software engineer

intern

senior software engineer

software test engineer

account executive

In a nutshell, SAS Institute is just another IT company with benefits that were once amazing back in the late 80s, but are now more in line with most other IT companies. The medical/vision/dental/whatever is pretty comparable to most software companies in the area.
They provide you with this pretty campus that contains such amenities as free soda and cookies (which will result in you weighing more than you ever thought possible). There is a gym on campus, but with the work load, you'll find it tough to utilize. There are cafeterias that serve subsidized food, but it's only marginally better than a school cafeteria in my opinion.
Also, SAS's business model has some weaknesses. For instance, your hiring manager can truly make or break your experience. If you have a bad manager, you will hate every day of your job and there is nothing you can do about it. Bad managers are able to use and abuse their staff with no recourse as long as they don't discriminate for race, gender, religion, etc. Upper level people there are only concerned about getting sued. They don't care about the well being of their workers. I had a bad manager who abused her staff and I complained about it to HR and they were only interested in making sure I couldn't sue them for it. The PR staff love to openly brag about no layoffs at SAS. But there are plenty of managers who can and will terminate you within the first 6 months for the dumbest of reasons. I guess that's the side of SAS that the public doesn't get to see.
And the work/life balance that they love to talk about means they want you to utilize their "wonderful campus". If you want to have a life at your house with your family away from work and enjoy a true work life balance, they act like you are not a team player. You may have heard about the "35 hour work week". That just means they will pay you for 35 hours of work instead of 40, but they will make you work between 40 and 60 hours a week on average with no overtime compensation. In case you didn't catch it from that comment, you'll be making less $$ than other companies in the area. They have technology to allow you to remote in from home. That means you better remote in often to do work from home or else you will get reprimanded.
All of the staff at SAS describes their workplace as the "#1 company to work for" in a Stepford like drone. However, to be quite honest, I just don't see it. I'm very happy to be away from there.

Work-life balance
Work-life balance at SAS Institute is good. This is the only thing SAS does well.

Pay & benefits
My pay and benefits at SAS Institute were low. No room for advancement. Company cannot afford to promote qualified employees so they leave. No raises and minuscule bonus.

Job security and advancement
In terms of job security at SAS Institute, SAS has had unannounced layoffs (although they said they don’t do layoffs). Entire departments have been gutted without notice.

Management
In general, managers at SAS Institute are a mixed bag. The few that are good are out-numbered by the majority that suck. There is no manager training. Apparently, all you need is to work for SAS for a long time to be promoted to manager. Many lack managerial and technical skill set to lead.

Culture
Collaboration with my colleagues at SAS Institute was non-existent for the most part due to territorial toxic culture. Long-term employees treat new comers like the plague. Lots of insecure people including the managers that lack the skill set to manage.

Overall
My experience working at SAS Institute was not an experience that I could categorize as rewarding.  Some of the employees are known to be toxic and allowed to continue spreading discontentment.

If you work on the campus there are great resources available to you - gym, day care, post office, physicians etc. On campus everyone gets their own office with a door, it is not an environment where you work in a cubicle. SAS provides unbeatable benefits, but the salaries they offer are usually below average from what I've seen. SAS provides opportunity for growth as long as you take control and sign yourself up for extra training. Management here is usually extremely hands-off, but it's to the point where it's like pulling teeth to get feedback and performance reviews. You'll find yourself wanting to learn new material to advance, but you may not know what to do because there's no direction from management. Promotions also seem to be decided primarily on the "good ol' boy" system - it's about who you know. 

If you can't move to Cary, NC to work at the campus, SAS has a lot of opportunities to work at home from a remote location.

If you are lucky enough to get hired permanently at the SAS Institute, you will find yourself with legendary benefits straight out of a worker's dream. However, as a contractor, you get none of it. In fact, those same benefits that employees receive will actively hurt you. The work week at SAS is 35 hours in length, something they may not tell you when you commit to them. For an hourly wage worker, this hurts significantly. What's even worse is the mandatory week off of work at the end of the year. Contractors don't get paid for this week and may find themselves scrambling to make ends meet if they aren't prepared. They won't tell you these things upfront, so you may be stuck with them if you've already accepted their offer. You'll also be bombarded with company emails letting you know about all the great and exciting events on campus that you are expressly forbidden from attending due to your contractor status. It's quite depressing.

