Pros
It's a smaller company, so if you're looking for an environment where most people know each other, or know who each other are, that could be a positive. Facility is relatively new and modern, amenities like on-site cafeteria (though not particularly inexpensive) and a gym. Pay is similar to other engineering in the area, though perhaps relatively high for the industry considering cost of living; I knew coworkers who had competing offers at other aerospace companies with 5% higher salaries in areas with 50-100% higher cost of living. Raises/promotions happen pretty much on a set schedule for first 5-6 years (more on that later). Benefits are middling; many reviews seem to mention the benefits are good, and I'm not sure why. Perhaps people are just lacking perspective on what else is out there. There is a company-performance-based bonus given in February (much more on that later), several choices for insurance but all are relatively expensive if you actually have to use your insurance. If you're interested in working in aerospace, this is pretty much it for the area. There seems to be a prestige associated with building jet engines that's an appeal for some. It's worth acknowledging that in spite of the cutting-edge image the company likes to project, they've basically been building engines the same way since the 60s, and the company hasn't developed a legitimately new product in 30 years (this is public knowledge; there are wikipedia articles for both the company and its major engine products). Essentially everything they produce now is a repackaging of an older product with new bells and whistles to make something more expensive for new customers. There is new development work of electronic accessory-type items in house, however these aren't new technologies, simply efforts to insource things they don't want to buy from suppliers anymore (very frustrating work; they're poorly equipped to do this). Apparently the company is consistently a highest-rated presence in the industry for service and support of their products. There is an engineering rotation program for young new hires, like many companies. There is a manufacturing facility in Utah with opportunities for 1-year rotations there. Management at this company is obsessed with people working as many hours as possible, and they pay the OT straight (for engineering), so if working a lot of hours and getting paid for them is a priority for you over whether or not your work will actually amount to anything tangible and/or how you're treated, this company could be a good choice for you.
Cons
Where to start. When I started at Williams it was a different place, things seemed kind of old fashioned but the work we were doing seemed more focused and sensible. There were always some problems, maybe more than I knew at the time, but Covid and a coinciding change in upper management during the last 2 years I was there just really accelerated the deterioration of the company, the morale, and the work. Basically, this company is living in another decade. Project and people management are disasters, no transparency in decisions, no diversity, HR isn't exactly an ally. From a technical perspective, a lot of direction is taken from a few people in upper management who haven't been "real" engineers for many years, and their whims in direction usually supersede the opinions of boots-on-the-ground engineers with the technical skills to know that what they want to do won't work. We end up going along with it anyway, wasting time, money, invoking disappointment for the need for a redesign later, rinse and repeat. A company this small should be able to work through developmental iterations fairly quickly, but the ongoing discard and redesign usually keeps progress pretty slow. Communication is also surprisingly poor for a small company, and red tape (e.g., approvers can't be bothered to do their jobs) can make release processes unnecessary slow. Customers are perennially disappointed by developmental schedule delays, as well as delays of engine deliveries. A lot of this stems from the fact that higher ups want to keep taking on more business, but the way the company is actually managed and functions can't possibly keep up with that volume. They want to keep doing things the way they did in the 90s, and everything management does to try to make things go faster is a testament to how clueless they actually are. Punishing engineering for manufacturing capacity problems is a major recurring issue, which makes no sense. Managment always believes people aren't working hard enough, and that this is the root of all of their problems; there's actually project-planning/management software they use that proves this isn't true, which management chooses not to listen to despite insisting on using it. There's an obsession with how many hours people work, and a delusional belief that working more hours will translate to more getting done. They do pay overtime straight, so there's no "casual" OT work you aren't paid for. OT is always encouraged, and has been required. Upper management was upset people weren't electing to work extra hours of their own volition, so they required 48 hours a week; they then complained people weren't electing to work extra hours on top of the 48 they were requiring. For about 3 months in early 2021 we were required to work a full 8-hour shift on Saturdays; there was no flexibility in allowing for making up those hours on any other day of the week, we all had to be in all day on Saturday. The most nonsensical part of all of this overtime mandating is there was never any consideration whatsoever for whether or not individuals were getting their tasks done, with or without OT, it was just required for everyone. This had a chilling and demoralized effect on everyone; people who ordinarily elected to work extra felt like that was a slap in the face, and people who normally got things done on time felt even less motivated because everyone knew we would be punished regardless. Wholesale punishment of engineering instead of actually holding individuals responsible for getting their tasks done was a common theme of the last two years I worked there. This was definitely part of the company culture, and was reflected in a number of decisions upper management made. A leaked email from the CEO to VPs used language compelling them to "make it painful" in reference to OT and Saturday work mandates. Our February company-performance-based bonus was also withheld for what we thought was indefinitely at the same time in early 2021 (this really hurt; like many people I had planned to use that bonus money to fill my HSA). Naturally, people started quitting, and I think someone higher up eventually got scared because pretty suddenly in April of that year the Saturday requirement was lifted and shortly after in May we got the bonus we were owed, and the next week they brought an ice cream truck onto campus for us, which was a particularly pathetic attempt at placating employees. Things were relatively smooth for a while and then they started requiring overtime hours during the week again later in 2021. Flexibility of hours has always been a big sticking point with this company that they don't want to budge on, because they want to control people as