No doubt that there is a lot happening at Nike. Uncertainty over jobs, unclear direction, leadership changes, cultural challenges and unrest, etc. Given all that and instead of waiting to find out if I will or will not have a job, would you accept a new position outside of Nike? Why or why not?
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Original poster here.
Friends, thank you for sharing your experiencing and for the guidance your have provided. I appreciated more than I can convey. I completely know that it is my decision and I will do what I think is right for me, my family, our health, etc. I also wanted to let you know that I have made my decision and I am leaving Nike with no regrets. Amazing how things develop in that I only got serious about this a week ago and now I have 2 interviews lined up with what seems to be great companies doing what I love to do (cannot give that away here...my apologies). Wishing you all the absolute best in whatever you do. May you and your families be blessed, healthy and happy. All my love and respect.
I'm actively looking to leave for a job elsewhere that i'll be passionate about. Nothing beats senior leadership telling lower management how lucky we all are to be here, while the ominous threat of layoffs permeates the culture under Axe man "JonDon".
Nike seems focused right now on looking good on paper by forcing diverse hires into any open role. If Nike want's to look good - why not start with ending their Uighur forced labor affiliation?
Why wouldn’t you leave? Sharpen your skills and at least get some offers and then decide. If you are unhappy and/or mistreated, you’ll only feel worse by continuing with no action taken. The grass is not always greener, but feeling helpless is the worse thing possible.
I loved Nike! In the Phil days, there was actual love for the company. Diminished slowly after PHK left. Now that they have brought in an outsider, only the stock price matters. Employees are no longer expected to be creative. They are a mean to an end and no longer have the value that they once did. So unless you are holding onto seniority and retirement with a death grip, find a new place that holds meaning and makes a difference. Selling shoes? Meaning? I'm not sure anymore.
With exception of a cool campus, nice lunch options, gyms, and the BES, Nike is just another corporation these days. The swashbuckling "can do!" start up energy is long gone. The dominant and pride eliciting "We're #1 and plan to stay there!" days are over. Today, it is just another large concern beholden to Wall Street expectations cranking out appropriately focus tested products for the masses. A few truly innovative ideas have borne fruit but, most of the "hot" product is just collaborations with designers and influencers to freshen up retro 80s and 90s products and market them as new to a generation born after the products originally debuted.
Unless you are a product person (design or development), accounting, marketing, IT, logistics, analytics, customer service, sales support, app development, etc. is the same at nearly every other corporate concern in the world. As someone else pointed out earlier, the gold rush is over and you will not become a millionaire off of your stock options nor will you rise from an entry level job to running the place in 30 years.
If you love the brand and the WHQ vibe, good for you! If you want a long term home, you may wish to look elsewhere. If you want a great work/life balance without much stress and politicking, seek out another workplace.
@1gae+16ntt7Rv sounds so familiar do I know you haha
every company is "a complex business with big personalities, politics and it’s going through a lot of change". few have such a well-documented pattern of workplace abuse/toxicity and i've seen a lot of it in my 7 years here. it's also not an excuse for enabling one.
sure there's some autonomy and passion for the brand. who doesn't want to be a part of something we grew up being/occasionally still inspired by? that and a love of sports, amazing projects, compensation, etc.
it's hard to maintain that passion (let alone build trust) in a place where senior leaders openly say they don't trust anyone (inc their own team) and nobody bats an eye.
so the options we have are
- sharpen your knives
- slog through it until you decide or someone else decides because you're not loyal enough to them
- try and change the system from within. a favored suggestion by comms/hr people in here. nothing like putting the onus of fixing the matrix on the employee vs. leaders. hint - that person always gets pushed out.
- go elsewhere
its a shame those are the options but it is what it is.
One Day 1 you should be looking at how you can leverage your time at Nike to get you to where you want to be in your life professionally and personally. It's no longer a place where you are going to get hired out of college and spend the next 40 years. The Gold Rush is over - just looking at real estate in the area should tell you as much. You are not going to move there and settle. You will not get a Nike job and cash out like people who started there decades ago. Figure out what the biggest bang for your buck will be, do it, and use it to find a job at a company where you can get in on the ground floor to something better.
Resigned & accepted another position way beyond the berm. Took me a while to shake off 18 months of what felt like panic & misery with senseless high school politics.
I encountered a couple smart hardworking people with integrity at nike. most are just clocking time. while another handful are just playing the politics game. the smart ones I knew left. haha
@vvx, I do not doubt or discount your input as it is based, most likely, on your own experience. On the other hand, I believe experience such as yours happens in small measure depending on the area and team within Nike. Now, from a larger Nike perspective, your experience is in fact the exception - not the rule. I am yet to experience any autonomy, trust or even work with the most amazing people. They exist; yes, but are rare. I am yet to see any concrete respect for people and culture at Nike; I only see one scandal after another; one re-org after another without any positive change. I only see thw wrong people being promoted and hired in positions that have the power to make such positive change only they follow the current crops' lead and just look out for themselves. I would say run, Insert Name, run! I know I will the moment I secure a position. I am working on it and I am hopeful but it is not because I hate Nike; it is because I wan to reclaim my life. I want to have balance. I want to love life again and have time for what I love most - my family. That is just me though.
Yes, Nike can a good place and it was. It isn’t anymore and it is too far gone to get back to where it should be. Not sure about your specific circumstances but do what you feel is right for you - sorry, that is stating the obvious. Personally, I would take the new job and never look back. Best of luck.
Nike can be a great place to work, you get autonomy, trust, and a team with the most amazing passion for a brand I’ve never experienced in my career. That being said, it’s a complex business with big personalities, politics and it’s going through a lot of change.
Of course it depends on your motivations for applying and wanting to join Nike, but despite its challenges it’s a place I feel lucky to work