General Dynamics Electric Boat Reviews

Pros

The best part is working directly on a really amazing product. Management is also very supportive of good ideas as long as you've done your homework.

Cons

Working with the Navy is annoying sometimes. They like to stifle innovation in the name of safety and cost reduction. Advancement is slow and sometimes not well communicated. The use of advanced technology is unheard of. Upper management doesn't want to spend money on anything to create a better, more efficient work environment for engineers if it doesn't save money on the final product directly.

Pros

Good opportunities to branch out into other departments. Good benefits package. Ability to hop departments if desired and space is available. Job security due to long product life cycle.

Cons

Must be careful where you focus your area of work. Can become pigeon holed in an area that is not transportable outside the company.

Pros

Excellent Health insurance. Probably some of the best in the country. Extremely stable industry and jobs. Nearly impossible to get fired. Lay-offs are few and far between.

Cons

It depends on which site you are working on. A new location in New London just opened which is much nicer. Overall, the worst partof working there was management's (nearly all of them) rigid adherence to tradition and what's been done before. Unfortunately this is a technology industry and what has been done before is no longer good enough, or even standard any more.

Advice to Senior Management

You have to let new employees, especially from top ranking universities spread their wings a little bit. Accept some new ideas to try. Don't shoot them down because they are new, let the Navy decide. Thats how improvements are made.

Pros

- they will pay for graduate degrees in engineering
-job security
-semi-new facilities due to recent purchase
-almost every engineering discipline accepted

Cons

-promotions are based on years and not performance
-raises are not wholly performance based
-only 2 weeks of vacation time
-transferring between departments can be difficult because most job positions are opened for formality only

Advice to Senior Management

-embrace the changing future
-offer more vacation time. it takes 10 years just to go from 2 to 3 weeks

Pros

Great entry level salary. You are only limited by your potential and/or drive for career growth. The product we work on is impressive.

Cons

Cost of living in this area. As an engineer we are at the bottom of the social food chain. Not cool after spending 100K on my education.

Advice to Senior Management

Faster progression on vacation and competitive wages after an employee gains experience.

Pros

Your opportunities at Electric Boat are limitless. Its all on what you make of it. Yes its old, Yes they don't have great vacation time, but you know what.....neither does the customer of Electric Boat. If you would like to provide a service to your country, without the commitment, then this is the place. Its a small community of professionals that leave their pride at the door to ensure our nation has the tools they need to maintain our national security. The rotation program, the lateral promotional opportunities, the travel opportunities are all excellent. You will not find another company that has the heart and customer focus then Electric Boat. If you want to be a millionaire, then go somewhere else, sorry, its not all about the money here. Its about family, our customer and our product.

Cons

Sorry guys, the good ole' boy network is here. But you know what, if you treat another person with respect, you will get the same back in no time. New people coming in, don't expect to be manager within a couple years, this work is hard, sometimes boring, but in the end, very rewarding. All you have to do is put your time in and take a moment once and a while to look around and eventually you'll say to yourself 'Wow, I helped make that happen...'

Advice to Senior Management

We need to reinforce our commitment to responsibility and accountability. Praise should not be given to the masses just for coming in to work. We need to focus on empowerment of the current workforce and on the future.

Pros

Job Stability and Good Medical coverage

Cons

Promotion are unfair giving to employees, you must be sucking someone else ass before you can be consider forr promotion

Advice to Senior Management

Need to pay attention to how supervisor level employees are treating other junior level employees.

Pros

Competitive salaries (not the best, but okay), Decent benefits, Pride in seeing your work to completion, chance to work on projects that are challenging and important to the defense industry.

Cons

Senior management may have lost some perspective about customer concerns, you really could find another employer who pays better, average age of supervisors is concerning, high turnover.

Advice to Senior Management

When your customer has expressed the same concern over the last three years and you use the same core problem resolution team in an attempt to answer that concern, you shouldn't expect to get the right answer.

Pros

new technology available thru gov't contracts

Cons

"old boy network" prevents growth

Advice to Senior Management

foster the youth to grow and not keep them in the "old ways"

Pros

flex work week is always a plus

Cons

need 20 years to get any real vacation time
time based minimum for promotions