Work like a slave, get rewarded like a king - Anonymous employee Applied Materials Employee Review

3.0
Aug 3, 2012
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Highly intelligent workforce, many opportunities to move around and grow your career. Challenging work for most roles, not boring! Lots of opportunities to make recommendations and influence up.

Cons

Many senior leaders seem to drive their own siloed agendas. It's not political in the sense of internal aggression, but it is difficult to collaborate and work across BU's and functions. Long-timers are rather jaded, probably because they have seen so many ups and downs in this highly cyclical environment.

Explore other reviews about Applied Materials

5.0
May 13, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Wonderful staff - great company all around

Cons

Cannot think of any cons.

4.0
Jun 24, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Good health insurance, pay is just enough to not quit, 4% 401k contribution gives 3% match, stock purchase program is 15% discount no annually. Work is hit and miss, sometimes your left to struggle and there very little support, other times things are planned out and well executed. This company promotes from within more often than not so there is a ladder to climb. The work is 12hr shifts which is good for long weekends, but if things are busy with lots of projects you will be asked to come in for overtime. 60hr weeks 2x a month is very common. You can say no, but it’s discouraged in a few ways 😉

Cons

Management is very hit and miss, for the last decade we’ve had the avg stay of a manger <1yr. If you have a good one, they get burnt out from unreasonable expectations, and if you have a bad one they’re so disconnected you get nothing out of it. As a whole, due to leadership being promoted from within they tend to be very resistant to making any changes to their system because it worked a decade ago. This industry moves rapidly, because it was the best a decade ago does not mean it’s the best today. The raise structure is silly. Every year they’ve changed to it to have more disconnect from you and the people who approve raises. Most managers claim they’re told how much each employee is getting from someone that the employee is never met, and then have to argue over how to distribute an additional 5% over the entire team. This means if you work as hard as you can, and really stand out from your peers, you can get an additional 2% for an annual raise and your manager will claim that the best possible.

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