BBN Technologies Reviews

Pros

-Very smart and accomplished co-workers.
-Challenging highly technical problems.
-Model encourages and relies on technical staff to bring in work.
-Great opportunities for growth.
-Extreme schedule flexibility and the option to work from home when appropriate.
-Individual Offices.
-High relative compensation.
-Technical bonuses & strong benefits.

Cons

-I think I agree with the assessment that career advancement can be somewhat slower at BBN, partially just because co-workers are so competent that the bar is rather high when compared to the industry as a whole.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep fighting off any Raytheon policies that dont make sense for BBN.

Pros

* Great facility
* Smart people
* Benefits on par with industry
* Salary on par with industry

Cons

* Deceitful managers.
* Too much company politics.
* Archaic point of view of doing business.
* Favoritism and cronyism
* Not suitable for young and energetic people. Very little mentoring.
* No upward mobility.
* Not very innovative.
* Responsible for your own billability.
* Will discreetly layoff employees without warning if your billablity falls beneath a certain threshold.

Pros

* Stable
* Nice if you plan to retire when you're 20
* Great work-life balance
* Great facility
* Smart people
* Benefits for further education

Cons

* Deceitful managers.
* Too much company politics.
* Archaic point of view of doing business.
* favoritism and cronyism
* Not suitable for young and energetic people. It suffocates your life.
* No upward mobility. Takes >7+ years minimal to go up one level.
* Not truly very innovative.

Advice to Senior Management

You can do better but you didn't. This waste the brain juice of many brilliant young men.

Pros

no micro-management, flexible work environment

Cons

development and advancement is slow

Advice to Senior Management

Managers should talk to employees more to improve development and advancement

Pros

Flexibility
Computing infrastructure
Benefits are good and opportunity to work on new technology

Cons

Visibility is low
Collaboration with other employees is limited

Pros

Bolt Beranek and Newman is the original government contractor that created the standards and protocols that the Internet is based on under DARPA contract. It's the home of a huge number of other firsts, and continues to be active in all things Internet related and security related.

This firm is truly a leader throughout engineering circles. While the ownership has changed more than once it has been in continuous operation since 1948. Originally formed by a collection of professors from MIT, the environment and culture remains research-heavy but this is also an organization that applies what it knows and performs the work.

Cons

Those from academia may feel more at home than those product-only backgrounds.

Pros

- Flexibility
- Pay is fair.
- Benefits are good.
- Growth is great if you bring in work (or know someone who does). Not so great if you don't.
- Values scholarly work, but values money more.

Cons

- Will discreetly layoff employees
- Good ole boy network
- Very cliquish environment. Either you are in, or you are out.
- Won't tell you that your job is in jeopardy.
- Managers practice unfair or deceitful acts to eliminate employees who are lightly billable, or who are perceived unfavorably.
- People who bring in work basically control the destiny (or fate) of those who don't.

Advice to Senior Management

Quit living in an alternate reality, and kidding yourself. BBN is just like every other beltway bandit.

Pros

Outstanding coworkers
Exciting research opportunities
Collegial work environment
Client funded research and development work means greater control over research direction at lower levels

Cons

No clear corporate mission or strategy
Haphazard initiatives with no obvious rationale and typically not enough communication to explain context

Advice to Senior Management

I do not know what Tad actually does, so I have no real advice or feedback for him. He seems to insulate himself from the everyday activities at bbn.

Pros

The work can be relatively interesting and you are given the ability to publish, attend conferences, etc., at least once you get on a project that allows it and a PI that will let you.

Also, the benefits and work flexibility are impressive. For people looking to settle into a "job," this is a good option.

Cons

Established lines of work mean that working in new and different areas is difficult, if not impossible. Go work elsewhere if you don't fit nicely into one of BBN's divisions.

Also, Raython is slowly starting to exert influence on BBN. First: stringent IT guidelines. Next? Who knows!

Advice to Senior Management

Stop depending on huge DARPA contracts for so much of your revenue!

Pros

My colleagues at BBN are virtually all sharp, motivated, highly competent and engaged. That's the best part of working here. My experience has been very positive for a number of years-- I've been given a lot of freedom to explore new ideas (within the scope of the contracts we have...) but a fair amount of feedback and encouragement towards career growth as well (in team leadership and business development).

(I see in a number of these reviews that people are declaring that "Raytheon will change everything, and you're a fool if you ignore that", but I guess I will wait and see what actually happens. So far it hasn't been a problem at my level.)

Cons

As others have mentioned, the work is largely driven by government contracts. This does mean that there are ebbs and flows, and sometimes you end up shifting to work on one thing when you'd prefer to work on another. There also appears to be quite a difference between the departments, so what a review says about one department might be totally irrelevant to another.

Advice to Senior Management

I don't feel like I interact much with senior management, so I don't have much to say. Not sure if that's good or bad in itself...