Vantaggi
Financially secure company with a long history ( 40 years). A lot of employees have been with the company 10+ or 20+ years. A good work environment, friendly people, expectations are reasonable and coworkers are helpful. Compensation and benefits are both reasonable-- not outstanding, but fair. By Silicon Valley standards, a stable company where you know what you're going to get.
Svantaggi
Exar struck me as overly resistant to change, which isn't a big surprise given how long it has been around. I also felt that Exar lacked an identity in a way that no other place I've worked has. What makes Exar Exar? I guess the fact that it's been around for 40 years-- every other place I've worked has something more tangible: advantages in customer service, engineering or pricing, etc. But for Exar I could never put my finger on it-- except to say that it's been around 40 years.