Pros
Good work environment with helpful mentors/colleagues, chance to work on some awesome products, great place to start out professionally- will have plenty of opportunities to get exposed to different aspects of the semiconductor business
Kontras
Too many tapeouts of half baked ICs- you work extra hours to make sure that the IC is sent to fab and later that product is shelved..after a while you start to wonder whether the management has a clear plan Too much emphasis on sales- that being said, there are a few teams where the emphasis is on R&D. Work life im-balance- most of the year especially close to tape-outs design/layout engineers spend late nights and weekends in office. After the IC comes back from fab, it is the turn of the test engineers to work late.