much as possible, and from what I've heard it's only gotten worse since I left. People needing to leave an hour early to pick up their kid from school are in for a fight. This company has no respect for anyone's time or personal lives. Middle managers are aware of how miserable the people under them are, but most of them are guys in their 40s who have only been in their positions a few years, and they generally aren't willing to stand up to management in the interests of their people. Speaking of management, there's almost no opportunity for career advancement within this company. There's upper management (CEO, VPs), middle managers, then "regular" engineers, that's it. If you start right out of college, once you're out of the rotation program there's fairly little opportunity for moving around to do other things. It's possible, you can ask and it might happen, but the business needs of the company trump people and what they want every time. A big problem is the better you get at something, the less opportunity you'll ever get to do something else; many people have quit because of that specifically, management doesn't care if you like what you're doing if you're good at it and it's something they need done. Mediocre people get to move around much more. This issue is similarly seen with the raise structure (this company called everything a "promotion" regardless of whether or not there's a title change). Raises happen on a schedule, and it's the same for everyone, it doesn't matter whether or not you're doing a good job, at least for the first 5-6 years. After that wages stagnate, and you're limited to cost-of-living adjustments, which haven't been happening every year in recent history. At a company this size everyone knows who does and doesn't actually do anything, who does crossword puzzles all day, etc., it's frustrating to know doing a good job doesn't matter that much when it comes to compensation. A leaked spreadsheet showing pay grades vs. years of service/experience is floating around and many have seen it. In no uncertain terms, this is definitely a very conservative company. The company has hosted a conservative political rally on the property before, and after Trump was elected everyone received a $1500 bonus just because the CEO was pleased with the tax incentives the company was garnering. Williams is absolutely anti-vax. When Covid hit we were never allowed to work from home; I worked in-office every day from the beginning of the pandemic until I quit in spring 2022. The company was claiming we didn't have the secure VPN technology for people to be working remote, but we always knew this wasn't true because specific people had always had the ability to do that, and various people would continue to at different times. When the presidential mandate for requiring vaccines was handed down for all companies over a certain size we got a personal message from the CEO outlining how he was disgusted by that measure and that we would never be adhering to that. We were working in split shifts for a little while (6:30a-3p, 3p-11p) but this wasn't really enforced and didn't last long. At various times there were half-hearted mask mandates in communal areas, and for a short time at our desks as well, but most people didn't stick to that. Basically, I was exposed to unmasked anti-vaxxers every day doing my job whether or not I wanted to. Side note, there's no real paid sick time, just PTO, essentially every minute you're out of office for any reason is coming out of PTO, including the first three days of any extended illness. Williams is part of the defense industrial base (i.e., the company is a defense contractor but individual employees are not themselves DoD civilian contractors); there was a memo publicly issued by the Department of Defense in January 2021 urging such companies to advocate to their local health authorities to prioritize their employees for vaccines as essential workers since we were being required to work in office (in contrast to actual DoD contractors, who were directly offered advanced vaccines at that time). When this memo was brought to the attention of the company and HR, the response was that they were specifically electing not to pursue advocating for us to have advanced vaccines while working in office in spite of the DoD recommendation. This company does not care about its employees, at all, and certainly does not value them above their own business interests. Amongst blue-collar manufacturing workers, Williams has acquired a reputation in the local community as being anti-vax, and manufacturing guys have been leaving other companies in the area to come to WI specifically because they know they won't be required to be vaccinated. As far as HR, there are a lot of questions about their actions and how impartial they actually are. A particular manager had a number of different incidents sexually harassing young women that were brought to HR (multiple over the course of years, not an isolated thing at all), and these became common knowledge. He subsequently became a VP; this was viewed as particularly conspicuous because he really isn't/wasn't good at this job in the first place, and is even worse as a VP, but ostensibly repeated incidents of sexual harassment have not only been tolerated but were not an obstacle to being advanced to executive management. The day before his VP promotion was announced a young woman was observed screaming at him in his office to stop staring at her. Diversity is poor overall, very white, very male. To be fair, since this is a defense company and certain jobs require US citizenship some reduction in ethnic diversity might be expected (as compared to academic engineering programs, which would typically have significant numbers of people from East and South Asia), but how few women there are is certainly conspicuous. Sexism is rampant in this company, and I've overheard some appalling comments made freely, mostly by older men. The way women are treated is certainly not helping to increase their numbers, in addition to the ongoing risk of having creepy older men stare at their chests (I've heard this comment related from dozens of women over the years I was there), female engineers are often treated like secretaries. Some women who are degreed engineers have tasks that are no different than other women who are only administrative support, and I once watched a VP walk past several male engineers to ask a female one to clean up an area of the office. I mentioned sexism specifically in my exit interview, hoping perhaps they'll take it more seriously coming from a man. Virtually zero LGBTQ+ visibility, which isn't surprising since the cultural barometer on this company wouldn't lead one to expect broad support. Overall, this started out as an OK place to work, and then transformed into something more toxic and dysfunctional than I could have ever possibly imagined. There are good people that work here, but they aren't in charge, and they don't have the power to affect real change. Beginning in early 2021 there has been huge, unprecedented talent turnover at this company, including me. They're just not interested in adapting to work culture and work-life-balance in the modern world, which I suspect will continue to hurt them.