SAS encourages me to stay curious and eager to learn more. In a typical workday, I do lots of writing and editing for internal and external newsletters. I'll also be researching and brainstorming ideas for our Customer Recognition Program. I frequently learn how to use new programs, such as Customer Intelligence 360 or GitHub. Management pushes me to perform my best work and always opens up new opportunities to learn. I've lucked out with the management culture at SAS. The hardest part of my job is working alone for most, if not all, of the day. The most enjoyable part of my job is the success and satisfaction I feel when completing a project, especially after collaborating with colleagues. The workplace culture at SAS is wonderful. They place a lot of importance on work/life balance, which I appreciated every day.  Everyone is eager to help out, approachable, and they have something to offer. I learn something new from everyone I talk to. 

I've been at SAS for a long time. It is no longer the secure, happy place it once was. There are too many stories of employees being let go: escorted out of the buildings, "early retirements (aka older employees encouraged out of their jobs)", other employees being told they are not meeting the requirements of their job descriptions; just a myriad of reasons. The company is not doing well and, as all companies tend to do, the people who have no idea how the company functions are the ones that keep the jobs and (most) people who do the work are laid off.

It feels like no one can speak up anymore without retaliation - since it is now an era of 'getting rid of people' to save money. It's like walking on eggshells.

People all around me, who aren't getting laid off or fired, are fleeing for other jobs. 

It's bittersweet because it's still a wonderful place to be in: the food, the gym, a lot of the people. Even the work, despite its floundering in the market. The health benefits are top-notch. I will miss these things when I leave.

It's a good thing that most employees are in it for the long haul, because they learn no marketable skills at SAS. That is, the tools are non-standard and cumbersome to the point of absurdity, leading to job security. Incompetent, unsupportive managers make the work environment unpleasant and needlessly tedious; there's a culture of fear. Ideas for improvement are given lip service by management, year after year, although employees clearly ask for change. Professional development does not exist, and advancement is a popularity contest not based on merit. Work/life balance depends on the whims of your manager, so it's easy to be unlucky. Unfair hiring, pay, and bonus practices foster resentment. In short, there's something wrong with a work environment that requires years to become productive and which results in low morale.

It’s still a great company but it’s definitely not the company it used to be. The on-site daycare used to be an amazing benefit. It was like winning the lottery if you got in and children would start as infants and stay until kindergarten. The daycare employees were amazing and many had been there 25+ years. In the fall of 2020, it was contracted out to Bright Horizons and it’s gone incredibly downhill since then. Under new management, the turnover with both old and new employees is horrible. The daycare is now expensive and the kids are seeing a revolving door of teachers. Most teachers seem unhappy.  I don’t see things looking up unless they replace the current executive director. What used to be a major, major benefit and reason to stay is no longer worth it. If anything, all the turnover adds stress for parents.

Lots of other changes since the announcement of going public. Lots of employees are leaving.

I am assistant to a Vice President in one of the sales business units.  My job changes from moment to moment.  I could be greeting/answering phone for "her" customers/staff, etc.  I manage her calendar.  Make travel arrangements thru our online travel program and the Travel Department.  I attend meetings and take notes, particularly action items.  WebEx and Lync are used in the meetings quite often.  Supplies are ordered when needed.  Expense reports are prepared after trips, etc.   I have attended user group meetings when in another department in Seattle, Montreal, and Philadelphia.  In some positions, I have interviewed and recommended individuals for hiring. Coordinated office setups for new hires.  I approve her direct reports absence requests and expense reports.  Since SAS is so big, I don't normally create excel and powerpoint documents; however, I may edit them.

My typical day as an Account Manager includes follow-up on current opportunities and constant "hunting" to find new opportunities within my assigned divisions.  My experience has been such that I have learned a tremendous amount about BI, MDM, analytics and "Big Data" technologies.  Management is relatively patient and clearly defines goals.  My colleagues and those within the technical ranks are tremendously intelligent and ambitious individuals with a strong desire for everyone to succeed.  The most trying of times for me are creating a sense of urgency with the support and engineering organizations when a customer issue arises.  The most enjoyable part is seeing the end-user deliverables once a solution has been deployed into production.

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