Pros

Super nice people and the benefits are great!

Cons

they want people who are entry level to develop at the level of a engineer working 5 years or more. Their mentoring is crap and no one wants to share information.

Advice to Senior Management

Don't assume that entry level people know how to write DoD embedded programs on their first day or even the first month.

Pros

Flex time is ok - that, is if your 'supervisor' approves; Paid vacation/holidays; 9/80 calendar; flexible working environment.

Decent place to start. You will be bored, because there are a select few that do actual work - more time to update your resume.

Cons

Office politics run rampant every day, all day - the more you try to avoid it, the more it pulls you in. At DRS, there is no "I" in team, there is no "team" period. Misery loves company?

Advice to Senior Management

Not all department managers are created equal - there are a lot of snakes out there.

Pros

DRS is a company that will hire someone w/out a lot of experience in there field and allow them the opportunity to learn and grow in a pretty laid back, stress free enviroment

Cons

Communication w/in DRS amongst managers to workers is very minimal. Rules always change on a whim and there is no real structure or protocol for you to follow. If there is a problem with you or your work, it is not often communicated to you.

Advice to Senior Management

Find or promote managers who communicate with their workers better, and who have the working knowledge of the tasks they are managing.

Pros

Were bought by DRS in 2003. The company is very Defence orientated as I am. Having spent 24 years in the Marine Corps spit between Active and Civil Service I enjoy doing work that supports our war fighters. DRS is very diversified and support all the services and Homland Security and offers it people to apply and transfer within the company.

Cons

Lack of local management to make the hard decisions and the lack of our corporate organization to understand we are no longer a mom and pop organization. I do not believe our wages are up to par with the industry nor do they offer the best compensation packages within the industry.

Advice to Senior Management

Do not be afraid to make the hard decisions. It does not matter if your not everyone's friend. This is business and the business needs to be run with commitment and hard decisions.

Pros

Ability to learn about high technology, Oracle Systems, and the Defence Industry

Cons

Employees are more or less numbers on a spreadsheet. Little opportunity for career growth. The job you hire in is usually the one you will end with. Employees can be laid off at any point for any reason. Employees sometimes with 20-30 years seniority are routinly let go on a whim, then replaced with cheaper, in-experienced new-hires while quality suffers.

Advice to Senior Management

Give employees a reason to be proud to work there. Treat them with respect

Pros

DRS Technologies gives you the feeling of priority on doing a good job. The company strives to bring a wide variety to the work place. Many of the benefits come from the manager that you work under. The manager you have determines the amount of respect and work load you get. The work environment is very clean and very relaxed. Employees’ are respectful and nice. Many of your co workers are eager to help and assist in any way they can despite the complexity of the request. Work is constant and is normally given a deadline. Vacation and sick time are given happily when needed.

Cons

Work load can be overwhelming and stressful when management fails to set a realistic date of completion. Employees that start as interns and move up into full-time positions many times do not get the pay they are deserving of. Communications between offices are mediocre at best which causes problems in finishing work. Communication inside the office is decent but with certain groups unable to retrieve needed data for work it makes for hard work that is unclear. Data collection and revision is disastrous when it comes to trying to make fast changes to documents and is hard to finish tasks in the time allotted.

Advice to Senior Management

Work needs more information to finish and complete work. Communication as a whole is not good and needs improvement. Too many meetings make work hard for those who have jobs to do with the people that are in the meetings whether they are project leads or hold information pertaining to the job at hand, less meetings are needed or shorter more productive ones are a must. Data collection and revising needs a complete overhaul so the work that is required of employees can be done efficiently and effectively without continuous reworking and training.

Pros

It's a job. Interesting job dynamics between organizations. Lot's of potential if the organizations were integrated to work as a cooperative business unit. Organizations work for their own purpose, not as an integrated business unit. Diverse technologies across the corporation.

Cons

No growth. No recognition. Favoritism to "friends." Employees are demanded to work extra hours so the managers can meet the unrealistic budgets, in turn providing them with their bonuses.

Advice to Senior Management

Install leaders, get rid of the managers who are only making the numbers so they can make their bonus. Lack of respect and recognition of employees efforts. Take advantage of the organizations and integrate the capabilities.

Pros

The pay is good, only escalates to a certain point, but with the economy in Michigan, it's great. The people are friendly, helpful and professional. They recognize ability and a job well done. They are also not afraid to tell you when something is not up to par. This honesty is refreshing, and not done in a mean way, but rather to help you get back on track. There is a definite give and take, the groups work well together. You help others and they will help you.

Cons

There is a certain point where your salary caps, and also where there is no higher job you can do in the group. It would be nice to be able to advance further, however in my division, there was simply no where else to go. Therefore, I could not see doing this job for the rest of my life.

Advice to Senior Management

The amount of trust in the employees here is amazing. The ability of management not to micro-manage everything an employee does was one of the best aspects of this job. Keep it up. It's being treated as an adult, because you are one, and I think the group dynamic shows that this works.

Pros

its a job...........jobs are hard to come by in this town.

Cons

no respect for its employees,, even though they say they do...

Advice to Senior Management

don't say one thing and do the other.. play favorites with certain supervisors. one day this,,, one day that.. gets confusing for the hard worker that has integerity

Pros

This is a good entry level organization for those pursuing a career in providing Defense Intelligence Solutions -specifically in the field of Signal Intelligence and advanced communications.

Cons

Professional development and advancement opportunities simply do not exist. The company has many ethical challenges for a company of its size. A professional H.R. (from segment to business unit) and some type of "checks and balances" could essentially protect its employees from unorthodox practices which, in turn, would assure the prosperity of the business. A conflict example: Key employees throughout the organization are family related that offer each other privileges and advantages. This has created an intimidating work environment and there are countless examples of employees being ganged-up on and bullied out of the company through the "Family-Connection".

Advice to Senior Management

A close look (perhaps investigation) of H.R. and Middle Management is "in order".