RTX BBN Technologies reviews

I have left BBN for two years. There are certainly nice things about the company. You can also see some positive reviews on this site. I acknowledge them: long long time ago, BBN is one of the most innovative companies in U.S.. It is still a world-class institution and comparable with Big Four (IBM, Microsoft, Google and Amazon). So, working here is no shame and you just try to make a living here. Saying so, I am giving this place only one star and won't recommend my friends to work here. Why? I am going to explain more. Since I have left for 2 years, I am no longer too bitter about the place. I just want to tell you the truth as much as possible. I also mildly resent some "Damn-good" reviews on this site. Most are superficial at best. When you work in BBN, you will notice a bunch of people more brilliant than you leave within 2-4 years. They head to bigger researcher companies or startups. They seldom come back to BBN. Once you trace the cause, there are 2 major reasons, office politics and the billing system. Let's review what's the corporate system of BBN first: There are 5 departments in BBN. On average, each has around 100-200 employees. Departments are rivals and the heads are never in good terms. In each department, there are 7 levels of scientists or engineers: 1, Chief Scientist, 2, Principal Scientist, 3, Lead Scientist, 4, Senior Scientist, 5, Scientist, 6, Staff Scientist, 7, Associate Scientist. Now simple math: there are 7 layers but the maximum department size is 200. In reality, depends on your luck and how much money your group bring in, it could go from 1 up to 9. Since higher level the scientists the more say they have. If the group size is around 3 to 5, low level employee such as Staff/Associate Scientist would need to take commands from multiple superiors. Not only that, as I said, you also need to be aware of interdepartmental politics as well as the fact that BBN is now part of the subgroup of Raytheon. So in reality, working there is like walking on a path filled landmines. The second issue, as very well presented by another commenters here, is the work dynamics. There are essentially two groups of people in the company: the ones who write the proposals and the one who don't. As in the other mail said, the "Master" and the "Servant". Indeed, the relationship between the "Master" and the "Servant" is not different from the one in the medieval age. The "Master" gets higher salary, more bonus when a proposal is successful and have very free schedule. The "Servant", would take 8+ years to promote, get very low salary, very prone to laid-off, their bonus is also the lowest. The worst thing is they see their "Master" leaving early at 5:00 p.m. everyday but they were left to do more and work until 8,9,10 and 11. That's certainly an unfair system. Unfortunately, if you don't have a PhD, chances are you won't write a proposal in your life time. You will be asked to resolve low-level non-creative tasks and you will stay there forever. There are exceptional case, when a mere master can get promote to high level. But they are very rare and it depends on luck rather than your skill. So now why do I only give 1 star? If we are comparing BBN with other S&P 500 companies, yeah... BBN's probably still the top 100 places to work. But hey, if you are brilliant, you always have choices. You can either go to a bigger company such as Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, IBM or Amazon. Corporate life there also sucks but hey! But you got paid more. You can also go back to school. The same 7-8 years, you got a PhD, after that you can also go to the Big Four. Once again, you end up better in status and salary. You can also stay in BBN and go to school. Let me tell you, it's a waste of time - your bosses are not very happy you go to school at all because they will have less manpower to work on *their idea*. Now last but not least, you can join a startup. BBN no longer give out options. The only rewarding system is proposal bonus. Your salary growth in BBN is also very meager. Why not search for a better place? That is why I am giving BBN 1 star: There are so many alternatives of working in BBN. All of them are better. When you happen to join BBN, corporate policies make you less and less competitive. Why would you ever want to go there? Anyway, thanks for the reading. Peace out and I hope you have good luck in your next job.

Most of what is classified is the fact that the work is a waste of taxpayer money Arrogant and Dishonest leadership If you don't have a PHD you might as well be dead Treat the parent company as if they are the enemy