During my time there and for about 5 years before that, there has either been a MULA (mandatory unpaid leave of absence) or a layoff every single year, which makes it always a fight to maintain workplace morale and team solidarity. Importantly, there is no real company culture or solidarity, because the employee turnover is so high. Therefore, there is very little trust between teams, and sometimes even within teams.
It’s communicated both directly and indirectly that the topmost goal of the company is to make shareholders money. You find that the engineers that do a lot of boasting and less real work often achieve the positions of power. You are almost entirely rewarded based on your perception, and not your actual contribution.
How well you thrive highly depends on who your manager is. I happened to find myself under a “seagull manager”, a manager whose toxic leadership caused abuse and resentment (not to mention poor performance) out of his entire team. And even though "powerful feedback" (a corporate value) had been given to him and about him by most on his team, the opinions of the pawns hold little weight to the self-preserving director class. As an acknowledgement, managers aren't driven to be so calloused solely because of their own character. Many feel the pressure of an always-fluctuating industry, and it translates into job pressure on their subordinates.
In regards to professional development, you don't come here to learn on the job. You're expected to go fast, and this gives you no time to learn new things. I genuinely felt sorry for some of the new college grads who got few chances to sit informally in the lab to learn from a senior engineer.
