A good company, but its size got in the way - Software Engineer III Boeing Employee Review

4.0
Oct 24, 2010
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great compensation, great benefits, good people with competent leadership. For a software engineer, Boeing is a good place to grow as a leader managing complexity, but technical growth is limited to very specific facets of the defense industry. The work is somewhat interesting/enjoyable, and there are opportunities to present advances to the company and industry. Social ambition (offering to manage projects, presenting, running meetings, etc) is rewarded greatly, and technical ambition is rewarded only with breakthroughs, patents, etc.

Cons

In St. Louis, the location is pretty awful - in a bad area of town and older, dreary office buildings. My biggest complaint is that the company is so large and there are so many technical problems being solved, that there is a ton of redundancy. You might be working on a solution for a year, only to find that another team has implemented something very similar. Joining the solutions may be technically or politically difficult, so then each team attempts to justify its pursuit of the solution. Technical competence is rewarded differently by different teams, and to truly stand out, I recommend joining an advanced technology organization like Phantom Works - this gives you the opportunity to work on more interesting DARPA projects and to pursue patents. While leadership is generally competent, the overall management system at Boeing is overly complex and it can be very frustrating.

Explore other reviews about Boeing

5.0
Jul 6, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great to intern for, as a student

Cons

Can be corportate and slower

3.0
May 27, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Easy going, nice benefits, free further education (masters/PhD). Great for an engineer starting out who needs to dip their feet in the pool of engineering for a few years and to get a great 401(k) match at the start of your career (compounding growth). Great for late stage career due to the benefits and solid enough pay in a low cost of living area

Cons

pay-scale lagging, no emphasis on learning new things, no punishment for people who are bad at their job. After working for 4 years, I feel like I should have jumped ship after 2. I haven't been given meaningful work that really challenges me in a while. Now I feel pigeonholed into staying because I have enough years of experience that I really should be considered senior, but I haven't been given work that reflects what I senior engineer should be capable of. Now I'm trying to jump ship before it's really too late. If I stay here another 2 years I think I will be genuinely unemployable and will have to stay at this company forever.

See reviews by: Helpful|Rating|Date|All