Pros

Product is interesting, vacation and medical benefits are pretty good, too. Great location in downtown Chicago. You can have a life if you work here (40-50 hours per week).

Cons

People don't really leave NT, so promotional opportunities are limited. You have to really push to get noticed. Once you have another offer, and if you are good, they tend to bend and make things happen for you.

Advice to Senior Management

Set a vision, push it to the team, don't make it complicated. If you asked ten people "What is NAVTEQ's strategy for next 3 years," you would get ten different answers. That needs to change quickly!

Pros

NAVTEQ is in a fascinating industry and is definitely a great place to work considering the technology opportunities in Chicago. There are always new things to do and the industry is very dynamic. The customers are very diverse across auto, Internet, mobile so you learn a lot. The products are interesting - navigation maps are quite complex if you like that kind of stuff. I generally like my teammates very well.

Cons

Despite NAVTEQ being a growing company, opportunities to move up seem to have no rhyme or reason (i.e. not a meritocracy). Entire departments will be promoted and no one else from other departments are promoted - it seems to be who you know. There is little career planning for anyone. There are frequent reorganizations which is disruptive and I question the quality of some leaders who just get shuffled around instead of weeded out. There does not seem to be top down alignment to goals at times and there is a fair amount of politics. Leadership often refuses to make decisions until forced to which creates inefficiency and confusion among the ranks and limits progress.

Advice to Senior Management

Set goals and quantifiable metrics to more effectively run the company, including leadership/management aspects. Weed out ineffective leaders instead of shuffling them around.

Pros

Chance to be involved with a very useful and continually advancing product. Assuming one completes projects with average to good results, there is a reasonable level of security and morale. The atmosphere is generally very professional, while at the same time the dress code is casual. It's not a stuffy place to work.

Cons

Changes to processes pushed through without thorough review and anticipation of consequences. Reaping of rewards tends to be highly concentrated among top 0.01 % of personnel. Poorly defined expectations and unrealistic schedules often mean sacrificing quality. Changing suppliers or constant quibbling about minor pricing issues leads to un-necessary declines in productivity.

Advice to Senior Management

Reign in some of those newly-MBA-ed but little-experienced wunderkinds before they gee-whiz you into an entrepreneurially coked-out wonderland. Share more of the success of the company with those who get things done, not just those who crunch numbers and analyze results.

Pros

Navteq is a leading company in it's space, and is working on "cool" technologies. The company is a cash cow and employment there should be stable if you do what is expected of you. The benefits are good, and the in-office health club (Chicago) is a nice benefit.

Cons

The company looks for highly experienced talent, but then under-utilizes many.
It's quite bureaucratic for a tech company; there are a lot of 9-to-5ers.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to your worker bees. You pride yourself on hiring experienced professionals even at the lower levels; now utilize their talent.

Pros

Not too easy to find a technology company in Chicago. Management is strong, I have confidence in them. Company is well positioned for continued success.

Cons

NAVTEQ is not great about finding and supporting strong performers in the organization. Sometimes the atmosphere is a little unfriendly. Not the right kind of knowledgeshare goes on between groups, but there is an effort.

Advice to Senior Management

Setup some type of formal, internal mentor or networking program. Improve/encourage philanthropic activities.

Pros

Quite a bit of traveleing involved with the job. Interaction with employees throughout the country. Interesting work, but pay is not adequate for the skilled technical work involved.

Cons

Low pay, not comparable to industry.Though work is interesting not enough to keep you interested considering the pay. Better off finding work elsewhere.

Advice to Senior Management

Recognize and reweard field employees more

Pros

Recently acquired by Nokia, so supposedly the company is financially stable now. Interning there was not the best program, but interns are given freedom to complete projects as they see fit. The mentoring program works pretty well, but only if you are assigned a good mentor.

Cons

Since they really only do one thing - maps - it can get boring if that is not something that gets you fired up. Interns are typically given similar projects, but are often placed in the same room, which is not useful for getting projects done. The salary is very low for software engineers.

Advice to Senior Management

Put the interns together on a similar (or the same) project so that they can work together.

Pros

Flexible company to work for. My job is a mix of desk work and field work-- a great combination. Lots of variation. Good benefits packages, lots of training to help you do your job. Friendly and competent coworkers abound! Relocation is easy and supported by the management. Of all the companies I've worked for, this company has very supportive management.

Cons

Not the most high paying job if you're in the field part of the company. Other companies pay more for similar work, but if you go with them then you don't have the great combination of field work and office work, usually it's just one or the other. Benefits and great travel perks make up for the lacking pay.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep supporting your employees as you have -- enable more working from home, advocate pay increases (inflation and the CPI is no joke!)

Pros

Dress code is relaxed, unless you are in IS.

Cons

Limited advancement opportunities.
Hastily implemented projects cause grief at every level, from implementation to support.
Promotions are based on length of service, not skill level.

Advice to Senior Management

Quit pushing projects through in a knee-jerk fashion - more time is spent re-doing work or fixing design problems than what it would have taken to do it right the first time.

Pros

Supportive of professional development; strong and forward-thinking market leader; employees in some parts of the company have great opportunities for international travel

Cons

It's having growing pains -- expanding its business outside of mapping and navigation has been tough

Advice to Senior Management

Pay no attention to your corporate overlords at Nokia