Pros
- Interesting mission with a reasonable market case (blended wing body commercial airliner)
- Some capable and bright coworkers
- Strong technical basis of product with opportunities to incorporate previous R&D
Cons
- Politics of a much larger, slower company
- Lower than industry average compensation, despite recent supposed "re-leveling" activities dictated by the C-suite. First line and middle management left out of the process.
- Promotions are rare and generally don't come with a raise
- Lack of transparency
- Incompetence and negligence allowed to fester. Poor performers are not coached and rarely let go
- Fundraising delays pushed back engineering hiring and hardware acquisition. Engineering is still expected to deliver "one-time"
- CEO constantly fighting with engineering about resourcing, budget, and strategies
- Those who disagree with the CEO are liable to be fired or placed on administrative leave
- Nepotism is everywhere: spouses, children, and fraternity brothers are given precedence over those with experience and qualifications
- Management prefers hiring externally and using expensive contractors rather than train and promote from within
- Low morale and increasing turnover
- Magical thinking - general refusal to address or fix problems and insistence that "marketing" and "vision" trumps physics
- Operations and manufacturing organization exists only in name
- Poor / non-existent team culture. Over 50% of the company is remote.