Avantages
NI has a relaxed and friendly work environment. Intelligent coworkers make cooperation easier. It is a challenging and fun place for new graduates to start a career as they immerse you in real work right away. You learn on the job. There are lots of different groups and products to work on; there is flexibility to move around within the company. You feel like you are making products that impact people's lives. Austin is a great city to live in. It has reasonable house prices that have not been affected by the dismal housing market, a great music scene, and lots of active stuff to do if you are into sports.
Inconvénients
Monotonous cubicle spaces, lousy fitness center. Lots of lower level managers are technical people who got promoted to managers, and most of they are not very good at managing people or projects. Low starting salary and pay raises that does not outpace inflation. There is a bit of internal politics at play. Unless you working on a high impact project in a highly visible group or your manager is really looking after you in your career development, promotion and pay raises are hard to come by. Even if you do above average work, there is little reward for you to do better.