TLDR; If you genuinely enjoy doing software engineering and care about your career opportunities, then this ain't it chief.
The software engineering culture here is subpar. Executive leadership constantly tries to prop NI's R&D as world-class and competitive with giants like Microsoft when in reality the level isn't comparable. Technical leadership lacks talent yet is full of hubris which has resulted in the company falling 10+ years behind the industry standard in terms of software.
What the above means to the average NI software engineer:
- The majority of the engineers you work with range from mediocre to low-performing. Many of these people have been working at NI for a long time (10-15+ years) and have gotten complacent. They've pigeonholed themselves into the company and lack the skills to go anywhere else. Most of the smarter people saw the writing on the wall and have moved on already.
- You will be forced to use NI's outdated proprietary software and languages. Nobody talks about this openly but everyone is aware of how harmful this is in terms of career opportunities.
- You'll be stuck using old technologies and interacting with decades worth of legacy code. This is only made worse by the fact that most of it is in-house stuff that NI loves to dogfood which has resulted in lots of code rot.
- You won't have many opportunities to innovate in terms of software. Technical leadership is behind the times and resistant to new ideas so it's either their way or the highway.
The company culture here is best described as delusional. Execute leadership constantly tries to sell NI as a modern tech company when it really isn't, and there's no shortage of company emails and meetings that reek of corporate doublespeak and kool-aid. Leadership will stop at nothing in the name of shareholders, which includes laying off a significant portion of engineering R&D. Management is out of touch with engineers and pretends to be on their side when in reality there's constant politics and playing favorites involved.
Finally, the pay. The short answer here is that it will always remain below average by ~20-30% of the industry standard no matter what. Leadership have been playing a game of bait and switch for over a decade now, constantly promising that they're going to improve compensation and never delivering. Instead money is used for frivolous things such as expensive campus renovations and rebranding campaigns. Negotiating with management is a waste of time - the answer is always "there's no budget" regardless of performance. To make for all of this, leadership tries to sheepishly sell you some kool-aid on how the combined compensation package with benefits is still competitive (pro tip: it's not).
