National Instruments reviews

- People can be "too nice" at NI. They hold on to bad employees and managers and hinder growth and development because there's a culture of spinning everything as positively as possible, even when there is NO way to positively spin something. I wish they'd be transparent and honest (ironically, "honesty" is one of the company's core values). They dilute the truth with corporate lingo and fluffy, high-level messaging. - Management is bad. Really bad. For a few reasons, I suspect: (1) There's a tendency to promote from within based on time with the company and, frankly, how well you kiss up to the right influential people internally. And please don't mistake "influential" for "effective." (2) People who are promoted to manager internally are very poorly trained or equipped to become effective leaders. It's really sad, because many of the managers are failing their teams through no intentional fault of their own. (3) Real experience is undervalued. There's been a bit of an influx of external hires, but they rarely last because the company rejects new ideas and ways of doing things (ironically, "innovation" is also one of the company's core values). - Senior/executive leadership has a lot of ego, but seem clueless and dysfunctional. There's been a lot of churn at the leadership level and the leadership structure doesn't really make sense, e.g. a company that supposedly prides itself in engineering without C-suite representation of R&D? a company that supposedly prides itself in its culture and people without C-suite representation of HR? there's even a C-suite role -- CMO -- that doesn't report to the CEO? Generally, leadership seems misaligned and there's a massive say-do gap. It's killed trust internally. Take the bonus (or lack thereof) as an example, which was way behind what's standard practice and there won't be a bonus at all this year because the company isn't growing or performing well. But better believe the CEO has been bragging about being the savior and improving the bonus structure for a couple of years now. - I think pretty much everyone here has mentioned the pay and benefits are below average. It's true. And when there isn't at the very least really inspiring work or a happy culture to replace poor comp and benefits, what's the point?

- Lots of propaganda. You hear the same messages for reasons the company isn't growing. Get used to hearing "economic headwinds". Even when the economy is going good for everyone else on earth, somehow NI faces headwinds to blame for no growth. - You'll be brainwashed into thinking NI's benefits are good. When I interviewed around and where I ended up, there are far better benefits AND unique benefits that NI employees have no idea exist because of said brainwashing. - It used to be more "like family". That slowly changed over the last 5 years and with the recent layoffs, it was handled terribly. No emotion, purely business. That makes for a toxic environment. No loyalty to those who were loyal to NI through very lean times. - Brand credibility/reputation is low. It used to be when you interviewed elsewhere, they would think "You worked at NI, I hear they hire the brightest" and it carried weight to help get another job. Now, other employers realize those days are over and it won't carry any positive connotation. - LOTS of managers that do nothing. While the developers crank away and make good products (that doesn't include NXG), managers sit around in meetings and surf the web. How demoralizing is that.