software engineer

business development manager

principal software engineer

manufacturing engineer

senior software engineer

Emerson

I'm sharing insights based on my time at Emerson's Riverside office in California. This position offers an excellent opportunity for college graduates and individuals beginning their career as Controls Engineers. You'll gain valuable exposure to Cisco switches, Windows operating systems, and distributed control systems like Ovation, perfect for building foundational knowledge. For the most part, you'll learn on the job, gaining hands-on experience and practical skills. If you have experience with distributed control systems or any other control-related skills, you'll find that they are highly transferable to this role. If you're aiming for higher pay, mastering all three categories is key: proprietary knowledge of Emerson's Ovation system, transferable skills in distributed control systems (DCS), networking expertise, and familiarity with Windows operating systems. At Emerson, a strong focus lies on the infrastructure of Ovation. To break it down, you'll essentially be constructing and ensuring redundancy in computer systems and networks to optimize Ovation's functionality. The Ovation team primarily focuses on Evergreen upgrades, retrofits, and servicing. This involves raising the system to higher standards by providing added enhancements over previous versions, integrating new components or accessories to existing systems, and addressing service calls. Expect a fair share of troubleshooting and challenges that might make you want to pull your hair out. In this role, you'll wear many hats, including project manager, lead project engineer, field engineer, project coordinator, and more. You'll be expected to assist with whatever tasks are needed, regardless of your seniority level. Senior engineers are not exempt from performing the same work as associates; everyone pitches in where necessary.


Pros: 
- You'll gain extensive knowledge in networking, operating systems, various protocols, Ovation (DCS), as well as insights into power and water facilities. It's a rich learning experience that expands your expertise across multiple domains.
- Your valuable skills and knowledge acquired at Emerson make you a sought-after candidate by other companies offering better pay and promising career prospects. Your experiences pave the way for a brighter future elsewhere.
- Expect frequent travel as part of the job requirement.
- You'll be provided with your own vehicle if needed, ensuring you have the necessary means for travel.
- You have the flexibility to set your own start time, ranging from 6 to 10 am, with the latest start time being 10 am.
- This position serves as an excellent starting point for a promising career.
- Minimal supervision is provided as long as you are effectively completing your tasks.
- Building positive relationships with everyone is key to success in this role.
- Enjoy complimentary meals while traveling for work.

Cons:
- The job involves frequent travel, resulting in extended periods away from home.
- Office hours typically range from 8 to 12, but on-site hours can extend up to 16 hours or more, leading to burnout and high turnover rates.
8- Raises are rare and difficult to obtain, often reliant on exceptional project performance and approval from higher-ups outside the Riverside office.
- Opportunities for significant pay increases are limited, as salaries are based on the cost of living in Pittsburgh. 
- Difficulty in getting along with colleagues can exacerbate job challenges.
- The workforce is predominantly young and inexperienced, with limited expertise due to experienced staff being deployed in the field.
- High turnover is a recurring issue, with many employees leaving within two years.
- Additionally, obtaining necessary tools for the job can be cumbersome, requiring navigating bureaucratic obstacles.
- Overtime is compensated at a rate of 1.0 times the regular pay, rather than on an hourly basis.  However, overtime earnings are subject to a 40% tax rate. 
- Additionally, personal vehicles are taxed as income when not utilized for business purposes. 
- The healthcare coverage provided may not be comprehensive, as there is a significant out-of-pocket expense of $3000 before coverage begins.

