Nuance Reviews

Pros

Recognition for good work, startup culture, good and bright people to work with, flex time, access to senior management. Good place to gain experience.

Cons

Very conservative with compensation. Easy burnout due to work load and aggressive schedules, Sales and execution not in sync with each other.

Advice to Senior Management

Strengthen tracking, budget management, demand management and resource utilization processes.
Build stronger vendor management processes and foster relationships so that you can keep the supply demand at balance.

Pros

Some of the pros about this place included a great benefits package, very intelligent co-workers, and a chance to work with some new and cutting edge technologies. Free Soda?

Cons

Where to begin..well first off this place treats workers as expendable. Be prepared to work long hours and to sacrifice your weekends and personal time all in the name of padding Paul Ricci's pockets. Nuance is a perfect example of a company that pays their employees just enough not to quit. As a result most employees do just enough work not to get fired. Worker morale is also very low because of the constant threat of lay offs. Expect to be managed by a group of technically incompetent project managers who are constantly asking: "Is it done yet? Is it fixed yet?". Also if you work here DO NOT expect a raise..ever. Nuance simply just does not give them. Try to restrain yourself when the HR department explains that the "bad economy" has the company short on cash for raises only to open your e-mail the next day to read that Nuance acquired three new companies for $300 million in cash. Rejoice when you get your 2% bonus after working countless weekends and nights for months on end. Another major topic worth mentioning is that Nuance is INCREDIBLY political much more than most companies. Nuance does not reward contributers but rather rewards individuals who know how to cozy up to management and play political games. Sadly I would not recommend working here. Just about everyone one of my old co-workers at Nuance was either actively seeking other opportunities to leave or waiting for the economy to improve to find a better job because Nuance is literally a career dead end.

Advice to Senior Management

The employees of Nuance are the greatest asset that it posses. Disgruntling employees is a sure way to have very brilliant and talented people leave and apply their skills to other companies. Having low worker morale is also a sure way to have otherwise brilliant people produce mediocre work. Treat your employees better.

Pros

excellent technology solutions and professional services team

Cons

Negative culture, too internally focused on negative of employees,

Advice to Senior Management

Need to bring in more people from the outside who haven't been with Nuance 10+ years and understand why new hires don't flourish at Nuance and leave within 2 years.

Pros

They pay very well for the work I was recruited for. Full time employees recieve great benefits.

Cons

Not a lot of leadership or knowledge from upper management. Seems that everyone that works there avoids confronting work situations/problems when they arise. Ownership of problems are almost always passed on the next employee in line.

Pros

Good benefits, flexible with PTO

Cons

Poorly managed, short sighted vision, very little training, poor mentor program, politically charged bonuses, no knowledge sharing of different frameworks. Very cheap when it comes to merit increases and raises, except for the executives

Advice to Senior Management

Look for ways to innovate, not just ways to cut cost (aka layoffs). Treat people like humans

Pros

- Great technology
- Dedicated people
- Growth market/sectors

Cons

- Poor execution for customers
- Products and Services not well aligned
- Lacking culture of innovation
- Cost-cutting focus year-in, year-out

Advice to Senior Management

Align products and services; hire word-class COO

Pros

Interesting technology, great people (on team levels). Employee stock purchase plan is a nice adder. Good place to get a lot of experience quickly.

Cons

Very little consideration is given to the people actually doing the work. They are just resource upon which more and more work can be heaped, regardless of what is already in process. "Design by Decree" is the MO here -- if the product does not include a feature or function, and Senior Management decides it should, it will, in short order, regardless of the impact on existing projects and the resources needed.

Advice to Senior Management

Start seeing employees as people.

Pros

Huge growth and technical innovation. Brilliant executive team. Strong financially. Products are well balanced across many markets.

Cons

Very political. Lacks many career, personal development opportunities for a company its size. Sometimes tough culture

Advice to Senior Management

Needs to break stovepipe politics at the top. Many old timers think more about their own well being over the company.

Pros

Some of the projects are interesting.
Great coworkers and corporate atmosphere, in our location at least.
4 weeks of PTO per year (combined sick leave/vacation)

Cons

I'm embarrassed by the lousy customer support we give.
Employees are treated badly so all the qualified ones leave for better places (our competitors).
With refusal to hire or invest, it's only a matter of time before competition will leave us behind.
We pay our new hires the same salary Google interns get. How could we possibly compete with them for talented engineers?
Absurdly short-sighted focus on tomorrow's stock price drives bone-headed business decisions.

Advice to Senior Management

Invest in your products enough to stay competitive. Stop acquiring lousy companies. Stop cheaping away the good employees. Hire new employees.

Pros

Great products and market niche
Wonderfully talented people
Brand recognition getting better

Cons

Complete micro-management by incompetent senior management
Nuance Board of Directors - they haven't intervened
Recognition is based on who you know not what you know
A lot of resources given to lavish parties but not for training, careers and business growth

Advice to Senior Management

Advice to Board of Directors is to wake up and do something - you owe it to the shareholders of this company