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National Instruments

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National Instruments reviews

3.7

68% would recommend to a friend

(720 total reviews)

Alex Davern

62% approve of CEO

46% positive business outlook

Reviews by job title

720 reviews

Reviews about "Compensation"

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2.0
Feb 8, 2016
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Benefits are great. Typical bigger company benefits like 401k, better medical plans, etc. Some parts of the organization are healthier than others, most of it is determined by the VP in charge and how mature s/he is as a leader and visionary. VP spots are tenured, so plan to actively work to move to another if you find yourself under a dud. Coworkers are smart and nice on the whole. The company encourages friendships and this is easily done at happy hours and other events.

Cons

Senior management has become out of touch with the lower ranks, most notably Dr T. All the vice presidents are actually "yes men" (okay there are *finally* multiple women vice presidents as of 2015...only 40 years in since the company's inception; can you say good Ole boys club?) For US based employees it is doubtful there will ever be any more glory days. Plan to watch more and more jobs go overseas. You'll be waking up early to work with European countries and staying up late to work with Asian countries. Work life balance that supposed to be amazing only exists if you are in engineering. Any other part of the organization you can expect to work a typical 50 to 60 HR week. Finally, know that if you have worked at NI longer than 5 years your salaries are compressed. This used to be compensated by the incentive stock options, but now that they have changed to restricted stock options much fewer people are given any reason to stay.

4.0
Feb 4, 2016

Looking up!

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Mgt team is getting much better at expectations, reading the pulse of the workforce and setting / explaining direction. - Mgt team is actively addressing issues the workforce has brought up. - More Work/Life Balance than anywhere else I've worked - Doctor onsite and very affordable Healthcare - Location is good (I live Downtown), but the domain is across the street. - Gym and Cafeteria are onsite (both are ok, if you want to save money alot of people use them). However it is not a Gold's Gym or Pure Austin Gym. - Benefits overall are great and will meet alot of needs. They have the standards like (401K w/ match, ESPP, HC) But NI also has Paternity leave for fathers, adoption assistance, etc. - If I wrote this review 12 months ago, I would have given NI maybe 2 stars. I also was about to start looking somewhere else. However I feel things have changed alot, so I give alot of credit to the Mgt team for swallowing the truth, accepting it, and then taking action.

Cons

- Building is old. Cube layouts are like from an old business in the 1980s. - No real collaboration areas like other companies. Conf rooms are never available. - Onboarding new employees is horrible. They mostly walk around lost for 3 months. - Total Pay is probably 10% lower. No real bonus either. - There is some lack of discipline within the ICs created by hands off management styles. - Culture is very hard to adapt too if you come from any other company. It is a nurturing type of culture where you cannot take off with an idea yourself, you must bring everyone else with you (which slows it down). - CEO is brilliant no doubt, he founded the company afterall. However CEOs need to inspire. I used to love listening to the CEOs at other companies while I was there because they were motivational, inspirational and very much people oriented. NI's CEO is an engineer, not a speaker.

2.0
Feb 4, 2016

Stagnation

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The people were really friendly. I was able to take time off whenever I needed to to take care of personal business.

Cons

The pay was low out of the box and stayed there. One of my coworkers had worked there for over 13 years and was making only a few thousand more than when he started. Engineers with 7 years experience were making significantly less than their counterparts in other places in Austin. As a technician there was not a path to become an Engineer, even if you had since received a B.S.

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