Avoid!!! - Engineer General Atomics Employee Review

1.0
Apr 29, 2022
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Pension... That's about it. Nothing here is good for the long term.

Cons

Micromanaging, upper management holds these monthly meetings to answer questions and try their best at avoiding sensitive topics like work from home, competitive pay. Employee retention is horrible. they would rather hire new employees than pay current employees competitive pay to meet industry average. they keep saying they are looking into fair pay for years. Lately they screwed all employees on bonuses and raises while the company made huge profit and met goals. Micromanaging, work weekends and unpaid overtime. If you aren't part of the old boys club then you are wasting your time there. Upper management is great at stalling in making changes. Just a bunch of lies. GA pays about 10-15 percent less than most DoD companies in San Diego. latest bonuses were between 1-2 percent, not even close to the 7 percent inflation. Avoid!!! Stay away and work somewhere else where they care about taking care of their engineers. go to Northrup, ratheon, L3, Anduril. Way more pay there and better life-work balance and culture. My years at Northrup were way better than GA. Switching back soon.

Explore other reviews about General Atomics

5.0
Jun 8, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Very good work life balance

Cons

9 hour shifts 4 days a week

3.0
Jun 11, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Mostly good people and skilled engineers that are easy to work with and great to learn from across all groups/locations. There is opportunity to pursue technical areas of interest and to stand out by leading improvement efforts. The company is flexible and often facilitates changes according to interest. Sense of job security generally feels good and stable, the greater GA really backs the Space division. The greater company works on some really interesting and cool things, beyond just defense. Pay is pretty good. Experience with most middle management (of engineers) has been positive, they typically advocate and support their employees.

Cons

Unsure of division leadership and strategic direction. Overall impression is that engineers' perspectives are not adequately weighted in both proposals and certain decisions for active missions. Processes burden performance, though there is intention for constant improvement. Ignoring engineering concerns (i.e. with schedule) + process burdens often result in delays and increased pressure, and therefore a less than ideal working environment at times. Overtime pay is not guaranteed but can be approved. Working with teams in different locations can lead to tension and "silo-ing" (though not always). Space division is becoming mostly defense focused (an industry trend), but would be nice to continue work in the civil earth and space science arena. They also demo'd a nice cafeteria/gathering space for more work/equipment space.

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