Former FaST Division Employee - Mechanical Design Engineer KLA Employee Review

3.0
20 Jan 2016
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

People are smart, decent benefits, good place to learn "soft" skills straight out of school. People on the mechanical team are all level headed and easy to work with. You learn a lot the first year to year and a half. I would leave after that.

Cons

1. Politics and risk mitigation. Any design that deviates from past designs will be shot down immediately. Who is pitching the concept seems to matter more than the concept itself during CDRs. 2. Concepts and designs are never validated on a subsystem level. Thus, there is never any data to properly evaluate how well a design works and furthermore never the data required to give design specs for the next system. 3. Projects are always understaffed and schedules are not founded in reality. In my three years at the company, not once had I finished a project on time. This is common place. Do not buy into being behind schedule. It will only create unnecessary stress in your life. Work hard, but know you will never get ahead and the harder you work the more work will be dumped on you. I left because I felt the group did not do "real" engineering, there is no clear path for upward mobility within the group, and the machine that is FaST is too frustrating to work within. With the current KT-LAM proposed acquisition, shedding of talent, and lack of interesting work, it made sense to leave.

Explore other reviews about KLA

5.0
10 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Strong technical depth and industry leadership. Talented colleagues and meaningful work.

Cons

Organizational processes can be relatively conservative. The skills developed are highly valuable within semiconductor equipment and imaging-related industries but may be less directly transferable to unrelated sectors.

1.0
5 May 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

If you’re looking for a place where accountability doesn’t exist and you can do the bare minimum while getting paid maximum overtime, this is your spot. No approval needed, no questions asked—just stay late, watch YouTube, and collect your paycheck (plus free food if you linger long enough). Weekends are basically a free-for-all since the people who are supposed to supervise are either absent or the worst offenders.

Cons

This place is what happens when a parent company buys a smaller one and then completely forgets it exists. There is zero meaningful oversight. Management knows exactly what’s going on—they just don’t care as long as quotas are eventually met. Efficiency, integrity, and actual productivity mean nothing here. Documentation is either nonexistent or completely useless, full of errors and missing critical information. Parts are constantly missing, and instead of fixing the system, people exploit it to justify delays and stretch their hours. The entire operation rewards time-wasting over competence. The culture actively punishes anyone who tries to work a normal, honest 8-hour day. Want recognition or a raise? Better start padding your hours. The more time you burn, the more management “appreciates” you. It’s not about results—it’s about how long you can pretend to be working. Managers, being salaried, conveniently disappear when it matters most—nights and weekends—while turning a blind eye to the dysfunction they fully understand. Leadership isn’t absent by accident; it’s absent by choice.

2
See reviews by: Helpful|Rating|Date|All