Instrument reviews

3.1

59% would recommend to a friend

(24 total reviews)
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Laurel Burton

13% approve of CEO

17% positive business outlook

Reviews by job title

24 reviews

Reviews about "Compensation"

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5.0
Jun 7, 2021

Best job I've ever had

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Your coworkers will be great. Instrument is full of folks amazingly talented at their craft while also being kind and without ego. Great strides have been taken to create a more equitable and inclusive environment over the last year—from interview processes to a transparent pay band structure to flexible schedules for parents. Lot's of opportunity for professional and personal growth—with clear structure and coaching from managers. Great clients. Admirable work/life balance. My team has always looked out for not overworking people. And this behavior is modeled by the team leads. There is no expectation to work nights and weekends. Transition to fully remote provides a lot of new freedom. Move to be closer to family. Work in Hawaii for a month.

Cons

Baseline salaries are a bit lower than other top agencies. This discrepancy tends to be more than covered through annual bonuses but that feels risky to be on the receiving end of that. The company has been playing catch up from systemic issues around diversity. Your experience will vary depending on your team—as all essentially act as their own agencies. I've always been on the same team and my time here has been great.

3.0
Mar 29, 2021
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- If you're on a high-functioning team, the people you work with day to day are second to none. - Interesting client projects, big names. - The office space is definitely a pro, but with the pandemic remote work, kind of moot. - Some slack channels are nice but the overall slack culture is very fragmented, kind of touchy.

Cons

- Growing pains as they adjust to remote work. - Leadership disconnected from the work being done. - Payscale drastically lower for developers compared to industry standards. Management provides tons of non answers for this, but they are collecting huge year end bonuses on the difference. Merely trying to get the pay bands published INTERNALLY, was a huge effort from multiple people, and took months longer than it should have. - Upwards of 10 developers have quit since remote work started, mostly senior positions or above. That's a huge portion of the department, which had around 35 when I started. Management fired two dev leaders after failing to meet extremely vague internal benchmarks. Those two were among the most outspoken employees for equity and transparency across the company. Just a neat coincidence. - Diversity is low, but they are making an effort. If you're not on a high-functioning team, it's probably real hellish if you're someone who actually does the work, because you are carrying a lot of dead weight. And probably not being recognized for it. - The reviews mentioning 'clique' culture are accurate. - If you are a freelancer, you are a second class citizen at best. Night and day difference in treatment.

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Instrument Response
5y
Thank you for the time you took to write this review and share your experience at Instrument. We are working to address many of the issues you have raised above, and also understand that we didn't move quickly enough while you were here. We are proud to have published our pay bands internally and know that is just the start of a greater conversation on pay and retention. We track closely/frequently the attrition of all employees -- by discipline, level, team, ways they identify, and the reasons for their departure. From this information, we can continue to pivot and ensure that our priorities are the priorities of all. We also take seriously your note about treatment of freelancers and will continue to ensure all "employees" of Instrument feel cared for.
4.0
Mar 5, 2021
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

A collection of some of the best people I've ever worked with. Smart, funny, kind, talented, hardworking. As mentioned in other reviews the different teams have different styles so that may effect things, but I always had a positive experience. I think there's a genuine commitment to getting more diverse people in the door and improving, and I think that's more an industry and society wide issue that you just see manifest at Instrument as well, nothing specific to Instrument or its environment. I can see why people say its clique-y but I think that's just because a lot of people are friends outside of work. If you make anything approaching an effort you'll find that the vast majority of people are kind and welcoming. Great client work too. The roster is top-notch and Instrument always ships good stuff.

Cons

I think the biggest thing was low compensation, and some unevenness around promotions although I've saw that improve a lot during my time there. I think it's part of the overall progression from being a smaller, looser place to a bigger org.

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