Any thoughts on either company? I have software-related offers from both.
Idk what xilinx is, I started at Raytheon and my experience was that it was far too slow to be a good starting job. I left to join a startup and got a lot of great experience and then went to Thompson Reuters and now Tanium.
Raytheon! Like the others said, who is the other guy?
Fuck Raytheon. Go for xilinx. You will learn something.
What makes you say that?
All the noobs that don’t know Xilinx should not default to Raytheon for that reason! Avoid Raytheon, the mil/aerospace industry is not a good place to set down roots. Bad pay, old school politics, mass layoffs between periods of having a contracted program. However, I would recommend Xilinx over Raytheon. They are the most prolific FPGA company with the highest performing chips in the industry. You will be playing a market that is always ready for something better, but isn’t left to the whims of a new govt contract.
Great advice, thanks! The main things that pull me away from Xilinx is the title (Design Applications Engineer) and the location. It’s a small little boring office in New Hampshire with no one my age. Raytheon on the other hand is huge and has plenty of people to talk to. Xilinx’s offer has a better TC since it includes RSUs and a target bonus unlike Raytheon. On the other hand, Raytheon has a sign-on bonus and a relocation bonus (since I’ll be moving 50 miles) unlike Xilinx. Raytheon also has a 9:80 work schedule which is attractive for the long weekends. Any thoughts on this?
What’s the Raytheon title? Are you also an applications engineer (I might know 2 contacts in Az to ask a couple of likes/dislikes). If you’re just starting your career, I would tend to side more with sort of the title - but more importantly what you actually do, learn, and gain from the experience. When considering the 💰, pay a lot of attention to cost of living. Arizona is far cheaper than New Hampshire. Early career, this matters a little less. With kids, we’re talking a different game. Location-wise, being in a different state that isn’t drive able means you see your family just a couple/few times a year. If you need to see them monthly, don’t move across the country. However, I moved for a few years and it was amazing to discover a new part of the country. 3 day weekends all the time are awesome, I worked a 9:80 for a bit. Make sure to ask and get details about paid time off, sick days, and floating holidays. You might find one or the other has more overall time out of the office. I recently moved out of Intel which had an enormous campus (~thousands) to somewhat smaller (~hundreds at this campus). The social aspect is more important if you have more free time. When I was at Intel, I went out to the lake on boats, hiking in the mountains, and snowboarding with my coworkers. It was a great experience to have lot of people around to find those that you vibe with and build a social circle.
Idk I make 300k TC at RTN, 10 YOE. Tech prog mgr...pay doesn't duck too bad
Can engineers ever reach that level of TC?
Yeah as E11 or above
Raytheon is pretty big in government contracts. They seem okay. I’ve never heard of Xilinx.