The ship is sinking and the crew is drunk - Engineer Networked Insights Employee Review

1.0
26 May 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

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.

Explore other reviews about Networked Insights

5.0
6 Mar 2017
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Great work/life balance, awesome technology and even better people. If you want a place to work that gives you the opportunity to get involved in many aspects of the company, NI is for you! We know how to work hard and have a lot of fun doing it!

Cons

Communication could improve, but it's not bad.

1
5.0
23 Jan 2016
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Across the board there are fantastic, smart, and dedicated people throughout the organization. A lot of turnover that has happened has had a strongly positive effect. The strategic partnerships that the company has in place with Group M and Twitter put the company in an unparalleled position to own the marketplace in a few years. The core technology is truly differentiated and very difficult to recreate without the partnerships we have in place. Offices are comfortable and the perks are good. Generous time off policy and very flexible managers that accommodate home life needs in balance with work. Compensation levels are reasonable to generous.

Cons

People that leave seem to be exceptionally bitter and disingenuous about their time at NI. We still are battling a lot of the challenges of early stage companies because our industry and products are so new. Yet people don't necessarily join with the expectations of working at a startup anymore given how big we are and how long we have been around. Some hires just don't work out because they have difficulty adapting to an environment that has to be fluid and responsive to a rapidly changing industry.

4
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