Aerospace Corporation Reviews

Pros

Aerospace is an excellent environment to develop a very broad skills set. Benefits are excellent for old-timers and still very competitive for new hires.

Cons

Downsides depend on where you work. In Labs, standards are set very high, and non-PhD's have a difficult time advancing.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to your employees and trust their input.

Pros

You can work on challenging problems. Your work can have an impact on a major satellite program. Mostly suited for "Thinkers" and not "Doers". If you enjoyed getting your PhD, this place is for you.

Cons

Slow promotions. Niche job positions. Sometimes you feel like you are beating down on the contractors (Satellite Manufactures) just for the sake of "doing your job". If you got your Masters Degree because you wanted to get out into the job force and build something, this place is not for you.

Advice to Senior Management

Reward the "worker bees" that want to expand their expertise instead of only rewarding the few specialized engineers.

Pros

With oversight of multiple goverment contractors, you get a broad overview of the aerospace industry. The company has a lot of experts with 20+ years of experience that offer a great wealth of knowledge. Most of the senior staff are more than willing to provide guidance. The work environment, in general, is relaxed and you are given freedom to do your work (overtime is infrequent). However, this varies greatly from department to department. Many people abuse the system and do very little work. Starting salaries seem near industry standards, but raises and bonus are below par. Employee benefits seem above average.

Cons

Some people question the value of the company and how much impact it has. Much of the practices and technology are based on heritage. So cutting-edge technology is pretty limited. There is near zero involvement with hardware. Upward mobility in the company is very limited. Promotions are based on time spent at the company instead of merit. Advancements are only made available when senior employee retire or leave the company. Management can be very poor and you are often left to deal with issues on your own. There is little camaraderie among the employee, which makes the work environment very isolating and dull.

Advice to Senior Management

Reward employees based on performance and merit.

Pros

Extremely low pressure job, chance to get your hands on some interesting technology

Cons

No really career advancement. No recognition for extra effort. Lot of people working there taking advantage of the system. Very common to see people play solitaire on their computers and / or taking naps (sometimes both at same time). Very poor IT support.

Advice to Senior Management

Pay attention to what the people beneath you are doing.

Pros

* Exciting projects to work on
* Very intelligent, very experienced employees that you can learn a lot from
* Salary appears to be competitive with the big contractors, and better than many alternatives
* Job security is high, due to a reluctance to lose experienced employees, and both defense and science funding streams
* A focus on integrity and ethics of employees
* Culture is attractive to older employees

Cons

* Company is slow to adopt new ways of thinking, probably because of the elderly management
* The workplace is the antithesis of (for example) Google, seemingly designed to make employees want to be somewhere else
* Bureaucracy, like many similar companies, can often be a drag, with signatures needed and seemingly non-essential staff hired to keep employees from excessive focus on productive work.

Advice to Senior Management

The senior management should focus on creating an environment to attract and retain new talent

Pros

There are a lot of extremely smart people here, so I am constantly learning new things and gaining expertise. The flexible work schedule and 9/80 work week is a nice thing to have. Also, there is the space to really get down into problems and take the time necessary to get things done right. Additionally, there isn't a large expectation to perform free work (i.e. coming in on Saturdays) as compared to some of its neighbors in the same industry. This is key because it allows employees to actually be available to their families. Also, their retirement package is pretty good, and allows for retirees to work part time as "casuals". We keep getting into the AARPs top list of places for older people to work.

Cons

One of the positives above is also a negative. That is having space to get things done right, also means that sometimes production from certain team members can be lacking and it is difficulty to change. Also, it sometimes feels like there is not very much room for career advancement. All promotions are based almost entirely on years of experience, which could be OK, but combine it with the fact there are not very many job positions, so it can be many years (like more than a decade) between promotions. I would like to get a small promotion every few years to know that I am on track career wise, rather than get a big promotion every 10 years, because I don't know how I'm doing in those years between, and it's nice to see some kind of benefit for good work a little more frequently.

Advice to Senior Management

Find a way to make the APIP meaningful. The way I currently see it, it does not benefit the staff at all. If I don't do it, or I do it poorly, then it makes me look bad, but if I do it well nothing happens. It either does nothing for my career or hurts it. I know that my management already has their opinion of all the workers in their group and it has nothing to do with the APIP, so why do we waste so much time on it? I know it's a hard problem, but I know that a lot of others feel the same way. It's a little demotivating the way it works now. Just to be clear, I don't have a problem with the process itself, just how the results are used (or not used).

Pros

There is a significant amount of job security within the company, average tenure is very high, turnover is pretty low. Most people have a security clearance so there is strong stability. There are two tracks that one can move up in (technical and managerial), pay scales are fairly similar on both. There is no significant pressure from management, if you are doing your work, that's already excellent. Environment is "campus like," many opportunities for education (seminars, tuition reimbursement, fellowships, etc.). Company values education, period. Bachelors candidates/employees don't get much respect. Interesting work with defense contractors depending on the assignment. One of the few companies that still provides a retirement plan (after 5 years with the company)

Cons

Everything moves snail speed (too much bureaucracy), significantly older workforce (seniority issues), no stock options/bonuses

Advice to Senior Management

Accelerated acceptance of new ideas

Pros

As an FFRDC there is no worry about a contract ending and having to find a new job.
The mission of the company is valuable and therefore it makes you proud to support it.
Good work/life balance with a 9/80 schedule option.

Cons

Very slow in making changes.
Management does not understand the needs of the project and does not
listen to the workers input.
Little to no chance of promotion.
Very political!
Very much a retirement home for ex gov't/military folks.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to your employees. They are your number one asset.