Hemlock Semiconductor Employee Reviews for Operations Engineer

What do you like about working at Hemlock Semiconductor?

"Pay is competitive with other chemical/manufacturing companies. Work-life balance is very good (9/80 schedules) IF you are in the right department or not resourced into addressing plant-wide crises.Operators are non-union and are eager to learn, improve, and help."

Do you have any tips for others interviewing with this company?

"Know exactly what you're getting into and ask questions about your potential position.Certain departments in the company are not given enough resources to make improvements, making most efforts seem futile. Other departments will tell you work-life balance is important, but then overload engineers with work, expect them to work overtime, and not provide any compensation."

What don't you like about working at Hemlock Semiconductor?

"The upper management at the company is not well equipped to handle the growth the company is going through, and has also been ineffective at responding to crises for the past year.Most people have been working at the company their entire careers, and are thus very close minded to change or ideas for improvement from engineers new to the site.The company and location demographics are very monolithic. Expect a lot of ignorance and insensitivity towards different cultures and minorities. The location is very rural, 2 hours away from any major metro area or college town.You'll deal with the same frustrations with management and organizational politics as you would in any other corporation."

What suggestions do you have for management?

"Implement training and support programs for continuous improvement of middle management. The company is expanding rapidly and adding a lot of new employees, so having managers who are competent and effective is absolutely imperative.Re-evaluate the value of depending only on in-house technical knowledge and previously contracted resources when it comes to engineering design.Provide more attention and resources to improve areas of the plant that are customarily overlooked due to lack of political will. There is a gold mine of organizational and procedural low hanging fruit that is not being addressed."