United Technologies – “Great company and projects. Project planning methods need upgrades.”

Pros

Leading edge products that are actually helping the USA and the world. Efficient aircraft engines reduce our use of fossil fuels and Fuel cells let us run mass transit on clean hydrogen. The company has a fairly flat management hierarchy, which means that access to management is good. The work environment is professional without being stuffy.

Cons

Union rules and inconsistency of qualities of workers assigned make it hard to manage engineering projects. Management often allows projects, especially software to begin without nailing down the end customer requirements, which results in the software team having to code to "a move target" and therefore always being late because the estimates the team gave were based on fixed requirements. Flat hierarchy means less positions to move up into, so after a few years it makes sense to move on.

Advice to Senior Management

Plan out your requirements a little more before beginning to work on a project. Get the end customer more involved in software requirements, then hold the line about changes.