While I may sound like I'm venting, remember: the more you know, the better. Knowledge is power. As a field engineer, expect to spend the majority of your time on-site, not behind a desk. Your schedule isn't a typical eight-hour shift; you need to be prepared to respond to calls at a moment's notice. Given the critical nature of power and water services, readiness is key. However, there are times when office work is required, making up about 30% of the job. Keep in mind, this company doesn't offer high pay or prioritize raises. It's primarily a starting point for engineers, lacking future prospects. Even with significant skills, you may find the pay insufficient for California living costs, as it's based on Pittsburgh rates. Turnover is frequent, typically within two years. The provided laptop is subpar, with limited storage and heavy lockdowns hindering job performance. Expect minimal direction or training; you're left to figure things out on your own, often through manual reading. Support is scarce, as everyone is preoccupied with their own tasks. You'll work long hours, both in the office (8-10 hours) and on-site (up to 16 hours), often without overtime pay. Senior engineers may earn slightly more (around $90-110K), but the difference isn't substantial. Consider this a warning—I wish I'd known before joining. Best of luck.

Work/Life Balance
You can work 40 hours a week here, people tend to coast and it’s totally acceptable. Leadership rarely holds people accountable so it’s really easy to do this without having much repercussions for it. The nice thing is that you can take vacation time and not have to be connected, no one will fault you for it. If you start off working a lot, then that’s what they’ll expect from you. My advice, take your time in the beginning to feel this out before committing to a lot of work you probably don’t need to do.  

Compensation/Benefits
Pay for performance is a bit of a joke. Some of my peers were able to negotiate higher salaries and don’t do as much work as others. If you’re motivated by pay then this is NOT the place for you. The Benefits are pretty reasonable, except they don’t always work the way you need them to so you’re having to make multiple calls and struggle to get what you need. Sometimes that’s actual medication. The rates for benefits are reasonable, but that comes with subpar customer service. I raised this as a concern on something I personally had going on and nothing ever happened. They’re good at listening, but don’t actually do anything about it. 

Job Security/Advancement
I would suggest you google “National Instruments layoffs” or check out Reddit or layoff.com, you might get some additional info about it there. Advancement is easier if people like you, if you challenge the status quo you’ll get burned. Externals are often told to challenge leaders, but end up being seen as difficult. Just do what they tell you to do and you’ll be fine, if you continue to pursue an issue because it’s the “right thing to do” it will not be a good thing for you. If you have an outgoing personality and make buddies with the leadership team then you’ll most definitely reap those rewards regardless of your performance. 

Management 
The management here is weak. Probably because people have promoted their friends over the years regardless of actual leadership abilities. Don’t expect much from them, they typically hide behind FAQs because they can’t have an honest conversation with you. They lack the experience, most of them are “kitties”. 

Culture 
The culture is very “bro-ish” and people are very conservative. This isn’t a problem until people start to hear unprofessional things about people who belong to certain groups. Diversity is a huge issue, even though you work with some people globally the diversity in the Austin office is bleak. They will embrace you if you act and talk like them, anything outside of that you will be seen as less than. There are some efforts around employee engagement, but you rarely see these things come to fruition (see Management section).

Some people thrive in this environment and find a really good gig at NI, there are some good people there too. You’ll find issues at any company, at the end of the day you have to read these comments and make a decision based on how your interactions have been with the leader you’re interviewing with. If you get in good with the right people you’ll do fine and might even enjoy your time here. If you come in expecting to change people or things, I wish you good luck because that will never happen.

If you want to work in an engineering department that does mostly reverse engineering of competitor products and is built on a culture of unfairness and backstabbing, this is the place for you.

ASCO is run by white men, few employees are female or minorities.

Emerson Electric CEO is the king of outsourcing.  Just look it up and see for yourself.

Low level, non-management employees who propose solutions are ignored.  The same solutions introduced by management is hailed as a great idea by the many kiss ups and implemented immediately.  A culture of mini dictatorships prevail.  Lower level employees are systematically silenced.

Monthly "communication" meetings are mandatory for all groups.  These consist of a manager speaking down to HIS employees.  It's a one way monologue, designed to invoke the ever present pecking order which hangs over every low level employee like a French guillotine.

Most major engineering decisions come from a former engineering VP in France who dislikes Americans in general.

Morale has steadily declined since the buyout from a family owned business to Emerson Electric in the 1980's.  Long term employees have the lowest morale, following years of disrespect, broken promises, small raises and corporate bullying.

