If you are in the same shoes as I was a few months ago, trying to decide if Arm is a good place for you to start your career, then please believe me, avoid Arm at all costs. Although I cannot deny that I met wonderful people and gained invaluable experience, Arm absolutely threw me under the bus, broke their promises, and "rescinded" my graduate contract of employment 6 months after it was signed.
Following a successful summer, I was offered a position in their graduate program in January. At the time, I was interviewing for a few different jobs, however I was convinced by the people at Arm to pause these in favour of joining them instead. As a result, I signed my contract of employment with Arm and thought that was the end of it.
Unfortunately, in April, out of the blue, I was contacted via my mobile by Arm and was informed that they would be "rescinding" my signed and countersigned contract of employment due to their on-going redundancy lay-offs.
This was a shock to me as I was unsure (and still am) as to how a company can rescind a signed contract. More importantly, I had been promised by several in-the-know individuals that Graduate offer holders would not be affected by Arm's redundancy lay offs.
This phone call left me with many questions, however I was told to "shortly" expect an email that would clarify things. This email never came, and I instead was left in the dark for 2 months.
In contrast, other Arm employees affected by the redundancy lay offs were given counselling to support them through the process and representation at the senior level to defend their position. I was given none of that. When that discrepancy was raised, no action was taken.
It was only in June, 2 weeks away form my graduation, that I finally heard back from H.R.. They informed me that they didn't intend on offering me any compensation for "rescinding" my signed contract of employment.
Words cannot even begin to express my frustration. In a redundancy lay off that was very clearly planned as away to cut cost in order to obtain a higher valuation at the upcoming IPO, it is disgusting that the company went as far as to target Early Careers individuals who do not have the experience or support network to fall back onto. For a company whose value is "We not I", this feels very much like a greedy I.
I was finally laid off at the end of June, a whole 3 months after I was first communicated that Arm intended on "rescinding" my contract. The unbelievably slow pace of this process has concluded at a time of the year where companies are no longer recruiting for graduate programmes, and I will now struggle to find anything until the January graduate intake.
