Raytheon Applied Signal Technology Employee Review

I worked at Raytheon Applied Signal Technology full-time for more than a year

Pros – They do quite advanced stuff, well at least I think so since my clearance never quite came through. I know that a bunch of people who left joined Google, and well were well received in other places, so I can say that overall people are pretty smart and if you get to do real work, it can be a cool project.

Cons – I was an engineer, so this might not apply to everybody... So (all?) engineers getssubmitted for Top Secret clearance, and well it is expected of everyone to behave in a way to be able to obtain one. If you don't know what this process entails - research it before considering a job here.
Nowadays it's gotta be even more corporate now that Raytheon owns AST.. I was gone during one of the layoff rounds, and primary reason I believe that my clearance didn't come through by that time.. and well I wasn't really motivated to be an overachiever so I would be left employed regardless either. Without TS you are doing grunt work, really boring stuff since you are not allowed to understand what you are working on, since it's a secret.. yep it's a loop.
I've had something like 3 managers simultaneously (career manager?, team and group ones), hopefully now it's reorganized under Raytheon, but I've heard otherwise from some of the guys still there.
Working for government contracts you have to consider - you might be a stellar employee, but if the contract for work you've been doing has been lost by the company, you would have to compete with other employees for having any work to do, and it's not a very healthy atmosphere when that is actually the case.
I did not feel strongly about career opportunities, due to the military like atmosphere - 'work 5 years, then if all goes well we might consider changing your title' - not exciting at all, but that could have just been personal experience.
They did low-ball me on the salary, but I was moving from the East Coast and did not have many options so I signed up with them. My next job compensation was 10k+ for the same level position. I do believe this speaks volumes about AST. Maybe different with Raytheon now.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend