Pros
Socially engaging, great people, lots of DoD and contract related training, consistent vision, good variety and strong emphasis on core competencies. Surprising emphasis on emotional intelligence, which is a growing pain, but worth it culturally in the long run to establish solid middle-management. bravo to the new marketing and branding efforts in our comms and marketing teams, and hats off to our BD teams and their growing presence and influence in the industry. really love the push for better BU-to-BU collaboration and talent sharing. Love some of the things coming out of upper executive management - especially in terms of getting better people into our top positions. Our IT dept has made huge strides improving some of our enterprise wide tools and their support of them, and has implemented some great feedback loops that seem to be highly effective. Tremendous growth in the past year or two in the areas mentioned above. Love celebrating our product milestones and getting feedback directly from our end users and customers on how our products save lives and protect our country. Overall, a solid company to work for, and a solid brand in the industry to be proud of.
Cons
Not enough design work. Can't say that enough. You might be funded for it, but then skimp on it, or skip it all together. Not enough opportunities for real design, when we are just always integrating other stuff (which is usually riddled with quality issues). Alarming lack of senior engineering involved in jr. engineering mentorship. JR. Engineering has WAY too much design authority fresh out of college...with very little oversight or guidance. Not enough technical emphasis or training for engineering level 2 through 3. I am still not very clear on the distinction of "product engineer" or what our product engineering team does that is different than most engineering 4's or managers. I'm thirsty to learn and grow my technical depth, but the emphasis, support, and infrastructure is just not here. We need to refocus our talent and skillsets to our products and our market, or they will continue to bleed out our veins and literally walk out the door to our competitors. All my role models are gone for one reason or another, and sometimes it feels like the technical people are the minority in an engineering centric organization surrounded by people who are overly ambitious about climbing the ladder or pleasing the customer/executives and less focused on doing the work that's right and matters for quality products and innovative solutions that open new doors and secure new customers.
