Boeing Integrated Defense Systems Reviews

Pros

Benefits are excellent. The compensate their employees.

Cons

Limited opportunity for advancement in engineering

Pros

Good benefits. Great product created.

Cons

really big company. Things move slowly. Hard to make changes.

Pros

Very professional.
Very efficient.
Very exciting.
Very rewarding.
Good fun and nice people to work with.

Cons

Expectations of management on new employees to come up to speed in very demanding high tech rolls in a very short period of time is unrealistic!

Advice to Senior Management

Provide pre-start up-skill training to new employees prior to deployment in high tech positions.

Pros

Very family-oriented, if you ever need time off for family reasons, they're always willing to offer you that time off, no ifs ands or buts about it. Great benefits as well.

Cons

Very, very large company. Sometimes your contributions don't ever really get noticed. Also, within IDS, there's a lot of politics between 9S and MD.

Advice to Senior Management

9S>MD, MD>9S, the politics behind this whole separation is really annoying and only hinders morale and performance from employees. I've also noticed BCA buildings and equipment are a lot nicer than those of IDS.

Pros

- Flexible work schedule
- Overtime highly discouraged (which is good because you will be aching to run out the door as soon as possible every day).
- Starting pay is good.
- Working for Boeing will teach you to be more careful during your next job search.

Cons

1.) ZERO opportunity for advancement.

2.) Boeing loves to pigeon-hole folks, and assumes that learning new skills or technologies is beyond its engineers.

3.) Ignore what you read elsewhere about Boeing's excellent benefits package. Boeing USED to have great benefits. Medical coverage, tuition assistance, employee recognition, training, and relocation benefits have all been cut to bring Boeing "in-line" with the rest of the industry.

4.) The amount of down time on some projects can be maddening. Plenty of work CAN be done, but the government customer is so obsessed with cost and Boeing with process, that you spend a lot of time sitting on your hands.

Advice to Senior Management

Quit eliminating first-level management positions whenever they are vacated. If nothing else, these are developmental opportunities for future leaders.

Pros

Good benefits and good pension plan.

Cons

Lots of politics.. good ole boy club.. If your not a manager you have no leverage on decisions that are made.

Advice to Senior Management

stop playing favorites. It seems like it is everyone for themselves at this company. Absolutely no teamwork. Stop painting a pretty picture all the time.

Pros

Job Security, Many Different Career Opportunities, Pride in the Products we Make, Benefits Package Is Best In Class, Schooling Benefits, Flexible Schedule...so Long as You do Your 80 Hours.

Cons

Old Guard Management, Moving Up Can Be Tough, Feel Unrecognized as an Individual, You Work Within the Boeing System --- Not Much Opportunity to Be Inventive.

Advice to Senior Management

Dig in and show your employees you can do their job, then lead. Are'nt the best leaders the ones that arent afraid to work side by side with their employees?

Pros

Benefits are very good and they used to be excellent; although they may start deteriorating if the economy does not improve soon.

Cons

Promotions are based on your ability to become buddies with particular managers. Promotions are not based on skills or capabilities or how well you perform.
Company doesn't stand by what it says publicly; e.g., it stresses an education but if you have or get advanced degrees, it goes nowhere, making your hard work a waste of time and energy.
There are no leaders among management. Just managers.
I have not seen any "cons" in this website that I don't agree with. All appear to be accurate, imo.
Very little to non-existent OTJ training. I have not had any in the time I have been with the company.
Managers appear to work 40 hour stress-free work weeks while the workers are overworked and unappreciated.
Not much tasking to work in the area one was trained in let alone help one grow or learn the latest standards.

Advice to Senior Management

Read Iacocca's book "Where have all the Leaders Gone" and the study "Unskilled and Unaware of It..." by Justin Kruger and David Dunning. Take who you put in management positions more seriously. Stop putting your "Yes-Men" (ref: Iacooca's book) in management. Learn more about Leadership not just managing.
Create a flatter company. There are 6 levels of engineers but 3 levels of management and 5 levels of executives - 8 levels of folks that don't do the tasking to build the products. Appears to be more of a management company than an engineering company - maybe it no longer is and I missed that memo.

Pros

Awesome health benefits, nothing paid out of pocket for the HMO plans. Premiums rose this year, but still Boeing is an industry leader. Learning Together Program provides for tuition reimbursement up to a general level (though not unlimited like it was in the past.) Paid overtime for exempt employees.

Cons

Promotions are difficult to come by. Time in grade, time in grade, time in grade.

Advice to Senior Management

Suggest finding ways to retain the better talent so that they do not leave for better opportunities.

Pros

The company had great benefits; however, recent changes in the health, education and 401k benefits have dimished this some. Good but not great. As many have mentioned, the work/life balance is pretty good as well.

Cons

The Peter Principle and Good Ol' Boys network are alive and well. Being assigned high visibility, challenging assignments, is often based on who you know rather than actual performance, experience and knowledge.

It is difficult to get promoted, and depending on your site, there is very little career growth. In order to advance (level and skills), one must be willing relocate to various sites throughout his career.

Additionally, those who take advantage of the Learning Together Program and earn graduate degrees, very quickly realize that such an achievement gets you nowhere fast. This has frustrated many employees.

Advice to Senior Management

Employ more rigor in the manager hiring/selection process. Implement (again) the 360 PE process for managers. Many managers do not exhibit the Leadership Attributes.