Pros
* The technology is really cool though not groundbreaking. Only 7% of conversation is recorded on the web in social media form and the company indexes only a fraction of that. * Snacks are provided. The options have shrank recently though. * A lot of the employees are cool, interesting individuals who bring a lot to the table.
Cons
* In the last two weeks, over ten people have quit. * Management is a good old boys club in every sense of the term. They are all friends and look out for one another, even at the expense of other employees. The employees who have been here long-term and are friends with management get promotions, raises and bonuses more frequently, regardless of their performance. On top of this, the opinions of people with advanced degrees are commonly ignored in favor of the friends of management. * For an analytics company, NI doesn't do a lot of analytics. Very few statisticians are on staff. Decisions which should be made by PhD-level analysts are made by people with MBAs and poor understanding of the math behind our product. Comparisons between traditional methods and our product haven't been done. * The environment is not friendly toward women. Some men make sexists comments constantly. They are frequently ignored or laughed off, even when they make everyone uncomfortable. When someone does confront the people making sexist jokes, they're told they're "no fun" or they need to "relax". * Differing opinions are not tolerated. Anyone who expresses anything not in line with management's thinking is shunned until they leave the company. This turns many employees into "cheerleaders" who feel they have to agree with management or their jobs may be at stake. * A lot of the engineering leadership have a disdain toward frontend and UX development. This spills over into departmental conflicts, as frontend developers are technically part of the product team instead of engineering. The lack of care many take toward frontend also spills into sloppiness in the product. The term "frontend" is also tossed around as an insult. * The analysts and engineers are kept separate, which exacerbates an ongoing turf war. NI changed direction from a services-based company to platform-based about a year ago. Management was not upfront about this direction change, and it caused serious tension between the groups. This tension is still present. * After the recent layoffs, the CEO said in a meeting, not even a week later, that everyone just "needs to get over it". * Another individual in leadership is on record saying he won't open his laptop for any client unless they're discussing six figure sums. * The office provides a ton of perk "toys", like ping pong, an xbox, board games, etc. However, if management sees anyone using them, they are punished. * By the way, the "exercise program" another reviewer mentioned is two guys doing tae kwon do on their own time in a conference room. Others are welcome to join, but it is not officially sanctioned or run by the company.
