National Instruments reviews about "manager"

Alex Davern and Eric Starkloff are two of the most incompetent leaders I've ever seen in my career so far. They managed to run a proud, homegrown Austin tech company into the ground, and now I hear NI is being bought by Emerson. This comes after the company has been floundering for years under Alex and Eric's leadership. Alex did such a bad job he left to go teach at the Red McCombs business school; I have no idea what he would actually teach, it certainly wouldn't be how to run a successful company. Key Point: During the pandemic when all tech companies were flush with cash as their stock values skyrocketed, NI's stock price stayed flat and even dropped. You have to be REALLY incompetent to screw up when everyone else was succeeding for just existing. Toxic management: Lots of middle managers who were just awful human beings. Cared more about getting promotions than doing a good job. Lied to their own teams constantly. I've seen (and been on the receiving end) of managers yelling and insulting employees in group meetings. Low Pay: Lowest pay for a tech company in Austin, by far. They could only pick up recent graduates; once you got a few years of experience you left to get better pay elsewhere.

The CEOs EA is the laziest and yet most entitled person in the entire organization. She hires her friends and has anyone that speaks out against her fired. She is the final voice for you to get promoted (while not being your direct boss) so even if your boss wanted to promote you they couldn't without her approval. She has publicly stated that she would never be fired because the CEO would have "white man's guilt". She has this reputation that she is a champion for the role but in reality she is the biggest deterrent as she is only out for herself and those that produce her work for her.

Salary, Managers, Culture, Toxic Environment

Lower Pay Ranges, Poor Organization, too many middle managers, company performance impacts pay too much.

- This place nearly finished my career. You learn nothing useful, get no relevant tech exposure or pick up any worthwhile skill. So over time, you become unhirable. Getting shortlisted for job interviews was insanely hard for me, after spending nearly 2 years at NI. - There is hardly any software development happening. Whatever little happens, is mostly patch-up and maintenance for mature apps. That too, using ancient obsolete tech, that has no relevance today. - The NI management considers development using Labview to be software development. In reality, Labview is just as useless for a software engineer, as knowing MS Paint. - Pay is awful. Fresher pay is somewhat decent, but there is precious little increment thereafter. Pay for senior roles is disgracefully bad, imho. - Appraisals and promotions are arbitrary and opaque. It didn't look like it was based on work or talent. It seemed to me that the middle management was playing favourites. - Attrition is a major concern. Replacements hired hardly ever have the talent they are meant to replace. There is no procedure or mechanism to quickly train them up to required levels. The management remains at bliss and totally unconcerned. - Management's attitude towards employees is purely as cheap labour to exploit. They donot respect, value or develop talent. They are needlessly hurting the careers and future of young engineers. - The management at Bangalore is a coterie of deluded and callous individuals, who made their way up the ranks solely because everyone good had already left. Their incompetence and disinterest is driving away young talented engineers. - Engineering managers are alarmingly dishonest. They deliberately mislead and exploit their reportees. They will lie and make false promises even on critical matters like pay and promotion. - Employee benefits are not good. During the second covid wave, we were left without insurance details, despite having paid for premium and top-ups in January 2021. We were all simply given the contact number of one person and told to contact him in case of emergency. - HR, payroll, IT and admin teams are absolutely worthless. They are arrogant and unhelpful, making life miserable for employees. - The tech park Sumramanya Arcade is one of the worst in Bangalore. It had a garbage dump near the main entrance. Smell of garbage, first thing in the morning, to provide a great start for your day! Parking, food options, ambience and basic amenities in this place, leave a lot to be desired. - The overall outlook for R&D Bangalore did not looking good to me. I have seen senior leaders, HRs exiting.

Very low pay Most of the managers (very low IQ individuals) Raises and promotions are rare AF unless you are buddies with the managers. I felt very unappreciated while working there.

organization changes a lot, almost every year

Career development might not be as fast as other tech companies.