MITRE Reviews

Pros

MITRE is a good place to work if one needs a work-life balance, is at an advanced stage of his/her career (near retirement) or wants job security.

Cons

MITRE is not a good fit for career-focused employees. Promotion rates are slower at MITRE than at for-profit companies. Pay for performance is nonexistent: salary increases are very small (1.5% salary increase is budgeted for 2012).

Advice to Senior Management

The results of the last employee survey are pretty revealing in terms of employee dissatisfaction with the lack of career opportunities and are consistent across the company. The company ranking in the "100 best companies to work for" list continues to drop year after year. MITRE barely made the list this year (96 over 100). This is a clear sign that MITRE should wake up from its past glory days to review its pay for performance system, organizational structure and career paths across the board to retain its employees. The work life balance trade-off does not compensate for the nonexistent salary increases and lack of monetary recognition for high performance. The lack of monetary incentives for high performance recognition and opportunities for advancement will make it harder to retain top performer employees.

Pros

* work/LIFE balance
* Good benefits (health/retirement/PTO, etc)
* competitve starting salary

Cons

* many seemingly interesting projects actually turn out to be a powerpoint engineering job; workload doesn't exist at MITRE since the money is from government. That's why you can have work/life balance and good pay+benefits.
* at caasd only two kinds of skills are needed: air traffic management (ATM) related and JAVA, while at c3i, cyberspace security is the core topic. (still, it requires computer skills) As for analytical skills, as long as you have the degree and graduate from a prestigious school, that's sufficient.
* MITRE is more like an IT company than a real engineering & research company.
* direction is not clear even at higher managements. It takes time (weeks or months) for them to make collective agreement.

Advice to Senior Management

make soft-shell easier. Let the employee have the freedom to participate what projects they really are interested in.

Pros

Peope are friendly and the parking garage is handy

Cons

No bonuses
low salaries
gym charges $20/month for EMPLOYEES.
food in cafeteria is expensive
No training budget,,,

Advice to Senior Management

let people go get some training for their positions to better themselves.

Pros

MITRE has flexible work schedule that allows a good work-life balance. However, there are times when client and project requirements demand more than the normal 40 hours. There is a culture of high quality in all the work we produce for the client.

Cons

The client is the Federal government and often I see exciting projects outside of the Federal space that I would like to be involved in.

Advice to Senior Management

In some parts of employee evaluation, process is more important than outcome. Management needs to evaluate whether the process is stifling effective relationship with employees.

Pros

- "guit by association" - The government often immediately thinks I'm an expert without me having to prove anything, simply because I work for the company with all the 20# brains.
- Work-life balance isn't just lip-service, it's real. Sure we all have to 'surge' from time to time, but if you're regularly working 50-60 hour weeks, something is wrong.
- Benefits are top-shelf. Retirement and health plans are gold plated.

Cons

- Promotion/career path is not well defined; varies by department/division. Some people get hired and get promoted quickly simply becuase they're in the right department or on the right project.
- P&D (performance & development) process is burdensome and doesn't really seem to matter in the end.
- Tip: get hired at a high level (AC4 or AC5) that will be satisfactory for a long time...because promotions are inconsistent.

Advice to Senior Management

Promotion process needs greater transparency; I'm happy where I'm at...but I do marvel at some of the promotion rates I see in other departments/divisions. Some are dismal (30+ year AC4s, 5-year AC5s, etc). No consistency.

Pros

Commitment to training and education
Many different opportunities
Work life balance is the best
Comprehensive benefits

Cons

Promotion is very difficult even if you have done a great job and there is little feedback as to why someone got promoted over someone else, and the fact you have to wait a year in between promotion cycles is very long.

Advice to Senior Management

Proactively find your best employees and mentor then so that they do not find incentives to leave.

Pros

Employee valued by managers
Great work life balance
Diverse technical work program

Cons

Salaries are not aligned with industry
Promotions are far and few between
Top heavy

Advice to Senior Management

Attrition of the 5 to 10 year technical staffer is too high, look to retain this demographic

Pros

Extremely rewarding work, a chance to use your talents to best effect.
Very supportive leadership and ability to stay objective -- am constantly told to do or say the right thing regardless of any of our customers' agendas.
MITRE makes is EASY to work -- support side of company is constantly working to make it easier for the front-line people to work remotely as well as securely.
I have nothing to sell except my knowledge, skills and services -- and those sell themselves.

Cons

I have to think really really hard to come up with a downside to working at MITRE -- visualize Winnie the Pooh trying to think!

Advice to Senior Management

Ignore the whiners, trim extraneous costs like superfluous paper pamphlets, keep doing what you have been to make MITRE a go-to place our customers can come for answers to their tough challenges

Pros

Managed by humans
Great respect for work-life balance
Interesting and relevant technical work
Lots of very smart, genuine, multi-talented, and interesting people

Cons

Technical library gone - replaced by on-line resources
Advancing or maintaining technical currency isn't valued or well supported
For an FFRDC, almost no R, very little D. Lots of acquisition support.

Advice to Senior Management

Stand up against time reporting - it discourages creativity and locks the staff too tightly to narrowly defined work. Technical staff in an R&D organization need time and resources to continuously improve their technical currency.

Pros

Great Retirement
Competitive Benefits
Good work/life balance

Cons

Poor or no management
Team leaders without management capability or experience
Directors micro-manage
Little or no trust
Limited flexibility with regard to new ideas
Our (MITRE) way is the only way
Play both sides of the fence: Trusted honest broker/system integrator
Gate-keeper / limited or no access to client

Advice to Senior Management

Allow employes access to client
Foster an open environment
Eliminate the sub-director level of management
Eliminate "pet projects" that don't demonstrate value -- and the managers doing them
Be responsive to your client