Aerospace Corporation Reviews

Pros

Good learning environment to fine tune engineering and program control skills.

Cons

Many older senior engineers are unwilling to invest the time to develop improvements or nurture younger engineers.

Advice to Senior Management

Invest more in your new hires.

Pros

The nature of the work is extremely interesting and you get an extremely broad overview of the entire launch vehicle industry. There are opportunities to still publish if you have management that looks at it as a valuable endevour.

Cons

The people here are really old and the company is still run as if it were in the 50's. The work is interesting, however some of the investigations become extremely detailed and deal with the real nitty gritty. It ends up being not so interesting when that happens. This industry really hit a wall, there is not much in terms of innovation anymore. Good management is like finding a needle in a haystack. The people are not social and if you are ambitious and motivated it can be looked down upon.

Advice to Senior Management

It's time to look at other companies and realize why younger people are no longer interested in a company like the Aerospace Corporation. Promotions and rewards should be focused more on merit rather than seniority. More focus on teamwork needs to occur.

Pros

Aerospace's history and core mission, focusing on national security space programs, is truly something to be proud of. Work life balance is pretty good. Good benefits and job security.

Cons

There are many incompetent managers, technical and administrative staff. Aerospace's understanding of IT and knowledge management is poor. Company seems to lack vision and creativity and discourages innovation with bureaucracy and geriatric culture.

Advice to Senior Management

Need to reduce bureaucracy, flush out poor managers, replace the APIP performance review process with a more practical and understandable review process, encourage greater transparency and knowledge sharing.

Pros

The technical challenges that you're confronted with depend a lot on the department you're in and your internal network. Initially, when you start at Aerospace, management should help you find tasking (sometimes, it's not what you expect). As you progress, you should be able to develop your internal network and find your own tasking and tasking better aligned with your interests.

So, the real "pro" here is the ability to pick and choose your work.

The tone and temperament of a department is set by its department directors and principal directors. Opportunities for research and cutting edge technology depend on how much a director advocates for it. Some are more successful than others.

For someone beginning in their career, it's an opportunity to pick up knowledge from industry "gray beards".

Education is rewarded. The Corporation has a vast number of Ph.Ds and compensation can be commensurate with level of education.

Cons

Aerospace has the reputation for being overly conservative and circumspect. Given its oversight role in the space industry, it's appropriate. However, it also creates the view that management is overly timid in its dealings with its various customers when assertiveness might be more appropriate.

Budget constraints present interesting management issues -- sometimes you don't get to play with the cutting edge because there's simply no money for it.

Being surrounded by a lot of Ph.Ds can be intimidating.

Building an internal network to find your own tasking takes time. Sometimes, a long time.

Finding good project-based work can be a challenge, since program offices are about the "here and now" (i.e., "Here's my problem today. It is really a problem?" Tomorrow is a different problem.)

Advice to Senior Management

Avoid being so risk-averse, even if it disrupts a customer relationship. Take well-balanced risks, even if it means diversifying the customer base.

Pros

- One of the reason I still stay is that you are constantly starting and finishing projects. It's rare to work on a single thing your whole life. Projects come and go, and usually people have to manage their time effectively to be able to stay competent in all of them

Cons

There are many incompetent people that don't care about their job. However since the company has a "no-layoff" policy, these mediocre people stay and don't leave the company . Of course, where would they go ?

Advice to Senior Management

Fire low performing MTS's. This would be a wake up call for many lagging engineers

Pros

The work isn't generally very hard, and there are very modest expectations for performance. The job security is very good. Some positions and assignments require a lot of uncompensated overtime.

Cons

If you are associated with software or information technology, it's a great place to lose your edge, fall behind, and have your skills become obsolete.

Advice to Senior Management

Develop some backbone and vision.

Pros

You will working with some of the smartest people around and are allowed to do essentially anything you want (as long as you have a charge number from somewhere). They invest quite a bit of money into training you. Your work can definitely have quite an impact on the industry.

Cons

The rewards systems seems to be based more on tenure than performance. Also, the management is extremely weak. There appears to be a bias in favor of the "smart engineer" versus an actual problem solver who will get the work done. The environment can be very political due to its almost academice nature.

Advice to Senior Management

Pay more attention to the actual management of the company. Too many political fights. Give rewards and promotions based upon transparent competencies rather than a backroom/good-ole-boy system.

Pros

The Aerospace Corporation has an amazingly deep pool of experience. People were generally very willing to share their knowledge, and the company seemed very focused on allowing people to further their own education. Many engineers have been there for decades, and the company prides itself on being the "institutional memory" for the industry.

This longevity is a testament to the corporation's stability. Many employees work on multiple projects simultaneously, so their employment is not entirely dependent on a particular government contract or the political whims of the day.

Cons

As mentioned, Aerospace Corporation's stability means that the atmosphere might be a little stale for some. While there are many opportunities to learn from experienced employees, freshly minted engineers might feel out of place in or intimidated by a company where the average age is approaching 60. The company seemed to be aware of this, however, and was taking steps to address it.

Advice to Senior Management

Do more to attract new engineers.

Pros

The Aerospace Corporation is a steady and stable company. While many other companies may be quick to lay off employees, Aerospace prides itself with being able to manage and sustain their level of work in down times compared to the rest of the Aerospace industries.

There are a variety of job opportunities at Aerospace. One can be technical or on the administrative side. There are also management opportunities. It really depends on the individual and what they are looking for. At the Aerospace Corporation, one's opportunities really depend on one's experience, education, and ability to communicate the type of work one desires.

Cons

There are no bonuses, stocks-options etc. This is not a for-profit company. Promotions and raises may not reflect what one expects in the regular Aerospace industry. It may be intimidating to work here as many of the senior employees have many years of experience and an abundance of higher education.
Working with the government means lots of bureaucracy, so things do not move as fast. Another negative is many things are classified so many things are not very transparent.

Advice to Senior Management

Be more transparent.

Pros

The opportunity to work on challenging project and to learn new technology.

Cons

Some downsides are having to travel frequently and dealing with excessive bureaucracy.

Advice to Senior Management

Make the promotion process more transparent, based on technical merit rather than political skills.