Pros
Somewhat stable for aerospace- DoD & Commercial
Cons
Remote location = nepotism, underqualified/unqualified leadership, declining benefits, limited career opportunity, eliminated annual bonus for engineers below the G5 level (G1-G7 structure) in 2019. Only permitted to have the career you leadership approves of. As a SME, do not expect career growth support unless you shamelessly follow your director like sheep. An engineering fellow (G7 - top ranked engineer) is significantly overpaid with salary and bonus of ~$240k annually but achieving that profile is 99% political requires 30 years of blindly following your director (DoD/Mission Systems departments) and throwing fellow engineers under the bus while taking credit for their work. Smug, arrogant directors and associate directors in engineering leadership with no patents, formal leadership training, MBAs, etc. Program Managers with BS degrees in speech pathology attempting to lead tech dev programs without any experience - don’t trust them with your career or professional reputation. They were likely hired because of personal relationships with a director. Engineers are the product at this company and don’t forget it. Engineers are leaving Collins, UTC and Raytheon in droves because of poor treatment. Consider Northrup, or one of the hundreds of smaller Aerospace orgs that remember how to appreciate engineers. Don’t even think about joining the company if you are a mechanical, material, or aerospace engineer. Likewise if you are a chemist, physicist, mathematician or industrial engineer. Company only credits systems engineers and some EE, and software engineers. If you must work there do 2-3 years and move on otherwise you will regret it later when you gain visibility to the politics and realize you never had a chance to grow in that environment. Both boys and girls clubs exist. Not from Iowa? Move on - they don’t expect you to stay so don’t expect opportunity. White male? Move on unless you will be happy working as a lowly doormat engineer carrying the company for 30 years while you witness online university graduates being promoted to director making $400k a year without merit, major accomplishments, no industry experience, no industry contacts/DoD contacts but their Dad was a VP or they fulfill a gov required diversity quota. Engineers over 40 are counting the days with fingers crossed for an early retirement package. Decide to leave the company? They don’t even bother with exit interviews anymore most likely because HR consists of 22 y/o temp who have never worked a corporate gig or left the state of IA. Once a great company, they are just another bloated corporate conglomerate focused on the bottom line devoid of social responsibility. BAE is growing in town and will provide long overdue competition for talent and hopefully help out the modern day dressmaker (engineer).