Boeing Sr. Software Engineer reviews

4.1

91% would recommend to a friend

(140 total reviews)
avatar

Kelly Ortberg

75% approve of CEO

74% positive business outlook

Sr. Software Engineer employees have rated Boeing with 4.1 out of 5 stars, based on 140 company reviews on Glassdoor. This indicates that most Sr. Software Engineer professionals have an excellent working experience there. Boeing is rated in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) by Sr. Software Engineer professionals compared to other employers within the Aerospace & Defense industry (3.6 stars).

Reviews by job title

140 reviews
1.0
Dec 13, 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Not a lot of intelligent engineers here, so it isn't hard to look like a pro. 100% work/life balance because you can come in and do nothing all day and get away with it. Actually, you don't even have to show up to work and charge for a full day, because your managers are going to be non existent. Benefits are pretty decent, although they are working on removing that perk. They've tripled the healthcare cost recently and are lowering the life insurance coverage. Really hard to come up with more pros....

Cons

I was hired on to Boeing as a Senior Software Engineer, only to quickly find out that Boeing doesn't have a clue what software engineering is. They tend to farm most of their software work out, so I've languished away in a cube for 5 months. I feel that I have developed PTSD from the smell of coffee and broken dreams. At some point, you're going to think "Man, I'm really not pulling my weight around here and just don't get what's happening." Then, you'll find the ashes of the last poor soul that sat in your cube and you'll realize it's not just you, it's the worthless environment you've been shoved into. Even if you found the strength to try and succeed here, the politics and constant backstabbing will take care of that quickly. To add to all of that, they have this Go4Zero movement where they shove safety crap down your throat constantly. They want to yell at you if you take a phone call while you're standing on the sidewalk, but don't say anything about the hazards their worthless union employees are creating from the construction they are doing on site. Trust me, you'll get sick of it. All in all, if your career goal is to come to work, be miserable, and die, come to Boeing. Otherwise, go somewhere else... literally anywhere else is better.

3.0
Jul 14, 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

1) Great health benefits. Company is very flexible about use of sick leave. 2) Generous amounts of vacation/year, and vacation carries over from year to year (up to a certain point). 3) Company is relatively flexible about telework/flexible hours. 4) Work/life balance is pretty good. >95% of my weeks are under 50 hours, and I've never really had a week over 60 hours. 5) The work for the most part is interesting and impactful to society. 6) There are lots of opportunities to do different kinds of work, as long as you're proactive with your manager. (This may depend on your organization.) I started as a C++ embedded software developer, then transitioned to full-stack web development with modern Javascript frameworks, and now I'm transitioning over to systems engineering.

Cons

1) My organization has a very short term outlook. As in, priorities set by management change on a weekly basis. This I think is in part because Boeing as a whole expects its subsidiaries to perform well each quarter (I work at a Boeing subsidiary). 2) Raises suck. Better than inflation, but not by all that much. Promotion raises are bad as well and even after you've moved up a level, they don't increase your raises by all that much. 3) We are required to take a lot of useless training every year. It's perhaps useful the first year you take it, but not after that. 4) The career ladder grinds to a halt once you hit senior engineering level (level 4 and above, highest non-executive level is 6). Climbing the ladder while remaining technical is extremely hard to do, and requires a lot of ambition and a little bit of luck. Becoming a manager may be a bit easier, but by doing so you sacrifice your ability to do technical work. Boeing expects its managers to be people persons and nothing else. 5) Boeing is mired in bureaucracy. Trying to get things done through official channels (e.g. getting licenses for software) takes weeks at a minimum.

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