Engineering department is patrolled by the VP and Director to find people who look like they're not working.  Solid performance is never enough, and discipline is sent down through manager and supervisor to the "guilty" employee regardless of productivity.

Projects drag on for years, with constant changes in direction from management, killing any sense of motivation.

Emerson insists it has an open door policy for both management and HR.  However, it's just a concocted trap of weeding out the "troublemakers" by  allowing them to think that fairness matters to management.

Emerson employee opinion surveys are given every 3 years.  Only hours notice are given prior to the survey and negative results are ignored following a meeting with HR to discuss.

Training for engineering employees from India is extensive as well as travel to other Emerson/ASCO locations.  That same level of training/travel is not allowed for ASCO Florham Park engineers and more specifically, designers.  Designers are also prohibited from attending local trade shows, while other employees attend without question.

Design group is led by a supervisor with has not attended college at all.  This is even evident in his poorly written emails and lack of basic math and engineering knowledge.  His direct reports are subjected to negative comments to others, while receiving no direction or support whatsoever.  Verbal promises are forgotten about during annual performance appraisals.

I work there as a temp for close to 8 months. The facility was nice and easy to navigate. Both the supervisor and IB3s there were friendly and helpful though arrogant at times but they are very professional ppl and are always willing to lend a hand. They had me work on the line doing hipot and calibration as well as making tag and assembling parts to units. 

It was a fun thorough job, the problem is its also require a lot of accurate memorization and procedure look-up as there are many different units or product that required different parts to be assemble. The only problem I had while working there was the lack of team effort in some of the co-workers, though I say 40% of the employees there are helpful, the rest are either arrogant or just plain too sarcastic. It's really hard to work with the arrogant or sarcastic ones but whenever I get the chance to work with the more helpful ones, it really made my day.

The work hours are great, I work on a ten hour shift with three breaks in between each and with two more stretch breaks in between those too. In all, there were really five breaks altogether, quite a lot if you ask me and the paid was generously good too about $13 per hour. Fortunately my time there wasn't without problem. There are way too many foreigners working there, usually it's hard to tell whether they are criticizing you or talking trash about you. Other than the arrogant co-workers, I say the job there was great. I really have fun working there, the paid was good, breaks are evenly schedule, and management were helpful.

Another thing that could be a problem there was the parking, as a temp I can't park in any of the long-term employee parking space as those were reserved but I could park there after 2 PM so that's good but only for 2nd shift ppl, 1st shift workers will had to endure staying on the farther end of the parking lot. Overall I had to say this facility's not bad, management are good, hours are good, and paid was very good. The only thing that needs to be improved are the co-workers, I know everyone had problems but whenever you're at work, you need to show a team spirit and willing to assist others, I found that to be lacking with rest of the crew there except for the 40% that were helpful.

Work-life balance
Shifts are 10 hours long. You get a total of 3 breaks. The first one is 15 minutes, second is lunch (30 minutes), and last is 10 minutes. 
Overtime is mandatory. Normal work week is Monday thru Thursday, 10 hour shifts. Some Fridays and/or Saturdays are worked.

You start getting vacation days after 90 days of being employed. You also get emergency vacation days (3 a year, you can only use one a month). Insurance starts on the first day of each month. 

Pay increases every 3 months. If your scheduled work week is less than 40 hours any given week, it's called a "shared work week". Meaning you get unemployment for the hours that week was short. The company handles that so you don't have to. For instance occasionally you will only work 3 days (30 hours). 

Paid holidays starts after 30 days.

Pay & benefits
They offer really good medical insurance at decent rates. They will pay for you prescription glasses if you need them once a year. All you have to do is get the eye exam.

Job security and advancement
After being employed for 90 days in good standing you can bid on different jobs or shift. During this time you can get training to operate fork lifts and such.

They will pay for you to go to school for something that you would be doing there at Emerson. Such as weld tech.

