The good:
Intel is considered to be CSR (corporate social responsibility) oriented company. It takes a good care of it's employees in terms of perks and professional development. You will get stock options. Good training, and opportunity to work in a diverse workplace.
If you decide to join Intel, expect to travel a lot. To do well in ranking & rating you need to become known, attend meetings, present a lot, and show that you can lead others.
There are however a lot of complaints about the quality of middle management... incompetent managers (more on this later.)
For those who would like to get in, study behavioral interviewing.
The bad:
I worked there for about 5 years. There are a lot of incompetent managers who manage by fear and intimidation. Every year there is a rank and rating and the bottom 5% automatically get put on a CAP (Corrective Action Plan). To succeed at Intel you need to brown nose a lot, make yourself as visible as possible and try to get your name attached to any project while doing as little as possible.
Be prepared for hard and long hours work schedule.
If stability is not as important as instantaneous gratification, you're going to be happy. The benefits are rapidly deteriorating (or being removed outright) and the 'Intel Culture' is just smoke in the wind. At least twice a year there are 'Headcount Reduction' and 'ReOrganization' traumas.. and now Intel is building a Fab in China~!
