistent always with having enough techs on site to be able to provide repair/support to production. 

My typical day at work started at 5:00 a.m. I checked parts and started machines, and then kept them running continuously all day till 3:30, except for downtime for maintenance. I learned to work well with machines and how to manage my time and prioritize my orders to keep things moving as smoothly as possible.
For the most part, I had good relations with my managers. They were helpful and understanding. They would work with me and let me rearrange my schedule if I needed to get off for an appointment, so the work/life balance was very good. The benefits are very good as well. 
For the most part, I liked my co-workers as well. We had good times and fun along the way. Of course, like it is in any workplace, there were some I didn't get along with, but the longer I worked there, the more I came to realize that the ones I didn't get along with, nobody else did either.
The hardest part of my job was the hours. I am not a morning person, so getting up and going to work at 5:00 was not easy for me. Also, I worked a lot of overtime, which made getting enough sleep a problem for me.
The most enjoyable part of my job is always having something to do. I like to be busy, so being up and around to keep things going is enjoyable to me.

Work well with the shift 3/4 in 12 hr  graveyard schedule. A multi tasking work to ensure all high tech equipment in full capacity to process wafers into finish Integrated Circuit. I learned time management to meet the demand in accomplishing the job. I love to work in teamwork environment especially all my co worker contributed to meet quota each shift. I do also worked and concentrated in my own assign tool for qualification and obtained results efficiently. The hardest part when high inventory and no manpower to help to meet the goal. Being shorthanded was challenging however work done when everyone around did double effort to accomplish the job. The most enjoyable part was when appreciated and rewarded of the hard work done in timely manner despite of the obstacle factors arises. Management gave free lunches. Every communication meeting the management always prepared snacks and drinks to offer. As I would say lastly, as the most hardest part was accepting my position need to terminate due to the demand of the business and had to transfer the technology a more highly modern facility.

I have worn multiple hats in my tenure at this location while I have not been happy with several aspects of the positions I have held; I have overall enjoyed working at this location. While the starting pay is lower than other businesses in the area, it has raised a lot in the past few years and while the company seems slow to change, it looks like it shows no sign of stopping. On the other hand, while the starting wages are low, the overall stress that you will find working here and the workload is lower than I have experienced at other locations and companies, so I think you need to take that into account as well. A lot of other reviews I have seen for this location say that there is a lot of family members working together and that somehow contributes to leniency and nepotism, I would like to remind the former employees that those people that they feel the need to target and warn others about did not contribute to their own shortcomings and I am sure it did not affect their job performance or attendance.

Typical day was steady paced and the work was fun for the most part.

What I learned was there is a lot of UNDERPAID smart old people that should be getting at least double the pay to begin with. The people at Vishay are old and about to retire in the next few years. Currently HR is scrambling trying to get positions filled, and no one applies.... (should tell you something)

Management for the main plant is bad and you will get little if any support while your desk breaks under the load of work being placed on your desk.

Co-Workers: out of the 50 or so people I deal with I say I would only trust two not to stab me in the back. This place is unreal with the coworkers complaining about every little thing....then running to HR before even talking to the manager.... 

Hardest Part of the Job: Standing by as management reacts to insubordinate employees that create more problems then they solve. The reason behind this I believe is the employees are so underpaid for there skill set that the management will not say anything to correct issues to avoid people leaving.

The Most Enjoyable Part of the Job: Daily challenge

I knew there was a problem when I interviewed. JD didn't know what position I was interviewing for. He didn't have my resume and didn't know my experience. I got hired just as a body to fill a position. My first day should have ended my employment as fast as it started. As an inspector, it took them 3 times to get me to the position I was hired for. Then I was told I was going to the 1 shift I couldn't work. Then I got 5 minutes of training and put on my own. Next, I was warned about a coworker's attitude but also told she would be training me in 2 days. When I got home, I was informed that Vishay made a mistake and I couldn't report back to work until they fixed it. I lost a day's pay. Finally, the last straw was when I got told I could go back, I had to get training from the coworker with the attitude problem. I was in tears after 4 hours of dealing with her and I walked out. It's not worth the minimum wage that they pay, no matter your experience.

Calibration and troubleshooting instruments returned by customers for repair and re-calibration.
Aid and offer assistance, answer questions from other technicians or test inspectors about instruments in need of problems and theoretical functionality. 
Train and explain existing and new processes or procedures to technicians and test inspectors.
Supports policies and procedure to promote continuous improvements to the quality of the product.
Receiving and shipping customers products.

Management was at time hard to communicate to of problems needing change. They did not have time right now would be the quote. Most all raises were went to insurance increases at years end.

Most coworkers were easy to work with.

Hardest part was having the time to do all the jobs needing to be done.

The most enjoyable part was having the work completed and knowing you had a happy customer.

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