SAIC reviews

They have lost their original purpose... to work on behalf of the client. As a publicly traded company, its about the dollar now. Once they give you the nice salary to get into the company, then they heard you into the middle "satisfactory" or "outstanding" (3,4) levels on the performance scale, and then give you an increase just above the rate of inflation. The good people who work hard for the client are a dying breed in the company, and are slowly leaving the ranks. The don't offer serious professional development courses that you can use in your career... and don't bother asking for help with outside courses... you'll get the run around... just make use of the tuition reimbursement and find an accredited program.

The company is incredibly stove-piped. That was changing somewhat as I was leaving but it wil be a long road. It can possibly be attributed to the way the company founder set it up -- he wanted divisions to be contantly competing with each other so they would stay lean and hungry; also probably because he had control issues and didn't want any organization to get too big. What the result was is that you were constantly looking over your shoulder within the company to guard your 'sand box' against other divisions. I would say the biggest drawbacks to working at SAIC is that there is no career track for senior people; the compensation is so-so (forget about bonuses -- really); they don't want to hear your ideas about business opportunities. I was constantly struck by how the place must run on testosterone -- every meeting was an opportunity for one divison manager or another to spread his tail feathers like a peacock. Woe-be to the poor guy or gal that gets stuck as a proposal manager -- you get no support, get micro-managed by idiots who don't know anything about your business, and don't get a dime in reward after you've won.