Boeing Integrated Defense Systems Reviews in Los Angeles, CA Area

Pros

Great Benefits.
Plenty of time off. Vacation time doesn't have to be a Working vacation like at some companies.
40-50 hr work week

Cons

No promotion oppertunity
Poor Sr mgt. that lack people skills that are necessary to manage.
Working from home for most departments is not allowed.
It is very dependant on the manager.

Advice to Senior Management

help guide the development of employees
Keep them motivated.
Educational opps are there but time off can be hard to get to take classes.
most of the managers ore honest and tell it like it is

Pros

Decent salary
401K
Excellent health, dental, etc
401K with matching benefits
A retirement plan

Cons

Management is an old-boy network that has been around for 25 years.
Resistance to change and innovation; technology, culture, management and process are stuck in the 1980's

Advice to Senior Management

Poor management that takes care of only themselves.
Non-management are simply resources and treated like such.
No teamwork
No real communication
Management is still scratching their heads as to 'why employees turn into non-caring, unproductive commodities'.
Dump the current management and start over.

Pros

They take good care of you when times are good.

Cons

Too process oriented. It loses the individual creativity that each person can contribute.

Advice to Senior Management

Employee is not just another statistic or head count. Each person contributes their own skills and uniqueness to a program and directly impacts the quality of the product being produced.

Pros

Boeing has the best benefits around. 100% tuition payment (not reimbursement, they pay it upfront), wide range of healthcare choices such as blue shield, kaiser, healthnet (my PPO plan is free), and generous 401k matching. I personally have great management in my organization, but it varies throughout the company.

Cons

Opportunities for fast paced growth/promotions. There is definately the mentality, "I have been here X amount of years, you need to as well" before you can get the same promotions. One of the strict requirements for level promotions is X amount of years experience. I think it should be based on a mix of BOTH knowledge/expertice in your field and years of experience. Other downsides include old legacy systems (and the employees generally aren't technology savvy), poor mix of age demographics (a quarter of the people on my floor are at or near retirement age, while there is only a handful of college graduates), and resistance to change.

Advice to Senior Management

Remove the roadblocks for change (personel, IT systems, mindset) and the company can become more agile and efficient.

Pros

Pay and benefits, good retirement package and savings plan.

Cons

Incredibly huge bureaucracy, it takes much time and energy to accomplish the most trivial tasks. Little/no recogition provided to top performers. Little incentive to do a good job.

Advice to Senior Management

The busines paradigm you're operating with is inefficient and incredibly slow. Your organization is fat and is staffed with employees who command huge salaries and who do relatively little. You could easily cut your work force by 30% and become twice as efficient.

Pros

Amazing benefits, large choice of programs, great place for technical and non-technical professions, less dependent on economic trends of country due to military contracts

Cons

most interesting engineering work is outsourced to subcontractors, huge bureaucracy, average employee is very old in age which alienates newer employees

Advice to Senior Management

Get back to the basics: Boeing was a proud place to work due to its tech savy engineers. Today it is a place for retirees. Make young people proud to come to Boeing by keeping interesting work that is normally reserved for start-ups. Move away from this "Lead Integrator" 2016 vision.

Pros

Learning Together Program paid for the MS & MBA. Insanely great benefits, I have a pension--who outside the gubmint still has that?

Cons

This is a static/ shrinking industry that remembers when it was a growth industry. Those times are gone, but the business is still run the old way. This company is run like it was still 1965.

Advice to Senior Management

Come spend some time with the junior staff, while there's still some left. Everyone under 30 has left Huntington Beach---to be a Boeing engineer in Orange County is to be poor. Even with the subprime thing over, aerospace is not a very lucrative industry compared to the alternatives around here.

Pros

It's a great place to work when you are ready to focus on a work-life balance. The work can be challenging, but it is never stressful. Alot of the employees here are older and are extremely focused on their family and retirement needs, which is understandable after 15+ years of work. For a young engineer, its great because you learn from great , experienced engineers. There is an incentive for higher learning because education is fully funded (I've taken plenty of courses and I am currently applying for a grad degree). I think salary compensation is amongst the highest, so need need to worry about that. The people here are pretty incredible (I have great friends here) and well accomplished, but you won't find the entrepreneur spirit or the go-getter here.

Cons

However, it is probably not the based place for an aggressive, young, go-getter that is looking for a leadership position or a highly respectable technical position at a young age. Getting a promotion is highly political and somewhat secretive. Even when assigned to highly visible projects, most young engineers play an "assistant" role. I guess they don't want to "throw you in the fire." This is not an incentive based company, but more so a team based company - which means no matter how hard you work, you may not receive individual compensation or recognition, but if your teams performs well, then everyone wins. Please always remember that your reputation will make or break you, which goes a long way here. I work hard to establish good relationships with people of all ages in all Boeing environments. Also, Boeing internet and intranet presence can be updated - in the age of Facebook and Twittr, alot of the programs feel like ancient history.

Advice to Senior Management

Seriously address the generation gap. My fear is that talented, young engineers don't feel challenged on projects because the work continues to flow to same engineers that have been there for 20+ years. I understand that's great for productivity and processes, but let a young guy take over and learn new things. I think the focus should be making Boeing a dynamic company for young engineers to strive with creative minds and not to where they have to adapt to the retirement state of mind.

Pros

The education opportunities are the best available, and the benefits are excellent. Entry-level engineers get to do real, practical work alongside seasoned engineers

Cons

The company moves very slowly, and much of the work done tries to avoid change and new, innovative ideas from project to project.

Advice to Senior Management

Spend more time getting involved with younger engineers and give them an opportunity to discuss new ideas or goals for the company.

Pros

The benefits are amazing, the expectations are reasonable, and the size of the company affords the room for growth.
The educational reimbursement program cannot be matched by any other company in the nation. 100% tuition payment upfront with no commitment to stay is unheard of.
While some programs can be very demanding, most are reasonable and do allow a work life balance. And, because there are many positions and dozens of work sites the company has many opportunities for advancement. It is a very dynamic company, with superior products and an emphasis in leadership that you can be proud to work for.

Cons

The size of the company may be overwhelming and Salary is more a function of time than performance. With so many employees it is easy to get lost at Boeing. You literally get issued a number. The struggle between size and efficiency is evident at every turn and the company is forced to sacrifice aesthetics for practicality. Losing some of the comforts of a smaller company, Boeing can easily feel like cold place rather than an inviting environment in which to be productive. Along with size comes the complex task of evaluating performance among all of those employees. Boeing often surrenders to the objective "years at station" approach rather than the subjective but often more insightful value added method of promotions and compensation. Their latest attempt is still as rigid, complex and annoying as a giant company could develop.

Advice to Senior Management

The dead wood of the company is slowing it down. While experience is important, energy and innovation also have its place.