National Instruments Reviews in Austin, TX Area

Pros

NI is experience lots of growth and with that come opportunities to grow with the organization

Cons

With grow also come growing pains and constant change. You are required to handle conflicting prioritise and welcome the opportunity to guide management decision making

Pros

-good location
-on site cafeteria
-sponsored events & activities typically focused on athletics or alcohol
-on site gym
-fairly calm work environment

Cons

The hiring model they seem to have embraced is to basically offshore about 2/3 of their new hires(mostly new college grads) and to focus on new college graduates for most of the rest. The pay is substandard, the benefits are okay but completely self funded so they are very aggressive about having to approve what you need. The equipment provided to work on was old or cheap and sub-par compared to my past experiences in corporate america. The culture is very focused on teaching the 'NI Way' to new hires fresh from college and therefore suffers from groupthink when it comes to critically analyzing themselves internally. Upper Management in my department seemed to be based on length of service more than anything else, and much of the lower/middle management I encountered seemed to be picked not just for competence in their area, but also for lack of compassion towards their team while still attempting to portray the company as compassionate towards employees. Bottom line though, employees there are still just assets to be utilized. Conclusion: If you want to have a high impact or try to innovate beyond the strictly regulated role you have in a particular project this is not the place for you. However, if you don't mind low pay, slow advancement, and a very corporate but relaxed work environment it might be ok. I know they are Fortune top 100 places to work, but how much is that survey really worth if 90% of the employees have only worked at this one company?

Advice to Senior Management

To take it to the next level I'd advise bringing in some outside talent to keep the process of evolution healthy, instead of hampered by internal groupthink. The offshore strategy that I witnessed with integrated teams primarily led by a US manager seemed inefficient and always left the offshore people under appreciated and under utilized. I would think about trying to have geographic based teams responsible for whole projects or sections of projects.

Pros

Very stable, have yet to have a lay off, nice area to work in, typical promote from within instead of hiring from outside for upper management.

Cons

Little chance to move up, structure at times can cause ur work to not be seen as yours, feel like I hit a dead end.

Advice to Senior Management

Better recognize peoples work as that persons work instead of someone who happens to be a figure head lead and talk about the work done from the people under him.

Pros

Smart top-level management
superior products
progressive in terms of growth
no "layoffs"
excellent recession adaptations

Cons

"Great place to work", unless..
you are in less-than perfect health
are older
have outdated skillset
you have health issues

Never mind how long you've worked at or how loyal you are to NI, expect to be screwed over the second you cease to be a "super" performer.

If you have a disability, unless it SHOWS, you can forget about accommodations.
You will be treated like a lying malingerer and driven out of your job, with insulting bad performance reviews to trump up their false claims.

If you are not a drinker, you will become an outcast. So many "perks" revolve around drinking.

Work-life balance? Forget it! Best place to work? Are you kidding me??

Advice to Senior Management

Not everyone who is good at their job should be promoted to management. People leave managers, not jobs. PLEASE take any complaints against mgt seriously. A bad manager can ruin an otherwise dedicated and superior employee.
HR is not your friend if you find yourself in difficulty. They will "say" all the right things, but "beware". Mgt will find ways to ruin your reputation that have nothing to do with your actual job performance if they feel you are no longer a "good fit".
One's value to the company is very quickly reduced to nothing if you are less than 100% healthy, young and full of energy.
Too much focus on young, healthy employees who have few work-life balance problems!!

Pros

Good Work Environment and enjoyable

Cons

Low Salary and only good for starters

Pros

1. Software and hardware are integrated seamlessly
2. PXI/PXIe instruments are the best components of test system on the manufacture floor.
3. Pioneer in the implementing parallel testing in the industry

Cons

Most of the instruments are high ended and the price is high. It's better to develop more entry level instruments which could be used by more customer.

Advice to Senior Management

National instruments is one of the best work place in US. The management is the key component to achieve the success.

Pros

The offer a great work life balance. The company culture is one that really is employee driven. They do awesome volunteer work in the local community.

Cons

The pay is not as competitive as others in the industry and could be improved. Engineers tend to be paid higher.

Pros

Work hard play hard environment

Cons

Salary is not that great

Pros

Relaxed Atmosphere. Fun Projects to Work On.

Cons

Salaries are a bit low.

Pros

The web team has some interesting work being done when working closely with R&D and product marketing. Lot of freedom to explore new tools and methodologies

Cons

Low pay, raises just keep up with inflation. Also favoritism in management when promoting or giving raises. Employee feedback is not taken into account to improve this issue.

Advice to Senior Management

Treat your employees as a "creative asset". Sometimes experimenting with new ideas can come up with good solutions