Raytheon Reviews

Current Employee – been working at Raytheon full-time for more than 8 years

Pros – Intersting projects, good technical people, stable

Cons – slow, expensive and too many processes

Advice to Senior Management – Be competitive, act quick and do not get lost into process.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Raytheon

Pros – Note that while this is the Canadian subsidiary of Raytheon Company, it is run as a separate, mostly autonomous business and is very different than the rest of mother Raytheon...

For most people, work-life balance is very good - working hours are very flexible and depending on whether you are a manager or not, you can bank 24-40 hours of overtime for future time off. 12 days of PTO per year and paid Christmas break are really nice. Workloads are generally reasonable, and benefits are pretty comprehensive including $500 health spending, as well as a $400 fitness reimbursement - although options are fairly restricted in its use.

Formal training opportunities are fairly good, especially when you are new to the company, with the company picking up the tab for training related to your job. Also no problem with them flying you all over the US to other Raytheon sites and conferences for training and professional development. Watch out for the 100% clawback clause in educational reimbursements though, for a period of 1 year after completion of the course.

Cons – A big issue at this division of Raytheon is the labyrinthine office politics and 'old boy's club' mentality that comes in part from the senior leadership being ex-military. Overwhelmingly older, male demographics with a paternalistic attitude. A lot of favouritism and opportunity is slanted to individuals that cater to the status quo, and is not rooted in employee capability or performance as it should be.

Many employees fly under the radar and deliver little real value to the company's operations. Have caught senior engineers sleeping at their desks on more than one occasion, and employees with poor work ethic are not held accountable for their performance or missing business-critical deliverables. Most younger employees or those with any sort of ambition don't stick around for long and as a result turnover is pretty high amongst the employees that actually add real value to the company.

A lot of unnecessary overhead, back-office positions and bureaucracy make this division uncompetitive and overly reliant on sole-source or existing business. Seems like management is unwilling or unable to make the changes needed.

Advice to Senior Management – Recognize the efforts and capabilities of high-performing employees, and work to challenge and develop them. Hold under-performing employees to task on their performance. Make the changes necessary to enhance the competitiveness of the business.

Current Employee – been working at Raytheon

Pros – Has been declining for years. Very little in the way of new projects, and the sales of Air Traffic Control radars has fallen off dramatically. Poor work environment, with high turnover, interdepartmental feuds, favouritism and politics, and inept, lethargic mangers. Lots of deadwood here, just waiting to retire. The future for this facility is very questionable, and would definitely NOT recommend it to anyone looking for challenging or interesting work.

Cons – Pay is reasonably good compared to the rest of the Canadian aerospace industry.

Advice to Senior Management – Raytheon Corporate (U.S.) needs to take a hard look at the inefficiency and mismanagement of resources here.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Raytheon

Pros – great people, great perks, great environment, great projects to work on, great growth opportunities. Raytheon is a really interesting place to work and you will always feel like part of the Raytheon family

Cons – Not much to say about the cons of working at Raytheon. The only thing I would improve on is that management does not really give you a clear direction on certain projects.

Advice to Senior Management – Once again, management sometimes assigns you projects with no clear direction and expects you to run with it. Sometimes direction is needed however not given

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Raytheon full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – I like working here. It is challenging and rewarding. They have great contracts and many opportunities. I could not imagine working else where.

Cons – I really cannot write about any negatives. Sure sometimes folks have been on contracts where the clients can be unreasonable. But, you can always find another contract to work on

Advice to Senior Management – none

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Raytheon full-time for less than a year

Pros – Good pay, steady income, regular raises, work is challenging and changes almost everyday.

Cons – No CONS to speak of.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Raytheon full-time for more than a year

Pros – In general Raytheon is a good company with good benefits. SW teams typically consist of very down to earth, intelligent, hard working individuals. Most of the leads and management are stern but understanding and easy to get a long with. The company has a strong work/life balance ethic and promotes healthy lifestyles and flexible work hours. There are also many different work opportunities available to employees so its not uncommon for employees to bounce around to different business groups and job titles if they choose.

Cons – As with most DODs in this time and age, the money is not stable. Often times, programs and projects will stop on short notice due to funding cuts. Layoffs and staffing reductions are a constant threat. Many employees find themselves being forced to bounce around to new tasks and projects on a month by month or even week by week basis because funding issues. Also be prepared for lots of process and documentation. SW engineers will spend as much time with process and documentation as they will coding (if not more time).

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Raytheon as an intern for more than a year

Pros – great company, loved it, great people

Cons – big company so some red tape and uselessness

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Raytheon full-time for less than a year

Pros – great culture, dedicated to protecting our troops and country

Cons – the work is can be very challenging

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Raytheon full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – Flexible work schedules. Telecommuting, 9/80 alternate schedule,
Lots of opportunity.
Internal functional groups and external program facing groups tend to be very separate but there are opportunities in both.

Cons – In a downturn for the last few years, cutting employees regularly.
Very hard to get promotions...but easy to get increases in responsibility.
Functional groups are very distributed, so your manager is likely to be in a different state, making you balance between supporting local priorities or your management priorities.
IT is highly outsourced.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company