National Instruments Reviews in Austin, TX Area

Pros

You would want to work for this company because of the friendliness of the people, great work life balance, and opportunities for movement within the company.

Cons

As an intern working outside of engineering, the pay is not as high as it could be. The overall experience would be better if you felt you were properly compensated.

Advice to Senior Management

I felt that the overall management was fine. As an intern you do not have the visibility that you would as a full time employee so it is hard to give a detailed and well informed answer.

Pros

They have a very friendly environment that allows someone to ask questions and learn from others. While some people don't have a great understanding, the management was aware of people's technical skills and gave them projects that they were capable of.

Cons

The pay is not as great as other companies. And for someone who would want to continue education, they only had three options to get your Masters which is very difficult to do (as in hard to do the school and work at the same time) from what I've heard.

Advice to Senior Management

The leadership at National Instruments is very smart. While some people say that only the bad stay and get promoted, I only experience good leadership around me that were able to meet my needs for the company.

Pros

Smart co-workers and technologically advanced products make a great combination for engineers to engage and learn. The company supports personal initiatives and encourages people's many interests, both work- and hobby-related.

Cons

Pay is OK. Many times one can find oneself working on products that are slight variations of existing products, which means that it's a bit of a repeat work.

Advice to Senior Management

Consider better compensation for employees and aim for a more steady rate of growth, such that a good standard paygrade can be maintained.

Pros

Good benefits. The company does care about its employees.

Cons

Not enough communication between departments

Pros

Superb work atmosphere that applies to the attitude of co-workers throughout the company, communication between employees, and the level of interest and importance of the projects employees work on. I always felt like a valued part of a team, and a valued part of the company.

Cons

Their corporate email application is a little slow and sometimes difficult to work with. It's really a very small gripe that is easily overcome.

Advice to Senior Management

As you probably already know, NI Week is just as much as a rev-up for NI employees as it is for customers. You do a great job already, but don't loose sight of how important that week is for employees as well for the health and demeanor of the company.

Pros

The management is great. The after work activites are fun. Laid back atmosphere. Good balance between work and fun. Location is great.

Cons

I've heard pay is lower, but I think it's made up for by the location, cost of living, and benefits.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep doing what you've been doing, it seems like it's been working. Keep up the benefits and events for employees.

Pros

- Great learning environment
- Employee friendly
- Good balance of work and personal life
- Great benefits, esp. health insurance

Cons

- Limited career advancement
- Incompetent mid-level management
- Lower salary

Advice to Senior Management

Please pay attention to mid-level managers a little more.

Pros

- open, communicative culture
- well designed campus
- easy pace
- Austin is a good place to live
- industry standard products
- egalitarian

Cons

- technology not very cutting edge
- too many acronyms (gpbx pcib ....)
- stock symbol (nati) longer than company abbreviation (ni)
- too many sales and marketing types

Advice to Senior Management

HR: please let James truchard be. He does not have to perform at intern events.

Pros

* Really is a "small company makes it big" success story.
* Wide variety of hardware and software projects, covering whatever your latest interest
* HQ is a great campus in a great city; branch offices around the world offer a chance to dip your toe in all sorts of things
* Promotion from within -- you know your competition when trying for a spot because they're mostly the same people you've worked with for years

Cons

* NI is a social network. A VERY social network. Surprisingly so for a bunch of engineers. Lots of tight friend circles, intra-company dating, that sort of thing. And that means that news spreads often through back channels, and opportunities to advance can be missed because you didn't go to a particular party to overhear that news. Luckily, it's never too late to start meeting people and forming your own back channel group.
* Lots of growing pains. The transition from small company to large has had some missteps. Nothing egregious, but annoying. Sometimes it can be hard to figure out who is the proper authority on a given topic, which leads to a lot of "better to ask forgiveness than permission" attitudes.

Advice to Senior Management

NI relies heavily on those back channels to keep it from making dumb mistakes. There is some real weakness in the formal communications between groups. As we get larger, random connections across the company will be harder to form. We either need to improve formal communications structures or do a better job mixing groups so people in disparate departments get to know each other, just like the old-timers did naturally.

Pros

The company does it's best not to lay-off employees when the economy is poor.

Cons

I was a temporary employee for 16 months