ITT Defense Reviews

Pros

Rapid growth. Work alongside a diverse group of very bright people. Free information sharing and collaboration. Plenty of scientific disciplines to gain exposure to. Somewhat uncompetitive pay but very solid benefits package. They will hold all-hands meetings to recognize your hard work.

Cons

Senior leadership overconfident in their expertise, thus making massive routine technical blunders. You will work stretches of overtime for months (perhaps indefinitely) compensating for their gaffes. You will live there and rarely see your family, but hey, free dinner!

Advice to Senior Management

If you don't truly know how something works, get off your Ph.D. and leverage other talent that does.

Pros

Interesting work, some good co-workers

Cons

Poor senior leadership, ignores employees

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to employees

Pros

it's a job. Perhaps in the engineering side of the firm, there would be good work and projects to do. But on the administrative side of the business, it is a very strange place to work.

Cons

The firm is a former Kodak division and people are stuck complaining about the fact that the new management doesn't do things Kodak's way. On the administrative side of the business, people did one small piece of a project for years so that's all they know. They can't and won't look around at other aspects of their job, how they could improve things or themselves by even considering new ways of doing things. Most of the people in finance had high school diplomas and on the job training - few had either a associates or bachelor's degree in accounting or finance or even business.

Pros

Great technical experts within most groups.

Very willing to be flexible in cases where short-term personal needs conflicted with the normal work schedule. The company could be truly kind in these instances.

Cons

Very limited routes for technical growth. Most scientists that wanted to progress only had one option, go into management.

Huge disconnect between the corporate based managers and the the on-site employees. Contracts were often written by management types without substantial input from technical experts leading to large issues. Upper management seemed out of touch with developments within the intelligence community, and also routinely turned down virtually all growth ideas from those not based in a corporate office.
The disconnect between corporate and on-site employees was most evident when visiting a corporate office. It was as if we were some second class group that shouldn't be there. There was never any mention of us or our accomplishments visible anywhere. Required, all-hands type of meetings were scheduled without regard for our deadlines or our customers' schedule and then most of the information delivered would be completely irrelevant to anyone who worked outside of the corporate office.
I'm aware this type of thing occurs at many defense companies and am not saying it's worse than normal, but it is a serious problem that undermines the morale of those working on contracts that bring in the money to pay for everyone back at headquarters.

Advice to Senior Management

Get off your high horse, get your hands dirty, and find out what is going on at the *real* business end of the company.

Pros

Offers a competitive environment with great opportunities for advancement. Very competent individuals spread among departments. Educational incentives exist to foster a better workforce.

Cons

Long hours with questionable job security that is constantly dependent on future government contracts. Middle management can be ineffectual due to the bureaucracy involved with project decisions.

Advice to Senior Management

Staffing shortages with only average pay is contributing to low morale. Middle management lacks proper training and fails to communicate effectively.

Pros

Great benefits, great work-life balance, experienced management team.

Cons

Low pay and weak communication between employees.

Advice to Senior Management

Management is doing a great job, no complaints.

Pros

Access to any and all tools needed to perform job. Benefits are great 401K is above average.

Cons

Work-life balance is non existent. If you have a company blackberry you are always on duty!

Pros

ITT has great benefits and is and is a very comfortable place to work. You are able to work at your own pace and put in about as much as you want to get from the job. Job security is pretty good and you can find many great co-workers here.

Cons

Salary is very low compared to other software jobs in the area and ability is rarely recognized in promotions / raises. The job that you are placed on is very random, your supervisor tries to match you with a good job but there are only so many contracts in the building and you may find yourself working on something totally uninteresting.

Advice to Senior Management

You are losing all of your young talent because of the low salary. Also, because people are not challenged here but salary is the main reason.

Pros

ITT is a forward thinking company while ensuring current customer needs are met. All members of the business area team and support team work hard to prepare the best possible solutions to customer needs.

Cons

There is a lack of synergy or even basic communication between business areas. Significant potential exists to coordinate across business areas to meet multiple needs for a single customer. Some business areas have done better than others at this, but it needs to be driven from the top down.

Advice to Senior Management

Use the split up as an opporutunity to cross business areas within the new companies to provide comprehensive solutions to developing markets.

Pros

Educational support, continuous trying to better, atively looking for go getters, good people

Cons

In defense contracting your job security is linked to the company's bid to the government.

Advice to Senior Management

Ensure you continually support the employers at the grass roots level. They are your best advocates for the company to future employees and customers.