Altera Reviews

Current Employee – been working at Altera as an intern for less than a year

Pros – Think forward, take calculated risks, be agents of change, adapt quickly. Challenging and there is a lot of opportunities to improve the soft skills and technical knowledge. Provided large and cosy cube for employees.

Cons – Lack of documentation and guidelines for the engineers, have to define and answer to your area of responsibility

Advice to Senior Management – Be more transparent and interactive with subordinates

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Altera full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Benefits and flexibility are major pros

Cons – Long hours and lots of travel

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Altera full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – Everything about the office is pretty good. Pretty good salary, location, work, people. Nice office too. I've really enjoyed my time here.

Cons – Every once in a while headquarters seems to do something random.

Advice to Senior Management – Fix product planning! Also, increase the travel budget a bit - we're fairly isolated in Toronto and the message here is "don't travel unless you're dying".

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Altera full-time for less than a year

Pros – Can learn a lot of things

Cons – Too many intel managers who bring intel culture into the company...
No people will realise you even exist!

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Altera full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Good pay if your manager likes you
Some people are very comfortable - look to the old-timers
Access to some of the best process technology around
Gym is pretty good

Cons – Politics - too many kingdoms
Design has no idea what they are doing. HR encourages this by making people switch roles every couple of years. So no one actually knows what they're doing to a deep level.
But then, there needs only to be minor design innovations with each generation. Recurrent theme is that "if it doesn't work, it's not a problem - the software guys will program around it"
Expect to be at the office past 7pm most evenings if you have to work with Asia - no you can't take the call at home.
Expect to have 8am meetings if you work with Europe - and again, no, you can't take the call at home
Too many layers of people doing redundant stuff that nobody is paying attention to anyway.
Senior management has a pattern of just throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks. Too many re-orgs.
No idea of how things get done outside of FPGA products.

Advice to Senior Management – Don't make promises you can't keep
You'll muddle through, but you'll never be a great company if you just carry on as usual

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Altera

Pros – Salary environment schedule benefit location

Cons – Management, vision, lack of accountability

Former Employee – worked at Altera

Pros – Salaries are good for the market up to a point.

Cons – Salaries do not grow with responsibilities. Getting promoted is not something to necessarily look forward to.

Advice to Senior Management – Focus on the value of the employee in the role, not what they earned in their last role.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Altera as an intern for less than a year

Pros – Excellent salary
TTC pass
Good location in downtown
Free breakfast once every month

Cons – Work can get boring if you don't like to deal with hardware.

Current Employee – been working at Altera as an intern for less than a year

Pros – learning experience is great. I love the working environments. Peers are very friendly and professional. Managers are approachable.

Cons – Cafeteria food is very boring, and dosen't have too much nutrition. Not too many vegetarian choices, and chinese food there taste terrible. Sushi is not fresh either.

Advice to Senior Management – Raise salary for interns

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Altera

Pros – manager and colleagues are very nice

Cons – not many young people, and gym is small