Nuance Reviews

Pros

- If you're interested in NLU, it can be a fun and somewhat exciting place to work
- There are opportunities to learn, if you want to take them

Cons

- Upper management often seems confused as to what direction they are heading in
- There is a lot of spoken "yes" but little action
- Firings seem to happen to satisfy headcount and quarterly earnings, not entirely based on performance/reliability/competence
- Very little communication between teams working on similar projects

Advice to Senior Management

Nuance is organized hierarchically so that teams with overlapping knowledge are not aware that they are working on similar problems, so the same work gets done over and over.

Pros

Relaxed atmosphere
Very casual dress
Good benefits

Cons

Difficult to organize your personal space.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen more to those that sit front line on issues.

Pros

the stock is always climbing

Cons

a very fast paced place that not everyone can survive

Advice to Senior Management

i think that they should continue on the path they are heading as I am sure that this will lead to continued success

Pros

Extremely great bunch of people to work, very technical and competent in the field. Very helpful senior management who look out for their teams.

Cons

Compensation seems to be on the lower side as compared to the industry. Work hours can get long and hence compensation seems to be on the lower side.

Advice to Senior Management

Provide opportunities for creative people to shine and demonstrate their skills. Look into newer technologies and ideas from the industry.

Pros

Voice recognition technology is interesting and Nuance is the place to be if you want to work in that field. The company is growing even in difficult time. The compensation and bonus are nice. The downtown Montreal location is nice despite the fact that restaurants aren't so good.

Cons

The organisation feel sometimes like anarchy. Too much time is spent in discussion on relatively low complexity subject and not enough on implementation. Expect a lot of emails. This tends to cut innovations down.

Advice to Senior Management

Embrace modern development techniques and tools.

Pros

Nuance provides a nice working environment where almost everyone is really nice. The break room is usually well stocked and the company is trying its best to have good social interactions between people.

Cons

No one knows anyone outside of their team, and they don't care to. Developers are seen as fungible resources and time split on completely different projects is seen as a really good thing. Young developers are not mentored or pushed to better themselves as software engineers. This is the wrong place for any new grads that are talented. Which is extremely unfortunate, because there is a reason Google, facebook, microsoft, and amazon recruit heavily from universities and do well. No sight for advancement either.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to your developers more. Encourage young software engineers to work on hard problems and mentor them. Don't let their talents stagnate! They were talented enough to get hired, now invest in their abilities. Otherwise, they will realize they aren't becoming better in their chosen career path and move on.

Pros

Good work/life balance, good benefits, pay is average for this type of company. Depending on your manager, you may enjoy working there.

Cons

Nuance consistently finds reasons to weasel out of paying promised bonuses, unless you happen to be somebody's favorite. So all year long you get happy messages about how great the company is doing and how big your annual bonus will be. Then they don't pay. It's inredibly sleazy.

Advice to Senior Management

You are creating an unhealthy in-crowd out-crowd situation, and lots of resentment. If an employee is good enough to work for Nuance, he's good enough to deserve a bonus. If I treated a waitress like this, I would get my drink thrown in my face - and I would deserve it, too! The only difference is you do it over an entire fiscal year, not just one dinner. Stop weaseling out of your promises!

Pros

Nuance has a great benefit package and allows for good work/life balance. They are "corporate" based meaning employees at HQ are more apt to see benefits and be treated better.

Cons

Sr and Jr level managers are very short sited. Many managers have never sold technology products before and therefore try to impose "their type of sales experience" to every opportunity. Major conflicts between sales groups and channel. This is an organization without organization, they enjoy running around pointing fingers at people (good and bad). Systems are dismissal and good luck getting products to customers quickly. Very much a good old boy network so if you don't know someone be wary.

Advice to Senior Management

Clean up the conflict between groups and focus on what is the easiest way for the customer to interact with the company. Don't reorganize every year and you may have some experienced folks who have had successful technology sales lives outside your company, these individuals may offer advice for better and different ways things can be done! The turmoil creates chaos in your organization and makes individuals keep one foot out the door.

Pros

seems to be a good work / life balance

Cons

been w/Nuance for 6 months and i've talked to my 'boss' 3 times, 2 of which were 'team' meetings. numerous requests for direction and defined expectations have gone unanswered

Advice to Senior Management

i'd suggest improving communication - but that almost implies that there is some communication to begin with. the company is very large and has a lot of moving parts. people around me seemed far too overwhelmed with all of the acquisitions

Pros

Great company for a self-starter

Cons

Relatively small number of employees in US.

Advice to Senior Management

Great job.