General Dynamics Reviews

Pros

Real World Mission of supporting troops and second hand making a difference.
Very good Christian folks for the most part. There is a team attitude with a couple exceptions to the rule.

Cons

This is an organization from WWII. Little has changed since, nor is it likely. The paneling is original from the period as is the rest of the place.
The expectations of some are great, while others loaf. There is a nepotism of sorts in that it is a very tight group that has run the place for decades.
Change management is preached, but not implemented.
There are a couple big time asses that somehow manage to stay in middle management despite their incredible ineptitude and lack of people skills.

Advice to Senior Management

Spend some of that quarterly bonus on some of the people in the trenches that work late trying to make the end of month quotas.

Pros

Being a large company, there are plenty of professional growth opportunities. If you want to get in on some of the larger, more drawn out, defense contracts out there however, GD provides that opportunity.

Work-life balance was great as well.

Cons

Climbing the ladder here takes time, and connections. It seems that many employees stick around the same junior to mid-level job for a few years or more.

Advice to Senior Management

Identify future leaders, and give them the support and training they need to take on bigger and more complex challenges.

Pros

The pros to working at General Dynamics include the following: competitive salary, generous benefits, flexible work hours, and casual work dress code.

Cons

The culture is very engineering centric. The ability for advancement is somewhat limited if you are not from an engineering background.

Advice to Senior Management

The advice I would give to leadership would be to have more clearly defined career paths for non-engineering, business functions that are critical to project management.

Pros

pay
flex hours
no travel
9/80 work week
parking

Cons

Huge corporation of hundreds of acquired companies competing against each other.
Few opportunities if at a smaller location. Not free to career plan across the corporation.
firewalls

Advice to Senior Management

Wipe the grin off your face when saying, "your bonus is that you get to keep your job". It's annoying.

Pros

General Dynamics is an excellent company. Every aspect, here and on the East coast displays a company that genuinely cares about its greatest asset, people.

Cons

Since it is a contractor for a Government installation, it is possible for the company to lose the contract.

Advice to Senior Management

Management of this company is very good, however I would like to see them offer the same hours and working schedules as the government. For example Alternative Schedules but most importantly, if a government installation closes, then GDIT employees should not have to use PTO to compensate.

Pros

Health care and vacation benefits are okay

Cons

The company moves people from contracts without any advanced notice. It's definitely not a stable or enjoyable place to work, and the management do not respect employees at all. Also, when hired, I was told that there would be tuition and training benefits, but then after being hired, was told no training was budgeted for for the year, and there might be funds budgeted next year. And, contracts are not necessarily managed well, with too many layers of management, and allowing enough decision-making at level where employees are working with customers and understand customer needs best.

Advice to Senior Management

Reduce layers of management, and allow more decision-making at level where employees are working with customers.

Pros

Good Opportunities
Fair Compensation
Chance to work with professionals and interact with management
Exposure to high technology and new technology

Cons

Typical large company. HR and Management often rely more on years of experience rather than performance and merit for promotions. Yearly raises are often less than inflation, although the empoyee will receive a good review. Company is a government contractor and has the obligation to follow government mandated affirmative action goals; this regularly results in advancement of employees that are not qualified, or are not as qualified as others competing for a particular job.

Advice to Senior Management

Better communication with employees would go far in helping to establish a more cooperative interdepartmental working culture. Concentrate on rewarding nonmanagement employees for quality work.

Pros

A good place to start but after a year the pace and leadership wears your morale down. Again a good place to strart.

Cons

Leadership is somewhat of a hit or miss. If your liked it's great but if your not someone who bends to the management winds it's not great.

Advice to Senior Management

If the bottom line is more important then say that; honesty is very hard to find in this company. Good luck!

Pros

Job Security, Free Fridays, relaxed environment

Cons

What a mess... Professional level is very low, no decision makers, a lot of idiots around....

Advice to Senior Management

Improve your management system. Two-tier management clearly doesn't work...

Pros

Job security and benefits are two great reasons.

Cons

There is nothing wrong with the company.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop changing company operations and policies as it relates to the employees, which seem to be putting it more in line with similar contracting company. As a result GD does not stand out as the premier defense contracting company to work for anymore. Let the other companies come up to our standard and stop going down to theirs.