General Atomics Reviews

Pros

nice people to work with

Cons

our documentation system and management runs a muck

Pros

Flexible working conditions. Onsite health facility. Easy use of granted time off for personal reasons. Located away from the hustle and bustle of downtown San Diego. Every other Friday is off with the 9hr work days.

Cons

Completely taking advantage of down economy and not willing to pay what employees are worth. Recruitment process was worst and most unprofessional I've experienced. Never available, never return phone calls or emails, and very lazy approach with questions.

Advice to Senior Management

Little to no communication between management and employees. Overall lack of accountability on employees. General sense of a lack of urgency in process improvement. "That's the way we've always done it" approach. Great product with great future success but will be eventually crippled by the lack of better mid-level management, training, and mentorship programs.

Pros

The longtime emps. that made, "G.A," what it is. The proudness you feel to be a part of something big for our country. Great benefits. continually growing field for future. encouragement to learn skills in other departments.

Cons

within the last year,many supervisor hires with very little knowledge of there job and or common sense. Drone-like emps. (flocks of sheep). Hired for quantity not quality work in an, R & D, location where creativity and ideas are what started the co. not very ISO compliant any more. Facilities, so behind in many unfinished jobs due to recent new supervisors ill lack of organization, priorities, and care for all fellow emps. and co.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop hiring supervisors on the, "buddy", system. Try hiring them for there knowledge, skill and '"real", experience....... or they will be the demise of what used to be a great co.

Pros

Great benefits, country-club like campus, job security

Cons

Career advancement is glacial. You either have to wait until A) some one dies, B) some one retires, or C) you've reached your salary cap and the only way to give you a raise is to change your job title.

Sometime the proverbial "right-hand" doesn't know what the left hand is doing also...

Advice to Senior Management

Pay attention to, and promote talented employees. Clear out the cobweb staff.

Pros

Ability to transfer to the ASI division.

Cons

Management not fully engaged with employees.

Advice to Senior Management

Talk to your indirect reports to get a full understanding of what is going on with the departments and business.

Pros

Work at your own pace, not a lot of pressure, ability to grow both academically and socially as far as learning how to interact in an engineering environment.

Cons

General Atomics did not provide what would generally be considered by the standard population in this fine country of ours as the most astute way of stimulating interns.

Advice to Senior Management

General Atomics is a major force in research for both civilian and military work, however this often leads to mix-ups over funding and budgets.

Pros

The company is growing so there is job security.

Cons

Where to begin. The place is run like a broken military unit. They do not understand or respect the outside lives of their employees, get the job done at all costs. Many people here work in excess of 60 hours a week and some more than that.
Very poor communication between departments and leadership. Within this organization you feel as though you are a robot.

Advice to Senior Management

Need to promote team work and a sense of family within the ranks. The culture is bland and not engergizing. Work, work, work is not always the best way to extract the best from your people.
Take some management classes and learn to inspire people.

Pros

Competitive compensation for region
Hi(gher) profile projects
Generally motivated and dedicated employees
Location is great-- San Diego
Hours and times flexible and convenient (9/80 schedule)

Cons

Difficult to keep skill set up to date
Extremely boring
Most, but not all, software developers are average or below average at their craft

Advice to Senior Management

On boarding process needs work. Improve perks-- coffee, snacks, soda, as you have none of these. Promote learning-- tech talks, classes on the job.

Pros

Great people to work with
Amazingly talented and helpful engineers and other techs
Wonderful work environment (A real family feeling environment)

Cons

Worry about whether congress will renew contract was always looming.
Old equipment mixed with new equipment increased the breakdown issues.

Advice to Senior Management

Look for programs that will encourage people to move up in the departments. Provide more access to education and Cross training between departments

Pros

- Pride in product
- Job security
- Fast paced

Cons

- Poor management structure
- No paid overtime

Advice to Senior Management

Less PMs, more workers.