Management
Some of the lines are all or mostly men employees. The team leader on my line was also a man and there was only one other woman working our line. The team leader would constantly stare at the women and back out their lines during breaks. When we was short he wouldn't help out. HR doesn't do anything about complaints. HR staff is sometimes snobby.

Culture
A lot of the lines is very fast paced. Some of the parts are a little heavy. Definitely a job that will strengthen up your fingers, hands, wrists, and arms.

Overall
They offer excellent benefits including 401k. The medical insurance is really good. If you have a baby while you or your spouse is working here, (man or woman), you both get a certain amount of maternity leave. For the most part it's a really good job. It pays really good. Most of the other employees are very friendly and helpful. Some of the FSTs and team leaders aren't scared to get in there and help or show you new tricks or do whatever needs done. But there are some team leaders that are absent or creepy and sexist when they are present.

Years of promoting tenure over actual experience and results has led to the current problem of lots of upper and senior management across the business who generally speaking are unprepared for their current jobs. The tight-knit friendships of people who have managed to fail up (i.e. screw up in one department only to get promoted in another one, whether or not they have any actual experience in or knowledge of what it is they’ll be “in charge” of) make it a rough environment for external talent to survive. It seems the external hires who make it just eventually give up and give in. Decision-making is slow and communication from leadership is very poor – quarterly corporate talk without real action or inspiration. What’s really sad is these people always talk about how great and high performing the culture is. “High performing” is just a joke. Maybe it is great if you’ve been at the company 10+ years and are a member of the club, or if you’re lucky enough to be in a role shielded from the dysfunctional middle and upper layers of management. The leaders need to wake up and make some tough decisions to reward/promote/hire real results, not protect and promote people who just play the game and tell you what you want to hear. You can probably have a pretty decent (easy) career at NI if you’re OK with falling in line with the status quo, but people who challenge the norm by suggesting improvements, asking tough questions or giving honest feedback pretty quickly seem to find themselves shoved out. There are some good executives and senior leaders who were hired from outside – they offer some hope for the company, but I worry about their ability to actually shake up leadership make the changes that need to happen for NI to grow and be a decent place to work. Best of luck to them, the company needs some saviors and a big dose of the real world.

TL;DR -- Stay away or get out while you can. Everyone deserves fair pay and a healthy work environment. 

The best advice I can give someone considering a job at NI is to be smart through the interview process. Ask lots of questions and make sure you talk to people in roles comparable to yours and the people you'll work most closely with. Don't take what the recruiters and interviewers tell you at face-value -- you'll hear a lot about the great culture, how they only hire the "best and brightest," and the exciting transformation and direction the company is headed. Ask that they articulate what the company's strategy is and what makes the culture "great." You'll probably hear something about the core strategic vision (it's just a sentence that everyone's memorized by this point) and get a lot of corporate buzzword soup, but nothing truly tangible.

Be careful. I can't stress that enough. There are pockets of goodness at NI, but leadership as a whole is toxic and dysfunctional, and their inability to make decisions or hold course with a strategy is quickly sending the entire company into a tizzy.

If compensation motivates you, pay is not competitive and the benefits are nothing special. In fact, they're pretty far behind the curve when compared to most tech companies, especially in Austin. If a happy culture motivates you, there are some teams that seem to get along fine, but generally speaking management inexperienced and uneducated on how to cultivate a healthy, productive team. 

The company culture as a whole is tainted with nepotism and favoritism. If you're a hard worker, NI will take advantage of you until there's nothing left for you to give, while tenured people (who are buddy-buddy with the inner circle and right leaders) can coast and climb the ladder at your expense. 

Sadly, you can't even feel safe or effective reporting things like nepotism, unfair or unethical behavior, or even things like harassment to HR. Chances are they'll just ignore your plea for help or, worse, belittle you by defending or making an excuse for what you're raising a concern about.  

Just be careful. Politics seem to always be at play at NI.

