[sevensor]

I too worked at SAS early in my career, for about half a decade. It was a wild time; I learned a lot, rubbed shoulders with some incredibly bright people, got to visit the Kiheung fabs. I'm not at all surprised by the story, however, especially the scapegoating and fingerpointing when things go badly. The two things that ultimately made me leave were (1) there was no path to become an advanced IC, it was pretty well accepted that you'd burn out or go into management, and if you didn't you'd eventually get laid off and (2) being constantly told that American engineers were "not diligent" and that my 60+ hours per week, 24/7/365 pager carry, and mandatory weekend coverage, were not adequate. When your co-workers joke about taking PTO to leave early at 18:00, it's not a joke.