General Atomics reviews

3.8

73% would recommend to a friend

(568 total reviews)
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Neal Blue

78% approve of CEO

71% positive business outlook

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568 reviews

Reviews about "Compensation"

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2.0
Jun 22, 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Opportunity to work on some fascinating leading-edge technology; excellent as a first job and stepping stone to a better-paying job elsewhere for new graduates; good benefits, but you will pay for many of them; 401K and pension plan; fair starting salary but nothing stellar; chance for annual bonus; nice annual event for employees and their families; public recognition for length of service; 9-hour workday with alternate Fridays off; some very technically talented people to work with; as a privately-owned company, GA can take the long view without shareholder interference; San Diego

Cons

Excessively bureaucratic; highly compartmentalized with little cross-team interaction; little opportunity for advancement or growth; plan to stay in the same job, doing the same thing, at the same job classification and inflation-pegged raises, for years and years; manager can block intra-company transfer even if it would be for a better job; little autonomy, multiple levels of approval are needed to do anything new, different, or even to get the tools needed for your job; plan to get thrown under the bus at least once during your time at GA so your manager can move up; increased responsibility rarely results in increased pay; training focuses mostly on learning internal administrative policies and procedures; little instruction on the tools needed to comply with internal policies and procedures; virtually no technical training or direction, you're on your own to maintain your skill set; administrative demands, even trivial, always seem to take precedence over customer work and deliverables; no recognition for your work accomplishments; just won a multi-million dollar contract after years of work?, that's nice, now get back to work; no way to report any extra hours you work (bad for project planning and personal credit); no comp time for evenings or weekends worked; no special amenities, like free coffee or meals if they tell you to work late or on weekends; annual performance reviews focus on the past, rarely the future; no career path planning from management; get it out now then firefight the problems later

4.0
May 30, 2014

Nice company for technical people / Full of obstacles for sales people

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Broad product line allows career shifts and learning Competitive pay at nice defense-industry rates Generous vacation/sick pay, full benefits, tuition reimbursement Private ownership by Blue brothers eliminates outside pressures and stock price manipulations Cool technologies - plasma, stealth coatings, Predator, rail guns Owner Neal Blue is amazing to understand and leverage so many diverse technologies San Diego!

Cons

Legal department's slowness and risk aversion has been strangling the company for past five years High level of conflict and office politics among departments in some GA entities Ridiculous number of approvals for routine sales (and 10 times worse for international) Family ownership results in inevitable nepotism Lack of training in organizational and people-management skills Sales and marketing are dirty words

1.0
May 13, 2014

If you need a job! But don't expect much...

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The pay is competitive and you can qualify for an annual bonus. The technology is very interesting and you get to work with a lot military personnel, who are always appreciative of your hard work. Small tuition reimbursement and you have the ability to take computer training courses.

Cons

Pour management and way to many "Chiefs". No career paths or set expectations for most employees. Don't expect to advance if you are younger. I've been told more then once that because I am young and have more potential, I should not expect to be promoted ahead of more senior co-workers. Leadership is seriously lacking and most are more then willing to throw you under the bus to get ahead. The culture is also unpleasant, there is no "team" mentality. Most departments would rather fight against each other than work together.

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