Boeing Integrated Defense Systems Reviews

Pros

A good foot in the door company. Great training opportunities.

Cons

Hard to move up fast.

Pros

- Large network of resources
- Nice campus and facility
- Some educational expenses paid for
- Flexible work schedules
- Several effective management systems already in place

Cons

- Top Heavy: Lots of managers, few actual workers
- Accordingly, lot's of senior engineers, very few junior engineers (and managers).
- Few opportunities for career advancement within location, especially for young professionals.
- Constant changes in benefits and policies (e.g. full tuition reimbursement to partial)
- Highly Bureaucratic - very difficult to implement new ideas. Lots of channels of approvals to go through, extremely slow process. Not recommended for innovative thinkers.
- Politics Politics Politics - You really need to learn who to impress and how! Ladder climbing is extremely competitive and definitely not based on merits and performance alone. Tenure also plays an important facet in advancement.
- Diversity for the sake of diversity. Let's just say, key minorities (e.g. age, sex, race) are placed in specific roles, while the general/average population is for most part not at all diverse

Advice to Senior Management

- Provide opportunities for growth, specifically for young workers.
- Accordingly, build a more effective and fair employee review process that makes it look like the company actually cares (i.e. not a simple check in the box type system).
- Allow employees to take risks and hold them more accountable (i.e. less micromanagement).
- Reward employees for educational or skills training growth and advancement.
- Provide more periodic moments of "effective" feedback, citing examples of good uses of strengths and weaknesses.
- Set realistic goals and objectives.
- Don't always beat around the bush with political answers- Be honest and more concrete so we are not left in limbo!!!
- Lead by example. If you expect something from us, expect from yourself!

Pros

Good Benefits; Good Salary; Decent Job

Cons

Lack of proper recognition; too much scope creep

Advice to Senior Management

Lock down on contracts and reduce scope creep. Take care of employees who will take care of customers.

Pros

Great people to work with

Cons

Some positions are not filled by the most qualified people.

Advice to Senior Management

Need new visionaries to create new products and opportunities

Pros

The title of the company.
No unions at this site
Tuition Reimbursement
Decent Diversity and Inclusion program

Cons

Quite a bit of nepotism at this site.
Promotions seem to be based more on who you know than merit
Below nationwide average salary 77%ile
Current IE Level does not reflect current experience level

Advice to Senior Management

Promote based on Merit.
Adopt objective performance measures.

Pros

Fantastic benefits, very interesting work

Cons

Promotion and raise process is frustrating. Your job performance is only 25% of what goes into determining your yearly evaluation for a raise.

Advice to Senior Management

Start paying for performance. Fix the performance management process. Excellent employees should be rewarded with higher raises.

Pros

Great advancement opportunity from within, family oriented; encourages work/life balance, pride in products, flex schedules allowed.

Cons

I'm seeing a lot of people leave for jobs that pay more competitively.

Pros

Great people, great work to do, flexible working hours if you need it.

Cons

The politics, bureaucracy and protection of jobs for selected people while good people are forced to walk is atrocious. Limited opportunities for promotion, no recognition for the work you do, and management constantly turns a blind eye to bad behavior in favor of the person or the schedule. Schedule is god here - who cares about the people, or their development for that matter?

Advice to Senior Management

Spend more time with people on the shop floor and actually walk the leadership talk. Have the hard conversations with people about performance and stop turning a blind eye to bad behavior. Focus more on reward and recognition - a simple thanks now and then speaks more volumes than a minor bonus that ends up being majority taxed anyway.

Pros

decent pay and benefits, beautiful area

Cons

too many bosses, too much bureaucratic nonsense, cold environment, not a fun place to work.

Advice to Senior Management

no advice, my bad experience is more about chemistry.

Pros

Boeing is a large stable company. I feel proud of the quality of the work we do, and our products are the best in the world.

Cons

Boeing is a large bureaucratic company. There is mandatory Ethics Training, Lean+ Initiatives, and rules up the kazoo. I can live with this, but I am getting bitter that it is more common to see the people who do good quiet work being passed over for promotions while the LeanPlussers are promoted.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop pushing technical people into management. Revert the Tech Fellow program back into a way to promote good engineering -- it has turned into a feather-in-the-cap for MBAs.