Esri Reviews

Pros

professional growth opportunities, not micromanaged, company cares about customers more than short term financial gain, good co-workers, stable organization, company allows you to take positions which challenge you and you can grow into.

Cons

Compensation is lower than traditional sales roles because of the comp structure. Company culture is different - it's still run as a small business in some ways...this isn't necessarily a con, but rather something to be aware of and requires a bit of adjustment.

Pros

This can be an excellent place to develop your skills while doing truly important work. Customers appreciate and value the interaction with staff and you are given the opportunity to work with a wide array of organizations solving mission critical issues.
Job Security
Benefits package
401K

Cons

Executive leadership tends to close itself off from the reality of what’s really happening in the industry. The competition in this industry is fierce, Google, Microsoft, not to mention partner “co-opetion”, but sales executive receive no compensation for their effort. Organizationally the company moves at a snail’s pace compared to the rest of the industry. Innovative thoughts and ideas are stifled by less creative mind in the organization which wield the power and influence to implement change. It’s easier for management to say no than yes, negating the negotiation process and preventing Sales people from closing business.
Micro-Management
Low base salary
No commission
Poor Management
Professional services rate are extremely high
Reimbursed expenses are limited

Advice to Senior Management

Look at what you’ve become and the type of company you once were. The failures of this organization fall to the executives that you’ve asked to lead your staff. You have good quality people that still work for this company, or at least a few that you haven’t allowed HR to fire or force to quit. If you want to be competitive with the big boys you need to compensate your staff like they do, promote from within, provide leadership and not lectures, and most of all empower your people to take action. Accountability comes with responsibility; if your people can’t make a decision without asking permission then you’ve got a problem. If the people that are responsible for making these decision continue to hold other accountable for their mistakes then you’re in real trouble Jack.

Pros

Great environment.Peers are ready for help.Good place to learn.
The company has a good campus.A lot of innovation going in there.

Cons

As a intern ,your work won't be considered significant compared to full time employee,which is kind of obvious .You will learn a lot here.

Advice to Senior Management

Management is overall great.Management takes good care of the employee.
A management can help do more events to make the employee know each other.

Pros

Great opportunities to pursue your dreams in geography and as a professional. One of the best environments for a geographer to grow.

Cons

Non commission and hourly positions for everyone, which may or may not be an advantage to some. Sales environment is unique, and many teams do not understand each others ultimate goals.

Pros

Great benefits and campus to work on

Cons

No room for advancement - for a techonology company - very backwards in alot of policies

Pros

Flexibility and lack of stress are good....

Cons

No career path; Tribal; Lack of leadership; Moving closer to a mainstream sales organization without the incentives for staff

Pros

Good people.
Great place to learn and grow in knowledge.
Good work-life balance.

Cons

NO CAREER/PAY GROWTH OPPORTUNITIES!!!
Don't work here unless you're ok with staying at the same pay rate for the next 10-15 years.
Pay is 20% less than other companies.

Advice to Senior Management

Pay your employees what they're worth.

Pros

Esri truly has a beautiful campus. It was very refreshing to walk around all of the exotic trees and landscapes. This definitely added value to my daily routine. The company is located in Redlands which for a small town isn't that bad. Esri is the largest employer there. If you like to feel privileged then the effect of Esri being in Redlands lends to a "big fish in a little pond" kind of ego-boost for most Esri employees. If you're into that kind of thing then you'll enjoy working for Esri in Redlands as opposed to Esri in a remote office, where nobody local cares if you work for Esri or not.

If you are a GIS enthusiast, working for Esri gives you a new perspective (vendor centric) on the whole industry that you won't get elsewhere. There are some great Esri internal presentations that occur periodically that aren't available to the public. You'll get to hear presentations before they go onto the big stages. It feels good knowing what's on the cutting edge of Esri technology and whats likely to happen next in the industry. Lots of free training available if you like tinkering with the technology.

If you're a kool-aid drinker and thing that GIS will save the world then you will fit right in.

Cons

Low pay and poor benefits. Low 401k matching. Most kids out of college don't know what "good benefits" are. Esri hires a lot of recent graduates to keep up with their high turnover. At Esri, you'll notice a trend in employees. Usually you're either (A) a veteran who has been there forever or (B) a relatively new hire with less than 4 years at the company. Coincidentally, after 4 years your 401k is vested. I suspect that employees get "pushed out" just before that time and then replaced by a recent college graduate.

HR. Don't even get me started. An event occurred a few years ago when the markets went sour. Esri hired new HR management to "make things more efficient". Instead being upfront and laying people off, they began finding extremely petty reasons to cite people for rule violations. Internet usage, phone usage, dress code, rules that nobody knew existed, etc. The result was that a lot of people got fired or were forced to resign. This event set a tone for how HR works at the company and has persisted until today. Backstabbing occurs at Esri when someone finds a way to build a case against you with HR, who will undoubtedly make your working life hellish. For example, you may be forced to attend an hour-long meeting with HR every other Monday to do performance reviews for the duration of 6-8 months. In these meetings, they will have all of your email correspondence printed and will review it with you, looking for ways to take your written word out of context and perpetuate their case against you. During this time your manager will tell you that HR has blocked your annual raise.

They advertise a "flat management style" as a benefit. This is Esri's way of saying "once you're hired we won't pay you more money for position moves later in your career". Esri's biggest expense are salaries for their employees. They will fight you tooth and nail to keep your salary as low as possible. In actuality, the flat management style is just a myth. Esri is riddled with all different layers of management and bureaucracies once you cut through the smoke.

The company isn't doing anything new anymore. Nothing revolutionary has happened since ArcView 3.x and they're still milking the GIS desktop cow. Esri server software and enterprise solutions are just bandwagon products that they had to create to remain relevant. The lack of recent product innovation has led to a penny-pinching culture where someone's cost-cutting initiatives are more valuable than innovative product engineering that should be taking place instead.

Advice to Senior Management

There is so much potential at Esri.Throttle HR down a bit. Make it feel less like a corporate meat grinder and people may actually stay longer than 2 years.

Pros

Great benefits
Very flexible
Good Culture overall

Cons

Events marketing management sucks since it changed in 2009
Hardly any employee is happy at the events team
People just sticking either thy live local or want to gain experience and change companies

Advice to Senior Management

Needs some transparency

Pros

Flexibility
Great people
Intellectually stimulating
Socially and environmentally responsible company
Pays well

Cons

Too political
Some upper managers appear to have no management experience and use intimidation tactics; lack trust in their employees
No room for growth
Skeptical of non-GIS and/or younger personnel
Micromanaging owners
HR is a blackhole

Advice to Senior Management

Get rid of the bad managers