Boeing Integrated Defense Systems Reviews

Pros

High ethical standards
People first Customer Always values
Interesting products and markets

Cons

Still working to operate as One Boeing

Advice to Senior Management

Focus on growth

Pros

Match 75% of the first 8 on your 401K
10 vacation
80 holiday paid
15,000 Tuition (includes books, classes, software)

Cons

Based on the city you work at, that is how they will treat you.

Advice to Senior Management

The little people (technicians, engineers, business administrators,) are the ones who do the jot not managers. Not all of your managers lead, most of them just bureaucrats.

Pros

* Experience in working cutting edge technology
* Great Education benefits
* Great medical insurance and 401K matching
* Respect among peers. Good working environment

Cons

* Hard to be promoted.
* Often good ol' boy politics rule
* Substantial salary increases (above standard 3%) hard to come by
* Communication between management and employee not ideal

Advice to Senior Management

Grow the international market by having American born Boeing employees able to take permanent jobs overseas. Too much overhead in traveling back and forth from CONUS to OCONUS. Take time to recognize programs that have over achieved. Visit IDS facilities and listen to the employee base with their concerns

Pros

Common goal defined with support for core values.

Cons

Hard to be promoted due to so many senior people already there.

Advice to Senior Management

Positive feedback is always appreciated. Being told there are too many level 4 workers is inadequate.

Pros

Good benefits. Affordable housing in Houston. Great metro setting, multi-cultural, great schools and neighborhoods.

Cons

Almost no opportunity to advance at mid-career. Management ties promotion to short term busines goal, not employee performance. If you are looking for a company that values its employees and their talents, this is not the right place. They also value non-technical capabilities more than technical. Management is very short-sighted.

Advice to Senior Management

Short changing your employees will end up costing you more in long run, as you are losing valuable talents.

Pros

Boeing has one of the best benefit in terms of medical care, education and employee assistant. Pay is not the best compared to competitors but it is competitive enough. The internal TotalAccess network is great and helps employees in all aspects in terms of work and personal life.

Cons

The management system seems to be broken due to lack of leadership, motivation, skills and long term strategy. Management is focused on short term profit by trying to get most out of the customers (gov't) but loosing sight of long term relationship resulting in loosing the follow on contracts. Hence many employees lost jobs and the best engineers left to avoid long term instability.

Advice to Senior Management

Compensate the best/good engineers to keep them and go back to the technology company that Boeing used to be. Sr. and middle management, who are focused on personal and short term profit is heading the company to the wrong direction. Focus on the long term strategy and repair the brand image.

Pros

Good work life balance and good people to work with who have lots of experience.

Cons

If you want to move up this is not the company you want to work for, your gonna have to be patient to wait for your turn.

Advice to Senior Management

Too many layers within management that creates more complexity.

Pros

Working with people who are knowledgable.

Cons

Bleak outlook due to contract budget uncertainty.

Pros

Exciting projects, good peers, good people.

Cons

Management style is based on single level consideration rather than organizational consideration.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to you people and consider what they are saying.

Pros

Hands on, very technical and projects are diverse. The R&D projects are where you learn the most. Great opportunities to advanced or broaden career.

Cons

Although the projects are fun the downside is the 'BIG' company aspect where you have to jump through hoops to get anything accomplished. Projects run behind schedule due to the politics.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep the real design work in house, that is a good way to retain the best engineers. There will be a hard time retaining great engineers if things don't change.