What's the company culture at Qualcomm?

Every business has it's own style. What is the office environment and culture like at Qualcomm?

Are people dressed in business casual, jeans and t-shirts, or full-on suits? Do folks get together for Friday happy hours and friendly get-togethers?

What is a typical day in the life of an employee at Qualcomm?

Qualcomm is great if you like being a robot. Watch out for the woman who are at manager and director levels. Some of them are on serious power trips.

Qualcomm is an awesome place to work.

My wife worked at Qualcomm for 8 years. While she really enjoyed it she was quite surprised when she was laid off after 8 years. The company avoids the large layoffs at one time, I'm guessing to avoid the publicity. However my wife saw alot of people get laid off over a period of time. What it appeared to be was hiring newer cheaper to replace the older more expensive. Also there are many employees from India. With alot of reorganization that had occurred, she ended up working for different bosses over the years. Her dress was casual and she had flex hours. Many people worked alot of overtime. Not her, since she had family to attend to after work which might explain why she was laid off. Good luck. P.S. Ask for stock options when negotiating salary.

Host said: Every business has it's own style. What is the office environment and culture like at Qualcomm?
- Office environment is decent. Generally the buildings are well kept. There are kitchen's w/ fridges. Nice break area, Cafe's, snack bars. Alot of lunch meetings so there's always free food.

Are people dressed in business casual, jeans and t-shirts, or full-on suits? Do folks get together for Friday happy hours and friendly get-togethers?
- Casual dress all the way. I've seen people wearing tye-dyed shirts, shorts, etc.The executives wear suits.
- No get together's or happy hours or friendly get-togethers. People just do their job and go home. Everyone is very professional but not necessarily friendly. Everyone seems to have their guard up.

What is a typical day in the life of an employee at Qualcomm?

- You come do your work and deal with all the political drama that goes with working in such a large company. It's true that many of the higher level managers are demanding and at times enjoy their power, but there are a lot of down to earth manager's who encourage their employees.

Qualcomm is no worse or better than any other large corporation. It all depends on where you are in the company. Life at QC varies greatly from one department to another. It was a very attractive environment when it was much younger as the options were worth something, but, as QC has aged, this is more of a mirage than a true benefit. Our software engineering group has a high workload, and burnout is common, but it seems this is becoming the standard all over corporate America, so no real surprise there.

Avoid their IT department unless you are desperate. I mean, 'losing your home next week if you can't pay the mortgage' desperate! The normal IT employee is subject to 24x7 on call, 'weekendus interruptus', constant bombardment from machine alerts, avalanches of email, and general abuse by unappreciative middle and senior managers who will do or say anything to get ahead. Answer all directives with the word 'YES', and you can survive awhile. There is a 'Good ol' Boy' network that controls everything. I would say it is the corporate equivalent to Devil's Island.

The up side to this department is they frequently engage in questionable personnel practices, so your chances for a handsome severance are good upon departure. My group witnessed a Windows System Administrator let go last year who was outstanding for us . The guy did everything we needed and more and was a joy to work with. Apparently, he was not playing the IT politics properly. The IT group doesn't seem fire anyone. They have replaced that action with layoffs as it requires no documentation or scrutiny as to the real reason. From what I can see, that group has an extremely high litigation exposure relating to severed employees.

The rest of the organization seems reasonable and ranges from ok to great. Engineers seem to do best in this environment. The facilities are generally good, parking is good, benefits are ok unlees you wear glasses or have dental problems. That part is very, very substandard

I worked for QUALCOMM for 5 years. . I believe WHERE you work in the company (it has several divisions) will have a lot to do with how well you are treated. The OMNITracks group seems to have their management and business act together. The rest -- whew! Devils Island was/is not restricted to IT
My first manager told me "QUALCOMM doesn't fire people." I didn't understand what this meant at first, then I witnessed it and later experienced it. What it meant was instead of simply telling someone they weren't working out then working to find them another position or simply terminating them, managers worked to make people as miserable as possible until the employee would quit. I saw a number of people take disability leaves for emotional reasons, then not return. It was/is horrific and has a serious negative impact on the entire family, not "just" the employees.
The attacks I observed were political and passive-aggressive -- kill people with smiles then stab them in their backs and give them punitive work assignments. Female managers/directors/VPs seemed especially guilty of this. Men --who in general do not seem to understand female aggressiveness/bullying -- seemed totally blind to what was happening. There were also male bullies there -- they were just more obvious. And not much was done about them.
QUALCOMM HR seemed so intent in (a) preventing unlawful termination actions against the company from firing people and (b) maintaining the public image that QUALCOMM is a great company and a great place to work they simply seemed to want to brush all of this under the rug. There were also a lot of young idealistic people in HR who seemed totally clueless about some of the nightmarish attacks/manipulations going on.
There are a many people who love working for QUALCOMM and are treated well. There are many others who only stay because of the money. Don't take a job there thinking this is a company that really "cares" about it's employees as people. It does not.