Vantaggi
- The benefits are good (four weeks vacation, stock purchase plan). Annual bonuses (see 'cons' for details). - Annual raises, which are roughly market competitive (though you may need to mention it to your manager). - The hiring standard is high, so fellow developers are quite smart. - Working with voice technology is an interesting challenge. - You get to work from home once per week. - Work/life balance is generally quite good.
Svantaggi
- The pros outlined above change on a per-team (not even per-department) basis. Essentially, pray you land in a good team. - Bonuses are paid in stocks, and the price Nuance gives you the stock at is generally well above the price you will sell at. - The evaluation scheme is completely arbitrary, and seems to be used as a tool to get rid of employees rather than evaluate them. You will immediately be told upon your first evaluation that you cannot give yourself less than a 'good' rating and better than a 'pretty good' rating. - "Do as I say" culture from upper management. Virtually no room for feedback. - Little room for career advancement. Over the last year, when an employee resigns, their open position is typically downgraded or removed altogether, most likely in an effort to control costs. This lowers the general ability of teams. - Extremely outdated and in-house tools, with no portability or usability outside Nuance. - Your direct manager will be mitigating the incompetence of upper management the vast majority of the time (as opposed to actually managing you). - No clear direction as to where the company is going. Very quarter-by-quarter focused, meaning you're always on a short-term schedule. - The business unit is incompetent. They are incredibly slow to react to competitors, and are afraid of any form of actual innovation. There are over-promises on every project, and by a significant amount (i.e. completely unfeasible). Engineering opinions are not considered when proposing timelines, and timelines are generally proposed before the actual product is even defined. - A CEO who does little other than put the company in the red with his massive bonuses. Most (if not all) VPs are simply mouthpieces for the CEO. - Very high turnover, most likely related to any number of the above. Completely indiscriminate and annual layoffs. As such, morale is incredibly low.