MITRE Software Systems Engineer and Project Lead reviews

- Management structure and restructuring at times ineffective - Little recognition of unique contributors - Technical capabilities are important but should not be the only criteria for employee evaluations - Good Old Boy management in home offices still at play when sites are doing the real work - Management attitudes "trickle downhill" to allow sometimes unfair employee relations

No bonuses, raises are usually only on cycle (end of year), unless you have worked crazy hours and get an off cycle raise in the summer. Level 2/3 employees are very undervalued if they are not celebrated by team leaders. Promotions above level 3 seem to take place only within a small brotherhood. MITRE values graduate level education. Systems engineering degrees from Johns Hopkins or George Mason seem to only service the "appearance" of better work quality, however this just means more deliverables (papers) that are added to the unread pile. The people at MITRE doing the real work are the ones with solid coding skills, and a background in mathematics, aerospace, or physics. There are concepts out there that are proven to benefit the sponsor (FAA) but progress is a slow roll of a ball up the hill for 10 years, not even joking. Imagine endless meetings, simulations, papers, deliverables, etc on a project for 10 years. If the FAA were privatized it would be more like 1 year, 2 tops. Raises will at most be 3% per YEAR. That's what you get for working at a non profit. However, there is 7.5% salary marching on a 2% contribution. So your IRA rollover after its all over will be in good shape. No culture. I talked to some management layer people a few times on activities outside of work. Each time I had the distinct feeling that I should guard what I say. It just seemed like all people in management cared about was work. I feel sorry for their wives. Other management that came from industry had way more personality, however it was obvious after awhile that they only displayed a fraction of their personalities while at work. When I left the career development reports were growing to an alarming government rate. HR was on a binge to get people to do quarterly updates on progress. It was constant, and unrealistic. Most of my software projects were so deeply involved that they were 6 months to 1 year in length. I would literally get funny looks when my leader wondered why things were not completed yet, even though I gave weekly updates and everything was thumbs up for months, until the quarterly review. The of lower management to impress upper management on the work of the umderlings was unreal. And for what benefit? This is government politics at its finest, impress only yourselves when no one else gives a damn, and never stepping back and asking, why do I care about this? You will become lost in the non existent culture. Hope that your leader is very tech savvy, not just someone promoted from within that hasn't the experience. Either that or someone that is a great leader, and celebrates his/her minions to upper management. If you are not outgoing, you will have zero relationship with management beyond your direct supervisor.