How is Microsoft’s HW team work culture? And what do you not like about the hardware org? Location / Mountain View Org AISoC Product Maia My TC : 150k Yoe : 4 #hardware #semiconductor #microsoft #aisoc
The incessant layoffs last year in Microsoft HW team resulted in many good talent getting laid off. The remaining stellar talent who were not affected by layoffs were so demoralized that most of them have left, some even with no new jobs also. People left are just ones who cannot find a new role or stuck on visa, so some people who are too lazy to move. It's just a figment of what it used to be in the past. The future work is also mostly more menial work with most of the designs going to an ODM model.
Is this in AISoC team or Xbox?
This was in Surface team. I don't expect it to be much different in other organizations. What you really want to make sure is, will you get to do actual designs by yourself in these teams, or are you going to be a glorified PM managing ODM designs being done in China. Tread carefully is all I can say.
@strgazer is so off the mark . There are many parallel asic orgs in Microsoft. Aisoc and Xbox had less than 2 percent layoffs with more hiring than layoff last year.. Most designs are in house or brand new in aisoc. Wlb is out though with a lot of pressure compared to rest of Microsoft.
Like I said I was talking about Surface and I'm right on the mark with that. I highly suspect other HW orgs are what you're making it out to be. Check the attrition in Surface team and come back to this discussion. That is the general feeling I've gotten from people I know in other orgs such as XBOX or Cloud. This person seems to be some long timer in MS HW and I can't agree on Microsoft HW being much different in other HW orgs in MS. I was a long timer there who left some time back and it was a shit show back then and gotten a whole lot worse since. Feel free to jump into this role and see what it's like from the inside and then let's talk in future OP.
Also are you claiming that the complete engineering is being done in house..schematics, layout, testing etc and not being done by ODM, XDM whatever you want to call it ? Come on ..I know that's not the case most of the time in cloud and XBOX and mostly now in Surface too. EEs I know are generally managing designs created by external vendor companies that MS partners with. Also my experience is systems engineering and not ASIC level, RTL etc. So if the above person ( or OP) is talking at IC and ASIC level then the story maybe different there.
@strgazer. IC or ASIC exactly is what is being discussed. no relation to Systems and/or surface for sure. Hardware is also a wide field :-) If people want opinion on asics at Microsoft they might get better info from an outside asic person through industry rumor mill then someone not working on them at Microsoft. Most programs were run in secret till only recently. Offcourse the best source is someone in the the specific asic team itself .
Agreed and I'm glad to see ASIC is MS doing well, of it is as good as you say it is. I've always been a fan of MS and hence my decade plus tenure there. But the shit show that Surface HW turned out to be lately turned the tide for me and many many others. Hope OP gets what he's looking for in the ASIC org
@msses1 & @ strgazer I’m interviewing for RTL role in AISoC group. A few things I’d want to know are : Is there a lot of attrition in this group? Are there recent layoffs? How’s the wlb? And what is the difference bw principal engineering levels 65/66/67? For pay, experience and visibility.
What’s your role? This counts a lot for your scope of work
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