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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1.0
Nov 8, 2020
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

1. Truly talented and creative coworkers

Cons

1. Executive leadership is all talk and no action. Example: they constantly told people to ask for whatever time off they needed, but HR pushed back hard on managers who tried to support their people this way. 2. People often work nights or weekends to push through and get projects done, in part because resourcing is so chaotic and poorly planned. 3. They recently fired two of the strongest advocates for DEI within the company, one of who was a 10-year employee in non-executive leadership. 4. Execs constantly center their feelings when talking about their commitments to DEI and anti-racism, and make excuses about not wanting to give into urgency when they miss their own deadlines. Too many examples to list, including an exec who talked about their “BIPOC friends” to show how great they were doing at anti-racism work. 5. There’s no real way to talk with execs except through a form where you can submit questions, and those often get a response along the lines of “per our last email” with no actual info. 6. The company is more concerned with external image than how people internally are actually feeling and whether they’re supported. Example: they originally took down their Black Lives Matter splash page 3 days after putting it up, but some employees saw and objected to how shallow and self-serving that timing felt, so it went back up. 7. Many people, especially in the dev discipline, took pay cuts to work here because salaries are lower than industry standard. Are there cool projects? Yes. Are there truly great people to collaborate with? Yes. (Are we in a pandemic and a job here is better than no job? Yes.) That might be enough for you if you can keep your head down and ignore how executive leadership fails to follow through on any real change, and if you can be super strict about work/life balance even when you see your teammates working extra hours - otherwise, this place isn’t worth it.

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Instrument Response
5y
Thank you for this feedback, and the experiences you shared. It is critical for us to do everything we can to ensure employees have what they need, in their personal and professional lives, including time off. If you feel comfortable, please reach out to People Ops as we have no known incidences of discouraging time off if an employee needed it, and always work to find the best way to support leave. 2020 has definitely put internal communication to the test. We are actively working to evolve communication and provide safe spaces and opportunities for many voices to be heard — and have undoubtedly had some successes and some failures. We continue to encourage employees to reach out directly to any member of Executive Leadership to have a conversation. Again, we really appreciate your open and candid feedback as it is the only way for us to reflect, action and pivot.
5.0
Oct 14, 2020
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

I would not be where I am in my career without my time at Instrument. Here are a few of the things I have treasured most from my time there: Instrument embraces learning and experimentation. At the beginning of my career I didn't know what I wanted to focus on or specialize in. I was able to take on so many different projects and learn back-end development, mobile development, front-end development, interaction design and how to create high fidelity prototypes with the appropriate tools and technology. Because I was able to go over all of the board I was able to find what I was the most passionate about and what exactly I wanted to focus my career on. I was given the opportunity from early in my career to lead projects and communicate regularly with the client. Being hired as a Jr and being able to talk to clients right away made me feel empowered and helped me learn important skills in my career in technical communication. Instrument pushed me to always take things to the next level. What movement could we add to make something feel that much better? How do we optimize performance so interactions run seamlessly? Instrument has a high bar for what should be put out in the world which really makes you refine your skills and pushes you to constantly learn. Working on so many different clients and types of work I learned how to assess the right tool for the right job. What technologies to use when building something. How to scope out work to allow room for optimizations. When to use code for a proto vs use a tool like Origami. It taught me to be flexible and not to be afraid to fail. I started something only to realize later that the path I initially took was not the best route and I was able to scrap my work and start fresh with the insight I had gained. It really feels like a family. I have made some of my best friends at Instrument and have felt so welcome by those in it. In the beginning of the year I had to help my family in Peru. Instrument let me work remote in order to do so and then when the borders closes unexpectedly with covid and I got stuck there, leadership rallied by contacting the governor and their lawyers to help get me on an embassy flight home. I don't know many other places that would do that for their employee. I hold Instrument in the highest regard.

Cons

Scope can be tight so you need to have good boundaries for proper work life balance. I have heard others mention that it felt cliquey, if you feel this way I say just reach out to others on your team and try and get to know people individually. I found everyone I have met through Instrument to be welcoming and kind and it might just be that people are heads down on the work.

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Instrument Response
5y
Thank you for this feedback, and the time you took to express the many ways you felt supported by Instrument in your time with us. We appreciate your note on the necessity of boundaries to maintain good work life balance, and your suggestions for building relationships. We will also continue to work internally on both of these items so everyone feels the support they need in navigating the work, and establishing the community they deserve at Instrument.
2.0
Apr 6, 2020

Yikes!!

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The best reason to work at Instrument are the people. There are some really passionate, talented, and caring people that are engaged in creating quality work as a team. They offer comprehensive benefits, a very generous time off policy, and 401k matching.

Cons

There are a couple major red flags about Instrument that should be noted: 1. The cliques: Although I graduated from high school a long time ago, Instrument put me right back in the throes of being 16 years old navigating a whole slew of toxic people. Each team forms it's own clique so my advice is make sure you fit in with your team or you will have a miserable experience. 2. "Diversity/Inclusion/Equity": Instrument makes a lot of claims about inclusion and diversity but it's 100% lip service. If you identify as an underrepresented group be prepared to watch certain colleagues (read: white colleagues) be presented with opportunities and be handled with kid gloves while you get told something about your "energy" is off with no concrete feedback. Instrument is a place where having an opinion is as good as taking action. You will succeed here if you have the loudest, "woke-est" voice even if you are incredibly difficult to work with or don't actually practice the ideas you preach. 3. Growth: you will not grow personally or professionally here. A lot of people in management seemed to have gotten to those positions by being friends with existing management or failing upward. As a result, they bring no real leadership skills to the table. 4. Lack of Pay: If you move here from somewhere else, expect to take a pay cut. No cost of living raise, no transparency around salary. 5. The Work: You'll be making marketing sites that all bleed together because the same people are in charge of making creative decisions and will steamroll/speak down to you if you dare present ideas that are outside their bubble.

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