Like many places, the notion that training is an essential employee benefit is all talk. I worked there for three and a half years and only saw training as part of my severance package. Really? The excuse was always "no budget". The review process is a joke as well. Raytheon's process does not translate well to the wholly owned subsidiaries they've acquired. As such, the first line management has no clue on how to make it work other then cutting/pasting a vanilla set of requirements that their team must complete. Oh, and training is a key issue in the "employee development" section. Rhetorically, how can one check off the training goals if the employee isn't allowed the budget to attend the training?
Moving within the company is all talk as well. While I made several efforts to transfer within my last couple of weeks, there was no true effort by HR to place me in a new slot. Now that I've been laid off I've been contacted twice by Raytheon recruiters. In both situations the recruiters had no idea I was recently laid off. Really? Did you actually look at the posted online resume? Come on...
As for my first line management...I saw him at the customer site four times at the most over a year or so time period and even then he only came in to the building twice (otherwise I had to meet him in the parking lot). I'm not sure how one can develop customer relationships with that type of effort. When he gave me the news that my days were numbered he promised to write me a letter of recommendation. Two months later I wrote one for him to just sign. No muss, no fuss, right? He wouldn't do it and I'm still waiting (not really).
