Cadence: A Great Place to Work—Asia

For the first time ever, Great Place to Work ranked Cadence as the #15 Best Place to Work in Asia. Cadence was chosen from a pool of nearly 1,200 organizations based on how our employees in Greater China, Korea, and India responded to survey questions about the workplace culture. We wanted to highlight the Cadence Asia experience by asking representatives from three of our offices about what makes Cadence a Great Place to Work. The answers were honest, idealistic, and forward-looking, which is exactly how a Great Place to Work should be.

What makes working at Cadence a unique experience?

Korea / Singapore (Cindy):

It’s about people. We have great people at Cadence. We create a unique culture. This is not only our workplace but also a place of sharing our partnership and friendship.

Taiwan (Elena):

It’s the culture that leads people in cadence to collaborate with each other as One Cadence—One Team. Cadence Taiwan has employees from different business groups, and their collaboration drives teams to work in an efficient way and build a high-performance culture.

India (Sunil):

It is definitely the culture that makes Cadence unique. Cadence believes in encouraging innovation, collaboration, and teamwork while still having fun. Thanks to our inspiring leaders, a talented and highly skilled team, focus on quality and a work culture which motivates everyone to do their best, we are a leader in the Electronic Design Automation (EDA) industry today.

All our programs are designed to keep employees front and center, whether it is our programs around employee engagement, higher education, family leave, medical coverage, community efforts, or technical conferences; each is appreciated by our employees.

I am personally very motivated and driven by the high-performance work culture that Cadence has built over the years, which encourages all of us to do great things in our own respective work areas that contribute to business success.

Does your site have any local programs or events that are unique from the rest of Cadence?

(Cindy; Korea): We arrange a quarterly group volunteer activity— named Cadence Angel or “C-Angel” Volunteer Activity. It started as a way for individuals who were interested in “doing good things” to come together as a group, and now we see 8 to 10 employees per event. ...When we go to a group activity, we always feel that we receive more than we give.

How does Cadence make you feel valued as an employee?

(Sunil; India): The opportunity to work alongside the industry’s brightest people in an encouraging and supportive environment is what motivates me to bring my best self to work every day. We say that employees join Cadence because of our innovation and stay because of our culture and it is completely true. I have opportunities and feel empowered and supported to make my mark on my team, my business group, and the company through my work.

What programs seem to resonate the most with your site?

(Elena; Taiwan): Because Cadence Taiwan is one of the biggest R&D centers with more than 75% employees working in R&D, apart from technical knowledge-sharing program and talks, one of the most popular programs that boost innovation and collaboration across boundaries is our Hackathon events.

(Sunil; India): One of the key aspects of gaining knowledge is through shared learning and we have seen this working out and making a huge impact amongst our employees. Our programs, such as Advanced Technical Talks (ATTs), which feature an internal or external speaker, create an intellectually vibrant atmosphere for employees in different businesses to come learn about shared interests. Another program is Technical Leadership Connect (TLC), which allows young engineers to connect with well-known and well-regarded technical leaders in an informal environment. We have also seen an overwhelming response from employees on our “community-giving” programs.

Were there any new programs/events that your site did this year?

(Cindy; Korea): We had a 30-year anniversary celebration at the site. Employees came to our cafeteria for a small office party to celebrate Cadence’s history of success. We also had a watermelon party during the summertime—small refreshments were decorated beautifully for our employees to enjoy juicy watermelon (Korean watermelon is really sweet)!

(Sunil; India): One of the big events for this year was our global initiative against hunger. It brought the employees together as “One Team” making the volunteer event a great success.

(Elena; Taiwan): We hosted an open-house family day that brought employees’ families together at the Cadence office and introduced them to Cadence culture with food and games. They had a lot of fun!

What are you looking forward to for the future of your Cadence site?

(Cindy; Korea): We spend more than a third of the day in the workplace—people at Cadence are not only our colleagues, but there is a family feeling here. I look forward to watching how we continue to build a strong camaraderie so that we can support each other and grow with each other.

(Sunil; India): I am really looking forward to seeing the site grow and contribute towards the overall organizational success. With our focus on innovation, customer success, and a highly engaged workforce, we will continue to strengthen Cadence India’s position as one of the top Great Places to Work.

How do you stay in touch with Cadence HQ? In other words, how does “One Cadence” apply to you?

(Cindy; Korea): Technology shortens the distance between the continents of the globe. I don’t feel we’re distant from each other. We can find each other anytime on chat and email. I sometimes get surprised how fast they respond!

(Sunil; India): We have regular company-wide all-hands meetings to know updates about the business. We connect to our teams through meetings, emails, and visitors coming from HQ. Regionally, we have a showcase to know about what events and best practices are in other countries, and we also share ours. 

What does it mean to you and your site to be recognized as one of Asia’s Best Places to Work?

(Elena; Taiwan): It’s a significant milestone for everyone in Cadence. We have the right programs and will keep going to make people better and to make Cadence better.

(Cindy; Korea): I believe this means that we’ll not stop here. Culture is not made by one person in one time. It is built by everyone at Cadence. Congratulations to all our employees in Asia!

(Sunil; India): It’s a proud moment for all of us. We have worked hard to build this unique high-performing culture. We are thrilled to be recognized with this award.

Anything else you’d like to say about your Cadence experience?

(Sunil; India): Cadence is a great place where great people come together and do great work!

(Elena; Taiwan): Cadence is a place where I can always find people that I can learn from them and make our mark through this collaborative culture and environment. 

(Cindy; Korea): I am honored that I was involved in making Cadence a great place to work. This has been a great learning journey for me personally. The great thing about participating with Great Place to Work each year is that we’re making Cadence better every year. And we want to be even greater!

Cadence is a Great Place to Work worldwide, and this reflects the culture that Cadence strives to create. We’re honored to be recognized as one of Asia’s Best Places to Work!