Avoid unless fresh out of college - Anonymous employee National Instruments Employee Review

The hiring model they seem to have embraced is to basically offshore about 2/3 of their new hires(mostly new college grads) and to focus on new college graduates for most of the rest. The pay is substandard, the benefits are okay but completely self funded so they are very aggressive about having to approve what you need. The equipment provided to work on was old or cheap and sub-par compared to my past experiences in corporate america. The culture is very focused on teaching the 'NI Way' to new hires fresh from college and therefore suffers from groupthink when it comes to critically analyzing themselves internally. Upper Management in my department seemed to be based on length of service more than anything else, and much of the lower/middle management I encountered seemed to be picked not just for competence in their area, but also for lack of compassion towards their team while still attempting to portray the company as compassionate towards employees. Bottom line though, employees there are still just assets to be utilized. Conclusion: If you want to have a high impact or try to innovate beyond the strictly regulated role you have in a particular project this is not the place for you. However, if you don't mind low pay, slow advancement, and a very corporate but relaxed work environment it might be ok. I know they are Fortune top 100 places to work, but how much is that survey really worth if 90% of the employees have only worked at this one company?