Pros

Depending on your division, your willingness to work, and your success on the job, you can be treated very respectfully at DRC. I have been with the company for a while and have seen people who are hard workers and successful do quite well. Many in upper management are caring about their employees and do reward them appropriately. They will help you if you pull your weight. Bringing in new work is rewarded and very appreciated.

My boss all the way through the Sr VP (4 levels total) have always treated me well and I think that they are very good people that care about their staff more so than anything else. I think that they realize that people are what will make the company successful.

Many coworkers do a good or great job so you can rely on them. Individual teams or contracts seem to have a good and positive working relationship and camaraderie going on. They are generally a good bunch of people overall. Corporate support is generally adequate to very good, but can vary greatly by individual. If you know the right people to contact, things will go well.

DRC has upgraded most of its internal systems, so things are good in this area as well. Much is automated instead of papercopy and this is very nice.

You get to have a lot of input into your performance evaluation each year, so this is good as well.

Benefits seem to be very competitive and good at DRC. I think that they are better than many other companies I've personally seen (quite a few).

Cons

Depending on your division, it seems to be less rewarding to work here if you fall under divisional upper management who aren't as caring as others. If your manager doesn't care and your contract ends, you could be out on the street looking for a new job rather quickly. Also, just a small thing, but it seems as if local upper management (not in my chain of command) doesn't seem to care about things that might boost morale such as holiday parties, picnics, etc. Not a big deal, but still I see other companies that do these things and the people seem to like their company better. These types of activities don't cost a whole bunch, so could be done easily.

You are expected to work towards business development if you are on a contract - even if it is only with your current customer - this isn't necessarily a con, but many people don't seem to be very comfortable with this and haven't done it before they get to DRC.

Training is offered, but lots of times it is done so at corporate locations, so not everyone benefits. This has been a little disappointing to me.

While you do have input into your performance evaluation, raises are a little odd as the longer you've been here, the less of a raise you can earn if you've done well over time but haven't gone up in salary grade. Also, DRC's outlook on performance evals is that "meeting expectations" is doing everything that you are supposed to be doing and doing it all correctly. This does not exceed what they expect out of you (basically you're expected to be at 100% to meet their expectations). So if you are expecting a great evaluation, be aware that a DRC 'meeting expectations' is actually very good performance. This performance very likely would be another company's 'exceeding expectations'. These issues have not been a big problem for me, but I have seen it happen to others who seem to be very disappointed when it first happens to them as they weren't expecting it.

The only other issue seems to be that new hires are brought in at higher salaries than an internal promotion would get someone who's been with the company for a while. This seems unfair to me, but I get the idea that this is the way things work at lots of other companies too, so it's not a unique problem to DRC. I know from interviewing for open positions and doing market research that I and others are underpaid for what the market is paying for the same work and skills. However, money is not the only reason to stay at a company.

Advice to Senior Management

DRC seems to have a lot of subcontracts and it would be nice to see them get to be prime more often. Customer relationship management is difficult as a sub and I have seen many DRC employees get treated extremely poorly by primes - much more so than by the government or by DRC management. This makes it hard to come in to work knowing that the people you have to try to please most are going to treat you as the scapegoat for everything that goes wrong - but you have no recourse whatsoever. I am not sure what can be done about this, but it is an issue that I've seen on quite a few subcontracts.

Training, while fairly robust in content of what is offered, could be more accessible and encouraged to be done for the employees who express interest. Many of us need to stay up to date in the fields which we work in as we are technical folks. I feel that this has held me back and forced me to pay for training or testing that I would think should be willingly paid for by the company as this makes us more valuable in the long run. Technical training and certification (plus re-certification in many cases due to expiration) is not cheap by any means, so this would be an extremely welcomed improvement. To navigate getting everything approved in time for a course (especially an outside vendor course) has been very difficult and I never managed to see it happen for me personally. I have seen others get to do it, but not many. To me, this should be something that is made easy to do as it is very important.

For the upper management folks who are caring about and respectful to their staff, I thank you for your support - it has made DRC an enjoyable and rewarding experience for me.

Pros

Having a Job is better than not working

Cons

No Pension Plan anymore, They can't pay for medical for Retired Military (TRI-Care), the stock purchase plan had dropped from a High of $24 per share to $8 per share, promotions are very unlikely, raises are determined by percentages rather than on how your performance was rated. If the contract you are working on ends you will be terminated. They expect the workers to bring in new work but are not compensated for.

Advice to Senior Management

Senior Management need to use some of their overpaid salaries to give performance raises or awards to their people.

Pros

DRC is like any other big contracting company - what department you are in and where you work will determine how much you like your job. Most of the other employees I knew there liked their jobs and were happy.

Cons

DRC is like any other big contracting company - what department you are in and where you work will determine how much you like your job. Since i was off-site, I felt very cut off with the rest of the company and we were constantly be left off of company communication. We also had to travel on-site to get anything done which took forever. It took ages to fill out paperwork to be compensated for company expenses and raises were squat.

Advice to Senior Management

Communicate, communicate communicate!! For a technology company, this shouldn't be hard. Our internal systems were a mess and the Intranet was like trying to navigate through heirglyphics.

Pros

Interesting project work, when available.

Cons

New project work is hard to get, because of poor coordination between marketing and tech staff.
Field offices have little input to HQ.

Advice to Senior Management

Shift staffing focus from military retirees with alleged contacts to the technically capable.

Pros

In a time when economic options are narrowing, having a position at a company like DRC is better than working retail or some other service-oriented job. This position entails decent benefits, an opportunity to expand one's knowledge base, and the opportunity to network with others to eventually find a more suitable position with a company that better fits an individual's needs and personal traits. Not every company is suited for every person. Another person might find the situation with this company perfect for him/her. It's all relative.

Cons

Opportunities for career development, career progression, and salary increases are few and limited. As a contractor, it requires a lot of job-hopping to gain any kind of mobility, in terms of salary and promotion. Otherwise, you can sit on the same contract in the same grade at the same salary, receiving only annual cost-of-living increases. Don't think about any kind of intrinsic reward program or widespread corporate sense of community. Even just a pat on the back or an "'atta-boy/girl" would be nice. It just doesn't exist on any realistic level.

Advice to Senior Management

Get more on-on-one feedback from individual employees and don't rely so heavily on reports from junior-level managers on how things are going. They're not going to tell you they have an unsatisfied employee, and why that employee is unsatisfied. They're not going to air their laundry in public. If you force an employee to go through HR and Employee Relations when it could have been handled with an informal chat over coffee and some conscientious follow up by a higher level manager, why take it to that point? Most employees just want to know they are acknowledged, their concerns are addressed, and something positive is going to be done - even if it's a compromise.