Mar 30, 2025
General Atomics reviews
3.8
73% would recommend to a friend
Neal Blue
78% approve of CEO
71% positive business outlook
Race / Ethnicity
Gender
Sexual orientation
Disability
Parent or family caregiver
Veteran status
4.0
Mar 27, 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook
Pros
Work life balance, benefits, good people to work with
Cons
Low salary, slow growth, high bureaucracy
4.0
Mar 18, 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook
Pros
Great work/life balance with rarely any overtime, hybrid work available. 9/80 work schedule is nice. Multiple cafeterias in the Poway buildings where you can get a good lunch for $7-$8. Interesting work in the Payloads group where we built various systems for various vehicle platforms, often on IRAD with quick timelines. Not sure how things are on the aircraft side of ASI, probably much slower. Full ownership over parts/assemblies from concept design to analysis to testing & integration. Never micro managed, my supervisor would let me lead the mechanical efforts on programs independently as an E2 and I would send status updates every other week. Basically tons of freedom and hands-off management. This allowed me to learn a lot in a short period of time and have rapid growth in responsibility. Bottom line: If you want a comfortable job in San Diego then GA is a great place to work.
Cons
GA is an old company that is stuck in its old ways, which really limits the amount of innovation that can be done. The pay is 'ok' compared to other DoD contractors but low in comparison to start-up defense companies that will pay +50% in addition to equity. Most of the company is made up of older individuals who want to cruise through the last 10-15 years of their career. As a young engineer, I often outpaced my older co-workers and got the top ratings during yearly performance reviews, although I was not compensated for it properly due to HR policy on promotion timelines. This was pretty discouraging. There are always new processes being implemented which slows down R&D projects/timelines which can be frustrating. The office spaces are your typical cubicle farms, a bit depressing. Bottom line: If you are a young engineer who wants to put in the effort for rapid career and salary growth, look elsewhere.
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