I would not wish this place on my worst enemy. They ship jobs over to Manila, regularly. They are always trying to downsize. There is no room for advancement, unless you are a VP, which, are all white men- so if you're a woman or minority, you're pretty much screwed. Management is a complete joke. We had a manager who was finally moved out of our department, but only after someone threatened to sue to company because of his unethical, unprofessional and bizarre behavior. The whole department went to HR to complain and nothing was done. HR is another joke at this place; they only way you can get anything resolved is if you go to the corporate HR or above that, because the normal HR people are against the employees, always on the managers' sides even when unethical behavior is happening. Even if you're being harassed, nothing will be done unless someone threatens to sue to company. In that case, the harassing manager will be moved to another department to manage yet more people. There is also this attendance system, where you get a certain number of attendance points per year, and no matter what the circumstances, you will get a point for being late or absent, even being 15 seconds late. REGARDLESS of the circumstances, you could even be in a car wreck, and they wouldn't care, you would still get an attendance point and possible fired. The management also plays favorites and gives points to only those who they don't like.  No one listens to the employees' concerns, and all of the VPs have degrees that have absolutely nothing to do with their jobs, they resemble a "good old boys club" and are unable to make any good business decisions, which is why the company is going downhill. Customers are increasingly unsatisfied with this company and are frequently going to other vendors, yet the people in charge are not addressing any of the problems. This place is utterly unbelievable, like an episode from the Twilight Zone.

Everyone wants to complain about problems but no one will do anything about them. If anyone speaks up, especially younger employees, they are waved off/ignored/given excuses about time and workload constraints etc. Even if your team thinks it’s a good idea, the boss usually stops it. Young employees are dismissed constantly. You learn to say nothing - no one wants to hear what you have to say. Toxic culture, no job security, you are just a number. 
They hire new graduates with bachelor degrees and no experience over promoting anyone with years of experience because of the degree. The graduates are trained and get real world experience and then leave for a higher paying job. Leaving their workload to those with years of experience and not giving them any compensation or second glance for promotion because they lack the formal degree. It’s a good way to lose tribal knowledge.
Cafeteria food is terrible. Expired, undercooked (pink chicken) and overcooked constantly.
Everyone knows everyone in some way so do not talk bad about (or complain about) anyone. They will find out. 
Senior employees delay retirement. Middle management is being eliminated slowly and are left with micromanaging and helping their employees with their same work. The title is just fluff and means you work more hours.
Only way to move “up” is to make lateral moves either within or outside of the company. Job-hopping is essential for advancement.
“Flex hours” means nothing. You have to be in the office from 9-3:30 with the flex being before or after those hours. That’s not flex time. 
Jobs moving to best cost countries.

First, I worked at a division within Emerson. It was a great place for me to get started. They gave me the opportunity to make decisions on my own and let me face the consequences of those decisions. I learned a myriad of things from how to manage my time, how to deal with different customers and employees, and how to deal with inter department push back, and much more. 

Management was not always on top of what was actually going on. Often there would be a new policy passed down with little thought to the outcome and benefits of this. For example, say they wanted all suppliers on a pull system, but some suppliers are operating very well not on pull and placing them on pull would have greatly increased inventory and costs, even though there was no initial issue with this supplier. It would not matter, because management said so, you need to get said item on pull.

The workplace culture was a little outdated, it had a very old school vibe which led to many young people opting to leave after not too long. However, this did not bother me much, I mostly just do my job and do not worry too much about things like that. 

The hardest part of the job was easily getting all departments on board with something. There was so much coordinating that needed to be handled across departments for every little decision that was made, this often led to roadblocks when trying implement new processes. 

The most enjoyable part was the freedom that I had to make my own choices. I was able to sniff out problems and attempt to solve them at my discretion and had little direct instruction. As long as I was able to meet my goals, it was not an issue.

Pay and benefits were not up to snuff on what others in similar positions were making. 

Overall, I have enjoyed my time thus far within Emerson.

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