Pros
If you work here long enough and your supervisor likes you, you have your job secured. You may work until 75 years old if you want. If you speak Mandarin, congratulations you can easily find a spot here. You need not worry too much if you get fired because most of the time this company is short of the workforce. Work-life balance really depends on which department you're with. Salary is below the average, but seriously there are thousands of people working here and they can still raise their families in silicon valley. Don't expect the quality of free breakfast, but a free dinner box is good for a single engineer saving dollars rather than dining out. Most people here are friendly and nice. This company completes the design, mfg, sales, and service all in house in San Jose, so the good thing is you can learn a lot here. You won't be just one part of the whole organization, everything is related to your daily job.
Cons
The management style is old school. We can't say it's definitely a bad thing because the company keeps growing year by year. However the longer you work here, you will find out it's harder for you to fit into any position outside this company, especially senior people .... their management skills stop growing and won't be adopted by other companies. The micromanagement style is not rare in silicon valley, but the style in SMC is very old school. They only know how to squeeze the time and efforts from people but never think of any efficient way. We won't see people happily jump in anything and say I can help it out. Most people are defensive, trying to get the heads down to stay away from trouble. Some are good at their survival skill, like pointing fingers at other teams, or volunteering to do the audit job. VP/Sr Director/GM are expected to work on Sataurday. During the COVID, people were still requested to work on campus.