Lockheed Martin Reviews

Pros

Very ethical, diverse company. Lots of depth in some areas (i.e. key programmes / products). Well understood structure, plenty of room for movement.

Cons

Very deep hierarchy, can be at risk of being pigeon-holed and therefore remove ability to move between roles. Very process heavy.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to employees, understand some subtle feedback and know when to accept advice from those who are your junior. Encourage alternative ways of doing things rather than 'it's this way or the highway'.

Pros

A lot of training and educational assitstance

Cons

Recognition for performance is hard to come by

Advice to Senior Management

Try to retain Younger employees with incentives

Pros

Competitive pay, consistent annual raises, interesting work, opportunities to move around within the company, employee retention, tuition reimbursement program, onsite 24x7 gym and health club reimbursement

Cons

Bureaucratic, continues to trim benefits year after year (though that appears to be the industry trend), lack of recognition for hard work, merit system that comes up short on rewarding high achievers over average or sub-par employees, lack of opportunities for career growth and/or promotions for employees with 5+ years experience, limited technical career path that induces technical employees who are not management material to pursue management positions in order to be promoted

Pros

Contribute to the war fighter

Cons

Some managers have been in place so long that they forget who they work for. ALL first level managers on th HITS program need to be removed or there's a guaranteed loss for the next contract bid. I said the same for ODIN and look what happened..

Advice to Senior Management

You still need to have an understanding of the things you manage.

Pros

The people are great
Interesting programs

Cons

Corporation seems to big to notice the employees
Ridiculous review and rating system
Lack of response to employee issues and concerns
Lackluster benefits and pay raises

Advice to Senior Management

Take a look at the different business lines and make things uniform across the company. Implement a real review system that takes into account the accomplishments of individuals; otherwise, devise a way to provide opportunities equally.
"You're lucky to be working" is not a valid response to legitimate employee complaints and concerns.

Pros

Very interesting work. Solid and comprehensive benefits package. Innovative approaches to time off (vacation, holiday, sick pay) that made a lot of sense for the company, the customer, and the employee. Despite the general population's impression of defense contractors (thanks to the media and the movies), I found Lockheed Martin to be a highly ethical place to work, and executive management clearly demonstrated that they view that as vital to the future of the company.

Cons

Today's Lockheed Martin is the result of conglomerating 70+ formerly competing businesses during the "Peace Dividend" era following the end of the Cold War. Anyone who has been through a merger before knows the challenges of blending 2 company cultures together; try blending 70. Made a lot of progress, but there's still pockets of resistance/mistrust between various pieces of the company toward one another. Lockheed Martin is a large enterprise (100,000+ employees) and is a reflection of its primary customer: the US Government. Very structured, very bureaucratic organization. It's very difficult to innovate from within there. Given the current state of the federal budget and impending defense budget cuts, Lockheed Martin is downsizing employee population extensively and probably will continue to do so for the next several years.

Advice to Senior Management

There is excessive pressure to find quick fixes to problems that are systemic in nature. You have great talent at both the individual contributor and management layers; listen more and trust more in what they tell you they are trying to accomplish for you.

Pros

It is an okay place to work when times are good. However, the site I worked at tended to over staff to make "sales". Though when the did this they would overrun the contract and would have to make mass cuts...usually around Christmas, nice huh???

Cons

When cuts in personnel come they usually are followed by the hiring of additional managers. "Hey we can't afford you anymore, but we are going to bring someone in at double your salary to sit at there desk and send out vague emails".

Advice to Senior Management

Can you forecast better?? You have X amount of dollars to user each year...why do you think you can spend X + some extra money every month and then seem clueless 2-3 months before the end of the year when you are out of money.

Pros

It's a very good company to work for, great benefit

Cons

The company can be too big. Nee more visibility of other programs within company.

Pros

Work/life balance
flexible hours
Really nice, good, smart people
low stress
Good place for a young, starting engineer (Re-evaluate after 5 years and possibly leave then, if not sooner)

Also good place if you just "want a job" to get a paycheck to focus on your life, be a "yes" man, not want a lot of stress, and dont really care about career/skill advancement. But be aware this will not last forever and when cutbacks happen, you might get surprised.

Cons

No communication by middle management
Very passive/aggressive middle management
Difficult to get promoted or get good raises; no bonuses
Performance review system is awful and lots of "surprises", so be careful
Very big and you are "just a number"
False sense of job security

Skills and job satisfaction can erode around 5-10 years; dead-end easily; hit a glass ceiling; Can get boring after a while

Very little and/or inconsistent effort by management working with employees for career advancement or placing people on new projects once a project ends; In recent years, you will get a few weeks notice to find a new job in the company or relocate, or else they will fire you - career development at Lockheed very "sink or swim".

The immediate people I work with and for were great for the most part. I used to like the open-door policy and honest communication by managers there, but things have changed fast in recent years and it is no longer a good place to work in my opinion.

Cutbacks in defense industry in recent years are not good either and have not helped.

Advice to Senior Management

Just because there are defense cutbacks doesn't mean management should "panic" and treat people bad, and doesn't mean the company should make it uncomfortable on people and turn it into a cutthroat, non-trust environment. This may save a buck in the short run, but will hurt Lockheed's reputation in the long-run. Playing tricks and games with people is just bad business. It's much better just to be up front, honest, and respectful.

Pros

A large company with multiple resources available to develop innovative and cutting edge solutions to customer problems. Cooperative environment across business units.

Cons

Large company with multiple contracts, if funding for a program is lost there is limited time to find a new program before being let go.