Alliant Techsystems – “It's great to see the rockets blast, but you better learn to cover your a**”

Pros

The very best reasons to work for ATK is that you are absolutely in love with rockets, carbon fiber, resin compounds, cork, fiberglass, and propulsion systems OR that you are a smoking hot logistics and supply specialist. If you are into that, then ATK is a great place for you. ATK's Quality Department was top notch from what I could tell. The internal audit system is very robust, and well-maintained. There is plenty of opportunity for someone who wants an education, especially if you are interested in logistics and supply functions. Judging from the clothes that manager-types wear, I'm gonna guess that the compensation is really good at that level. And as a mid-career technical writer, I think the pay was slightly higher than I would have found elsewhere. From a jobby-job standpoint, it's pretty good. I was always able to balance my work vs. play time without any trouble. When I was there, corporate had capped overtime, so it was rare that I worked a 50 hour week. The production schedule is mapped out pretty far in advance, so you can get a vacation in when you want it. Since they do a lot of government contracting, there's a bit of a government job feel to the place, especially when it comes to procuring supplies for your department. Of course, the IT guys are always spying on your e-mail and web-surfing, but nobody is gonna freak out if you jump on facebook during lunch.

Cons

If you are making widgets that sell for a quarter, and you mess one up, you just chuck it in the re-work bin and move on. However, when your product sells for a quarter-million or better, and you mess one up, some heads are going to roll. This fact seems to have caused an unfortunate and ugly culture to develop at ATK, in which every single person involved in the manufacture of said product is in constant CYA mode. You will sit through lots of very uncomfortable meetings in which engineers and project managers try to slough blame on the production workers, and vice-versa. In order to last there, you need to get good at nasty politics. Fear of blame also sets up an "us vs. them" conflict between engineering and production, and everybody knows that's going to hurt your production time.

Advice to Senior Management

Ask the question "What is to blame?" rather than "Who is to blame?" That is the only way to foster teamwork and loyalty among your employees.