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National Instruments

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Decent place for fresh college grads - Hardware Engineer National Instruments Employee Review

2.0
Jun 30, 2008
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Many hires are fresh from college; if you are one of them (like I was) then you will have many colleagues that are in the same boat as you (new to the Austin area, not yet entrenched in family life, looking to have fun outside of work). New grads are given a great deal of responsibility considering their limited work experience. No dress code and flexible work hours.

Cons

After a couple of years you will have learned most of what there is to learn about data acquisition hardware design (I was a hardware engineer there). Being underpaid and underappreciated it is time to move on at that point. Although senior management has their act together, the mid-level managers that I dealt with were generally not very competent. Mid-level managers promoted a culture of finger pointing, blame deflection, and kissing up ahead of teamwork. This type of culture can be toxic for a technology company, which is proven by the company's financial and stock performance the last several years. The company touted the fact that it could/should grow 20-40% a year; that hasn't come close to happening since I began working there in 2001, and probably will never happen if its culture doesn't change. Unless if you are fresh out of college I think that you would better serve your career by working somewhere else.

Explore other reviews about National Instruments

5.0
Apr 13, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The people and the culture! Mostly very helpful, smart, fun loving group of employees. NI hired a lot for culture fit and that made the day to day a lot of fun.

Cons

Company vision from the higher ups suffered greatly after the pandemic.

3.0
Mar 30, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Work with a lot of smart folks

Cons

Management could have provided support to the team rather than asked employees to work harder

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