People say that BBN is an extension of MIT (because so many MIT grads work there), but nothing could be farther from the truth. There are a few small pockets of very bright people, but on the whole, the people are not very intelligent (but they *think* they're very intelligent---a dangerous combination!)
The projects could have interesting research components associated with them, but often they do not because the timelines are very short and often rushed. One of the senior management officials once told me that, in order to be successful at BBN, you need to possess "functional A.D.D." In other words, you need to be happy with working on something for a little while and then dropping it completely to work on something totally different. In practice, this means that if you like research and/or thinking, this isn't the environment for you.
BBN prides itself historically on being an environment that creates one or two first-of-a-kind prototypes, but the general trend is moving in the direction of being more production-capable (to create tens to hundreds of the same system). People blame this on the recent Raytheon acquisition, but as far as I can tell, Raytheon is playing no part in this; it's a combination of the senior management and the direction that DARPA is moving (the latter of which is beyond BBN's control).
The quality of managers is absolutely horrendous. First, all line managers are still technical staff and, hence, have a lot of technical work that they themselves are trying to complete. This very frequently means that they don't have the time or desire to actually manage when difficult situations arise. In particular, both managers and HR have *zero* skills when it comes to resolving inter-staff conflict. Poorly behaved staff members continue to behave poorly because no one in a managerial position talks to them to let them know that their behavior is not appropriate.
Overall, the environment is very sink-or-swim. If you're not happy with what you're doing, it's 100% up to you to find something that's a better fit for you, and no one is going to help you transition to a more suitable project. Morever, it is *extremely* difficult to switch between departments, so make sure that you really like the department that you're hired into or else.
On the whole, there's really not a whole lot that's positive about the environment. The work isn't challenging, there aren't many (any?) support mechanisms to help with career advancement, and the minute your billability drops too low, they're more than willing to lay you off. It's a wonder that the morale isn't actually worse than it is.
