Pros
1. Flexible hours 2. If you are a young engineer, there is a pool of exceptional engineering talent to learn from. 3. Competitive benefits plan 4. Excellent advanced education program 5. Attractive starting salaries for new graduates
Cons
Company is making it progressively more difficult to achieve Sr. Manager of Fellow Status, primarily because the aging work force (sheer numbers) would run up the compensation on Results Based Incentives. The result: Morale among the E5/ E6s suffers, apparently in silence. Upper management should consider creating a new labor grade between the E6 and E44 on the technical ladder and fractionalize the bonus structure. 2. Serious Salary Compression 3. Panders to the young engineers, with a seeming disinterest in retention of the senior, more experienced engineers. 4. Save for a few select "Superstars" , individual contributors will not likely advance as quickly or be compensated as well as those chasing the perks, bonuses, and higher compensation of the management positions; serving to incentivize many without the people skills and/or training to seek and hold such positions, and sending a message to the designers, analysts and integrators that their work is somehow less important. (I've held both roles by the way) 5. Far too many managers and far too few leaders. 6. Shrinking R&D budgets stiflle innovation with an ever increasing emphasis on outsourcing to sub-tier contractors and "black box" integration; leaving a considerable amount of intellectual property in the hands of the sub-contractors. (not where the core knowledge should reside, particularly in mission critical applications) 7. "Matrix" management structure and the pitfalls that come with such a construct. 8. Don't expect to ever have an office unless you are in the top 1% technically and/or have your political skills honed to a razors edge. Work space continues to shrink 9. Boasts of record revenues, but where is the money going ? 10. Gives "lip service" to mentoring and a culture of free exchange. Why ? Programs can't afford to mentor and mid-level and senior management can't stomach the word "no". In the end, probably no different than any other large defense contractor.