Lockheed Martin Reviews in Dallas-Fort Worth, TX Area

Pros

Was able to see the paygrade for posted positions. Family feel.

Cons

Had the "good ole boy" mentality but is now changing.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep advancing in Diversity and Innovation. Come up with new perks to entice key employees to stay.

Pros

A comfortable job with great benefits. You start at a higher salary than many of your peers. The schedules are flexible and the time off is plentiful. You rarely work more than a 40 hour week.

Cons

Career trajectory is almost flat and the promotion process is highly political. Hard work and performance is generally not rewarded. Rather, "time in service" and non-professional bonds tend to be the measure management uses to promote. I left feeling the company was great at designing new products, but was a poorly run business.

Advice to Senior Management

Take a serious look at the business processes in place. Throwing people at a problem is not a solution. With the magnitude of the company and the amount of moving parts- ad hoc reporting, manual input, and silo thinking is virtually a sacrilege. The point of an enormous corporation is to drive efficiencies by shared services and economies of scale, if you segment every project like it's a separate company you create incredible amounts of waste.

Pros

Compensation
Paid Time Off / Vacation

Cons

Defense Market Downsizing causes job retention issues

Advice to Senior Management

Better job at eliminating hiring/layoff 'waves'

Pros

The money, Lockheed Martin does pay their employees above average.

Cons

Engineers are penalized for not being involved in non-productive or non-work related activites. It is difficult for an engineer to be an engineer.

Advice to Senior Management

There is no problem with an engineer shortage in the near or far future. The problem is that management chooses to retire or layoff older engineers, in the hopes of hiring cheap labor, doesn't matter if they are inexperience. Retaining engineers should be their priority.

Pros

Average Benefits.
Good work/life balance (every other Friday off)

Cons

Slow promotion
Work is mind-numbing at times, not complicated
Culture is stifling, it's like you have to be mean and hoard information to get ahead.
Performance evaluation is a joke, it doesn't matter.

Advice to Senior Management

Don't promote your military buddies just because you knew them in your service together
Actually pay for performance and don't try and keep everyone around the median salary.

Pros

stable company, acceptable pay, etc

Cons

if you are a high achiever, be careful to be focused on your given function, not outside your department.

Advice to Senior Management

n/a

Pros

Great people, challenging work, a lot of flexibility in hours/vacation time, etc. Lots of internal positions to apply to in order to expand your knowledge base.

Cons

Strong 'who you know' network that can hinder promotions. Higher ratings are determined by how much exposure you have had to senior leadership throughout the year. The more visible you are the higher you are rated. Strong cultural discrepancy between Baby Boomers and younger workforce. Healthcare plan has gone down the toilet. Pension plan not available for younger employees = no incentive to stay.

Advice to Senior Management

Implement 360 review for managers. Get rid of low scoring managers.

Pros

Great Org. Flexible. Good Benefits and stable. Upward movement is getting better as each year passes. Culture is changing daily.

Cons

slow upward movement but getting better. Pay is ok but not great. No real value for certification or where you obtained your MBA.

Pros

Lockheed Martin has a lot of opportunities across the United States. If you are willing to move, you will more than likely find a position within the corporation. The benefits are better than a lot of other companies.

Cons

Personal development and growth can be stunted by either staying in a position too long and/or not being diverse enough. Managers within Lockheed Martin are to have a diverse understanding on a range of disciplines, but leaving a role for another discipline could result in not be able to return to your discipline of choice. (For example: leaving Systems Engineering for Configuration Management or Information Technology) And on the other end, managers seem to have a stove pipe mentality, when it comes to their personnel, as they want people to be groomed in one particular discipline. But to become a manager, you need to have more knowledge and experience than what the current discipline can offer.

The review rating system needs to be revamped. Managers are forced to pass out one low or below average rating, forced to pass out very few (one or two) higher ratings, and groups everyone else in the "average" pool.

Advice to Senior Management

Truly evaluate a person's credentials as they attempt to raise through the ranks of the corporation. Develop a rating system that will allow for ratings to be honest as you evaluate your employees annual performance.

Pros

Lots of diversity of projects
Early career people have opportunities to move around
Can work on exciting projects
Has decent reputation
Corporate Management seems OK

Cons

Later career people get over looked for assignments
Jobs "eliminated" for high level, high paid employees
Division Management can be short sighted
Rating system leaves alot of disgruntled employees

Advice to Senior Management

Overhaul Performance Review System
Don't forget about your older employees
Corporate Management needs to hold Division Management accountable