Boeing Reviews in Houston, TX Area

Pros

Work-life balance
Education (tuition paid) program
Outstanding benefits
Great projects
All of the above is true for all Boeing sites!

Cons

Right now the aerospace future is a little shaky due to NASA vision changes.

Advice to Senior Management

Continue to seek out new work and new contracts.

Pros

No shortage of challenging work, large company has proven to be more of an asset than a burden.

Cons

Advancement seems slower than it needs to be for top performers

Advice to Senior Management

There are some strong engineers ready to help the company take the next step so keep a look out.

Pros

An awesome product
Great company infrastructure/support systems (120,000 employees)
Unmatched benefits

Cons

Pay is competitive but not high
Location

Advice to Senior Management

Keep it up

Pros

Prestige. Global reach and multiple job opportunities within the Company. It supports and we can actually participate in the advancement of humanity into the Last Frontier: Space.

Cons

I cannot think of any downsides just at the moment of which I feel strongly about.

Advice to Senior Management

Be honest.

Pros

The benefits are excellent. Examples - Medical = $0, Tuition Reimbursement is the best, and we still have a defined benefit pension.

Cons

The salary could be a little more competitive.

Advice to Senior Management

Don't take your employees for granted, even during our current economic environment.

Pros

Benefits are virtually unbeatable (401K, Pension, Full tuition reimbursement, medical, dental, OT, schedule flexibility, vacation time). Relatively simple to transfer to other available opportunities. The Houston Location is a great place if you want to be involved in systems integration and project management, or are more interested in the human factors and concerns of space exploration.

Cons

The Houston site is not really an ideal location for aspiring Technical Design engineers. Most of that happens in California, Washington State and Pennsylvania (depending on whether you're interested in R&D, Commercial planes or rotorcrafts respectively). I would recommend this site as a good "way in the door" if you're having trouble getting to those other locations as it's relatively easy to transfer within Boeing.

Advice to Senior Management

Get more involved in improving the training and personal development of your employees.

Pros

Great opportunities within the company for advancement. Employees are very proud of the work that they do and the products they create. Great place to start an engineering career. Great entry-level pay rates with decent benefits package. Plus you get to work on some of the most innovative, cutting edge projects on the planet.

Cons

It's sometimes easy to get lost within the company, since it is so large. Pay starts out very good, but raises are not competitive compared to the rest of the industry. Therefore the lack of raises do not keep experienced employees around for very long. Some of the processes are archaic.

Advice to Senior Management

Reward your employees for doing great work in order to reduce the amount of turnover.

Pros

You get to work on cutting edge technology. One of the best places to work if you are interested in airplanes or space exploration. Boeing is a big company and you can move around and get expertise in different areas of commercial airplanes or defense systems if you want to. Health insurance, retirement etc benefits are great. They pay 100% for education. Great place to get an advanced degree while you are working. With so many employees, the networking opportunities are awesome. A lot of recent college graduates are hired every year making it a dynamic place to work. I like seeing the end product of my efforts and it is an honor to be able to point to a plane in the sky in the future and tell my kids "I helped build that"

Cons

Since it is a big company, you can get lost and be "just another employee" if you don't pro-actively work towards your career. Pay could be better. The path to senior levels is not clearly defined. There are set rules about getting promotions and if you are an over-achiever, you might feel stuck in the corporate policies. For e.g. at a small company if you work really hard, you might get promoted a couple of levels or get a huge raise. This won't happen at Boeing since the managers have to follow company policies in these matters. No offices in some locations that young engineers might want to work in e.g. New York.

Advice to Senior Management

Work on making Boeing a more "fun" place to work, especially for Gen Y. Otherwise you will lose your employees to other "cooler" companies.

Pros

At Boeing, we're always working on fascinating projects that are highly visible throughout the world including the Space Shuttle, Space Station, Military aircraft, and commercial aircraft.

Cons

At least in Integrated Defense Systems, you have to deal with all of the nonsense associated with government contracts. Not only does this include countless numbers of people reviewing your every action, but also the "disadvantage company" subcontracting. This leads to two very different compensation scales for the exact same work, and unfortunately it's the Boeing employees who are on the short end.

Advice to Senior Management

You're salary tables are good, please use them. We can't retain talent because it leaves for higher pay...pay that they/we should be receiving according to experience and education levels described on the salary tables.

Pros

The benifits are great. The salary has room for improvement. Career growth is on the elevator scale i.e. how long have you done something, not how good you are at it.

Cons

Career growth and compensation are a downside.

Advice to Senior Management

Have a long term strategy for growth that is communicated to staff.