Esri Reviews

Pros

Gorgeous campus (with a turtle pond!), great benefits package, and an intelligent community of employees working around an exciting product.

Cons

Management is largely unsupportive of employee growth and creativity. The exempt/non-exempt distinction between employees creates a demoralizing division, with non-exempt employees under a very strict schedule & managerial babysitting, and exempt employees free to largely determine their own schedules. Tenure at the company far outweighs job performance & industry expertise. Marketing strategies are decrepit and rigid, abd management is not open to incorporation of new ideas. Ample criticism for even minor errors that don't affect productivity & NO positive reinforcement for successes.

Advice to Senior Management

Provide positive feedback to employees doing good work. Don't highlight the division between exempt/non-exempt. Consider ideas, even from new or younger employees.

Pros

Esri's main campus in Redlands is beautiful, with all kinds of trees and places to meet and eat outside. The owners of the company are very pro-environment, and it shows with recycling programs and solar panels on all the major buildings.

Cons

HR is actively hostile to employees; lots of office politics and backstabbing, moreso than most companies I've worked for. The company leadership tends to regularly set unrealistic deadlines for projects just to force employees to work harder.

Advice to Senior Management

A company's employees are its greatest resource. Treat them with respect, give a clear, consistent vision, and encourage individual innovation, and they will reward you with success.

Pros

Esri has a very flexible working schedule and has decent benefit package and a pretty nice profit-sharing plan. You can lot help from within via various sources such as internal email groups and websites.

Cons

Career movement is very limited. You can stuck in one position for years.
You don't know what can get your good raise.

Advice to Senior Management

Hope management will develop a clear career paths for both technical and sales staff with related salary scales. All the performance measurement tools wouldn't matter if there is no career path in front of us.

Pros

The Esri community is very close and most employees are open to helping you in your job. Access to current software and training for employees is excellent. Atmosphere is relaxed and very conducive to learning. If you are a technical GIS person it is a dream to work here.The relationship with customers is very special in this company. Esri cares about it's customers and is not just out for the money. The vision of our CEO is very refreshing, job security is excellent and Esri is a very stable company. Benefits are about average not too bad and not too good either. Overall Esri is a great place to work but just like every company there are some downsides.

Cons

Definitely do not work here if you are looking to make money. Raises are low and the review process is very tedious. Good performance in your job does not necessarily translate into more money. Management can be hit or miss. At the top it is typically good, but middle management can sometimes be very unreliable and out of touch. There is also sometimes a palpable tension that develops between technical and non technical folks. Especially on the sales side. Career mobility is an issue as well. To change departments within Esri, even if you are very qualified and have manager approval, can be harder than an act of congress to get done. Promotions are rare, Esri will say they are a "flat" organization, but in reality they are just like any other company with a hierarchy of employees. Esri can also be very "cheap". This is good in that they are conservative but sometimes it comes across as being indifferent to the employees. Employees are regularly asked to share hotel rooms on business trips with other employees and expenses are overly scrutinized.

Pros

* Worklife balance is great
* Work with a lot of technology
* Get a lot of experience in all processes

Cons

* Career growth not happening
* Disconnect from managment and its employees
* People do not communicate well

Pros

Great learning potential and room to learn different functional areas.

Cons

Effort needs to be compensated better.

Pros

Stable employment
Flexible work schedule
College-like campus
Not beholden to stockholders or quarterly numbers
Jack's vision of making the world a better place

Cons

Lack of promotion from within the organization
Lack of even cost of living allowances
Minimal 401K match
Benefits package is average at best
Vacation is capped at 4 weeks/year after 10 years of service

Advice to Senior Management

Why do we keep hiring middle managers from outside the company? If existing management does not have somebody "waiting in the wings" that could step in when a manager leaves, what does that say about their abilities as a manager?

After 20 years of service you give employees a rubber chicken dinner in the parking lot/street and give out a glass paperweight in the shape of a magnifying glass without even bothering to engrave the employees name on it? Way to reward loyalty!!

Pros

Company has a great mission and vision.
Strong financial position. .
Market leading company.

Cons

Limited advancement opportunities.
Earnings are not tied to performance.

Pros

Great benefits, fantastic work life balance, highly intelligent staff

Cons

Low pay compared to industry for many positions. No set salary increases upon promotion.

Advice to Senior Management

Create formal, published, salary ranges and offer set expectations when someone promotes as to what their salary increase will be. People that promote quickly over several years end up with low salaries compared to comparable outside hires.

Pros

Relaxed dress code, semi-casual environment, onsite cafe and health benefits. The opportunity to work with some extremely talented people.

Cons

The specific department I worked in was unorganized and had poor communication, which was the stem of most department problems.

Advice to Senior Management

Spend more time equally developing employees. Favoritism and nepotism is a huge problem at Esri. I would also recommend working on promoting from within and creating more opportunities for job growth and career advancement.