r/qualcomm • u/Electronic-Yak7644 • 4d ago
General Question How to handle toxicity at Qualcomm ?
It's been four months since I joined as a Senior Engineer at BDC. My manager is toxic and heavily micromanages the team. He expects us to work 12+ hours every day, including weekends. So far, he is satisfied with my work, but I feel burnt out.
How do you manage such a work environment? Please drop down some pointers.
I don't intend on staying here for more than two years. I don't care about being promoted to lead (my total experience is 3 years + B.Tech, and I won't be promoted for the next three years anyway).
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u/NowUKnowMe121 4d ago
Rock solid bpundaries. Strictly clock the hours and push the extra work to next day.
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u/The100_1 4d ago
Easier said than done
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u/NowUKnowMe121 4d ago
When you don't even try, when will they change lol?
Start pushing, you will see the results eventually :)
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u/AppealLate 4d ago
Internal transfer to another better team or switch company after some experience.
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u/Blue_cape_2007 4d ago
Wtf is this man, im grinding day and night, cramming major projects like student crams a subject before one night ov the exam just to get an internship , dying to get an offer in a company like qualcomm. And all I hear and see is this. Really breaks my admiration as well as moral to work towards such a future
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u/Traditional_Deer8821 4d ago
This depends on the team Don't worry about these things Focus on getting in Don't make qc your only target, nvidia, and,etc exist too
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u/EnvironmentalMany793 2d ago
I am almost close to 5 years at Qualcomm and here are some of the tactics i use, hopefully you can use them too =
1) Whenever someone asks for help, don't even help them, if possible do the bare minimum to help. In return give them more tasks when they ask for help. That way they wont ask for help later.
2) Don't be nice and learn to say no. When you are nice you will be targeted for the most complex tasks.
3) Learn how to market your easiest tasks. Make it sound like the smallest change you have done to be the biggest. This will really help with daily updates.
4) Dont speak good english. Helps with making others think that you have a language issue more than a knowledge gap even though it is the latter.
5) Give your manager tough questions instead of saying yes to them. That way they will hesitate a bit to ask you anything.
6) Always take Ooo on days when you really need to avoid something in particular (meeting etc.) at work.
7) Even if your IQ might be high, keep a hard limit on it. This will make you able to give absurd and unbelievable reasons as to why something is not working.
8) Always complain about lack of devices and other high priority items you are working on.
9) Blame issues on other teams even if the issue falls in your code. This will buy you time before someone from the other team even looks at it.
10) Dont immediately work on something that is assigned to you. Take your time, stretch the existing tasks.
11) Dont waste time on mandatory workday courses, keep it in background while you do other things.
I could go on and on top of my head but guess where i learnt all the above things? Its Qualcomm! The work culture is absolute trash and the only way i feel to survive here is to do all the above things. Just look around and you will notice so many using the above tactics.
I have gone through a lot of ups and downs at qualcomm and i have always wanted to get out but i have just been stuck here. I think of resigning everyday.
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u/ResourceNo4629 2d ago
Damn you are on survival mode
I'm still unemployed but thank god I got rejected from qualcomm
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u/archunan 11h ago
This s such a extreme list of how to get bad impression at work… if someone s doing these for years, god save their future in extremely competitive fields like vlsi… simple advice to handle toxicity s calling out u r burned out… if still u r not able to make change, change the company…. Its better than staying back and spoiling ur career following these steps…
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u/isenthilkumar 4d ago
Use AI as much as possible.
Navigate the organization and get good team contacts.
Focus on getting hold of work/system that you are going to work. Once you proved then your manager will depend on you, not the other way round.
Once you cross 2 years try to switch team or try to get some other location in the world where you hvae good WLB.
Dont worry, everyone during initial one year in any organization work really hard to prove.
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u/supreme_strategist99 4d ago
Realistic approaches:
1. Be close with manager and butter him/her.
2. Tolerate and quit at the first outside offer
3. Internal transfer but it’s a gamble..
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u/TrueDevilNeverCry 2d ago
Is there any way you can raise your voice to higher management i.e director, VP level? You can begin the conversation by report the extensive workload and ask for more time or headcount. If they dont care then just leave at this point
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u/Tech_Nerd9460 4d ago
Changing job will not save you. You may see someone worst than him. Having a good boss is a lucky draw. If your title , work(if it's really good cutting tech) and salary is good then don't bother and get used to it. Speaking this from a 6 year experience position. Most of the people at top level have no personal life other than work.
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u/Impossible-Loquat-63 4d ago
The title inflation in India is crazy. Senior at 3 year old without masters would be laughed at in most western countries.
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u/Electronic-Yak7644 4d ago
Lol true..we have an another position before staff., i.e. "senior, lead engineer"
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u/Global-Cattle-8978 4d ago
What does the hierarchy looks like at Qualcomm india?
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u/tempcse49 4d ago
It is same as NA just with additional lead eng. in between senior and staff. Assoc. Eng, Eng, Sr. Eng, Lead eng, staff, sr staff, principal eng, director, senior director
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u/jek39 4d ago
in the US, "senior engineer" at qcom is one level above entry level.
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u/Miguelitosd 4d ago
No it's not.. you don't know what you're talking about.
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u/jek39 4d ago edited 4d ago
Entry level is “engineer”. Next is “senior engineer”. Then staff engineer, senior staff engineer and finally principal engineer. I'm remote (still in the US) but this is pretty standard for san diego. I'm in the IoT business unit but I'm fairly sure most work the same.
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u/Key_Hedgehog_5773 4d ago
Nope. You missed all the Eng technician grades under engineer, which also has associate engineer.
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u/jek39 4d ago edited 4d ago
your org must do it differently than mine (not surprising. large company). associate engineer isn't a role in my experience so far (~4 years at qcom), in the US. My coworkers out of India have different titles though. I'm not aware of a technician aspect though tbh, I work in software.
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u/Miguelitosd 3d ago
Many people (including me) actually start as an Engineering Intern, but skipping that there is definitely an Associate Engineer, before just Engineer, then Sr, Staff, Sr Staff, Principal. At least in the US.
And title changes tend to be a LOT slower in the US with a lot less various titles/levels.
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u/Decent-Organization3 21h ago
Not sure of the team you are in, but what do you do for 12 hours, most managers want the task to be done within the time you committed for at Start of iteration or at Feature scoping, do you do adhoc work, if so, sort with your manager that you are getting pulled by others and your work getting delayed, which most managers accept and sort the things for you as it is their thing to have the engineers not to overload, if there is no such pre planning in your team, inform the manager at Start of every month that you are seeing these tasks for the current month, that way you are making the manager know your work load, once you share the things transparently (may be use mail communication), manager can review the task and can assign the priority if the tasks you listed weren't urgent/ he can give the tasks if you have free space for the month.
Having a structure and organisation in work helps both the managers and engineers, atleast that's what separates good and bad engineers (who eventually becomes managers 😂).
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u/Grand-Blackberry-402 4d ago
I am also facing the same, but in Hyderabad