General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems Reviews

Pros

- 9/80 work week
- Good pay and benefits
- Long-term employment -- job security
- Opportunity to work on new technologies like SOA, UML, RSS, etc.
- Great co-workers

Cons

- Not enough work to gainfully employ all personnel
- Poor personnel management -- some people remain busy while others are not
- Little to no focus on professional certification or professional development
- Too many software engineering tools used in an ad-hoc manner

Advice to Senior Management

- Stop reorganizing
- Collaborate and distribute work across locations -- too much work is concentrated in some areas, while others are laying people off.

Pros

Great work/life balance. Every other Friday off. Good pay.

Cons

Not the best manager-employee communication.

Pros

Good location, great co-workers and excellent lower management.

Cons

Senior management is very deceitful and non-supportive. Cold, uncaring....only cares about the bottom line. Led to believe project was undergoing an internal audit when in reality it was a way to find out how each of us did our job. We were LIED to. After we trained our replacements we were laid off and project was moved to another state. Always told that things aren't going to change and then within weeks they did. Very unsettling, uncertain atmosphere that causes extreme stress. Not a company to be proud to say you worked there. AND...I'm not the only one who feels this way and it's not the only division that has issues. I interviewed with General Dynamics for a position that I was well qualified for but did not get the job. I firmly believe it was because of my age because I had excellent references. You would think a company would help out people that had to be laid off but this is not the case!!!!

Advice to Senior Management

Be honest, straight forward and supportive of your employees. Without them you would be NOTHING. When you say you are going to do something, do it. Don't deceive your employees. Don't make them feel like they are disposable. Don't demean them by making them train their replacements and then lay them off when you are done with them.

Pros

Very interesting projects that support US defense.

Cons

No or very little value for the employees. Profit driven to the extreme to the expense of quality. Managers and supervisors are focused on personal advancement for the short term and completely lack a company wide vision for the future.

Advice to Senior Management

Producing top Quality products and providing customer satisfaction must be number one. Profit will follow naturally and the business will grow. Ever since General Dynamics purchased Motorola Government division in 2001 process control and quality have steadily declined because of the pressure to hit a corporate profit figure.

Pros

Great management team; professional relationships and dynamic synergy between colleagues. The interaction and information sharing make the environment a great place to work.

Cons

There are conflicts between sister companies, like GDIT. Competing and teaming for business poses challenges. The conflicts can create frictional atmosphere on efforts where we are teaming partners.

Pros

The company is filled with intelligent and talented engineers.

Cons

The market is downward trending over the next 10 years.

Advice to Senior Management

Delegate more responsibility to the lines of business

Pros

GDAIS has pretty good benefits.

Cons

Advancement and growth are limited. Most senior positions are filled by new hires, not through advancement of mangement staff. Managers had to leave to another company to get senior positions.

Advice to Senior Management

Take advantage of internal talent and don't just fill senior positions from outside the company.

Pros

Coworkers are good engineers and good people. Other than that there is no reason to work for this company.

Cons

Constantly cutting benefits. More senior the employee the deeper the cuts. Senior management continues to make costly business mistakes then passes on the cost to employees through benefit reductions. Company processes are complicated, convoluted and costly. No recognition for workers but management CONSTANTLY praises themselves. ZERO change for advancement unless you are already somebody.

Advice to Senior Management

Replace yourselves with someone who has a clue. If I could give GD-AIS/Von Thaer a negative score I would.

Pros

Because it is hard to get young hard working people at this site, they are pretty responsive to those who do work hard. Overall the people are all very friendly and fun to work with. Work/life balance is excellent. Management seems to be pretty responsive to questions and requests.

Cons

The Pittsfield location is not a desirable location for young engineers who didn't grow up here. Like all large companies it can sometimes be very difficult to get anything done because of the amount of red tape. There are a small amount of really smart people, and the rest of the people are just getting by

Advice to Senior Management

Find a way to punish those who are not performing as they should. There is too much dead weight around. Want to know how to cut costs? Start holding people responsible for their work. IF someone is not doing the job, then find someone who can and will!

Pros

The people I work with. The programs I support.

Cons

The company as a whole doesn't seem to value the employees that aren't in management. Pay raises have been little to nil in the last couple of years.