Pros

Once you get familiar with the culture and people, you realize that this is a great place to work for. Your peers and managers are very supportive of you, be it professionally or supporting you in balancing your social/family life. The work is great and very interesting, while it lasts. Also, it offers great benefits, even better than most commercial companies, like Apple, where they work you to death and offer you little compensation in return.

Cons

Because this is a Defense business, all contracts hang on the hands of politicians. If they decide to pull the plug on your contract, then most likely you'll be laid off. In other words, the work is stable as long as the contract is not taken away by politicians.

Advice to Senior Management

This is aimed at the VPs and above...we live in the 21st century, and you must realize that SOFTWARE is going to play a big part on the success of this company. So, start promoting more people with software engineering background to senior management positions.

Pros

Flexible work schedule, friendly coworkers

Cons

Management didn't flow information down effectively, lots of wasted time and effort, pay is comparatively low

Advice to Senior Management

Plan more effectively to reduce necessary reductions in Force, create requirements BEFORE starting or even finishing a project

Pros

Great people to work with
Very cool projects to work on
Flexible work schedule including 9/80
Great pay and work-life balance
BAE is a defense contractor and therefore job security can vary positively depending on the state of the presidential administration.

Cons

BAE is a defense contractor and therefore job security can vary negatively depending on the state of the presidential administration.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep doing the job that you are doing. BAE has a history of great growth and will continue to be a leader in the industry as long as management keeps it up.

Pros

Important work- making armored vehicles for our warfighters- They need and deserve protection! Good Pay, some nice people to work with (until they got laid off...)

Cons

Work hours are long and there is little recognition for hard work. Small faults or errors are amplified out of proportion, and good work is not recognized.

Advice to Senior Management

Try to manage the folks that are left during the downturn so that they don't all buckle from being overworked.

Pros

Great work & life balance. Great benefits and people are treated with respect. One of the few companies out there that offers flex work schedule.

Cons

There has been a few programs being cut since I started. It is up to the individuals to explore other areas to find work.

Advice to Senior Management

Executive management are focused on moving work to the East Coast to reduce cost and ignoring the workload currently available at the site in Bay Area.

Pros

The work is challenging and flexible. There are many opportunities for those with Mechanical Engineering backgrounds.

Cons

Overall job recognition is disappointing. The company is project oriented so advancement is difficult to achieve unless you've been around for 10 or more years.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen more to those that actually do the work outside the boardroom. Recognize those that do the actual work rather than manage the work being done.

Pros

Great opportunities for training and if you want to relocate from Santa Clara to the East coast.

Cons

Layoffs and workforce restructuring happening now.

Advice to Senior Management

Communucation is key to retaining good employees during this restructure phase.

Pros

Among the best reasons to work for BAE Systems are the compensation, the training, the people and the opportunities. The compensation packages are competitive and there a many choices, there is a wealth of training available, the people here are like a family, and there are career opportunities and growth opportunities if you are willing to apply yourself. Many of the same employees are still here even after my 8-year hiatus. I know others who have been with this company for over 20 years. That tells you something about a company.

Cons

BAE Systems is a defense contractor, so one of the downsides of working here will always be budget cuts. Programs come into being and grow exponentially, while budgets for others are cut and those programs die. This is part of the ever-changing nature of the defense industry.

Advice to Senior Management

The only feedback I have for our management here is to keep doing what you're doing. Almost daily, I receive email communications about what's happening in various locations BAE. Management in my group has an open-door policy and communicate flows openly both ways. There is so much to take advantage of: training, brown-bags, new benefits. I've been back for six months and I'm wondering why I ever left.

Pros

Good work environment. Within engineering, the environment is professional and non-political. Management is more competent than in other large employers I've had, and appreciates challenges from lower ranks in response to top-down directions; communication flows well both ways.

Cons

The company has grown into a behemoth bureaucracy with defined procedures for everything - and it's hard to find the people who know the procedures to get things done. If you like a smaller company atmosphere with fewer management layers, BAE is not for you.

Advice to Senior Management

Pay less attention to political affiliations and geography, and more attention to which areas of expertise are offered by individual employees throughout the company regardless of where they are. Stop the double-speak about being a "borderless" company at the same time expecting to build centers of capability in specific locations - either it matters where we work, or it doesn't.

Pros

Interesting work. Tight time schedule. Lost of O.T. Work is related to our national security and war fighter.

Cons

Direct employees at salary grade are paid straight time after 45 hr/wk of work. This is discourages work commitment IMHO. Contractors and hourly are paid OT per state law.

Advice to Senior Management

Adopt newer technologies related to the engineering data/base.