Pros

Excellent work/life balance! Rank and file are probably the best, scientifically and technically, to be found in any organization and are eager to share knowledge. Mitre does provide some venues for knowledge management and knowledge sharing.

Cons

Management of CCG is probaly the worst of any company anywhere including government. There is absolutely no path or chance for advancement. The yearly review process is a total sham and virtually worthless where employees are not allowed to participate. You are judged by a group of managers that you never react with during the year, who have no (little) knowledge of what you have accomplished. If you do not have BIG BLUE (IBM) on your resume your career at CCG will stop with no further chance of advancement. MITRE, particularly CCG, is turning in to a job shop of senior talent, without the compenastion of a job shop, with no reward(s) for good work!

Advice to Senior Management

Wake up and smell the coffee! When the recession and job market improve open the flood gates as many will flee in droves!

Pros

It is a great environment to work the benefits are good and the people are very good to work with.

Cons

It you are not on the main campus advancedment can be very hard. The DC area staff often loses site of the real customer.

Advice to Senior Management

Pay more attention to the site personnel.

Pros

Great Benefits, nobody gets fired, laid back, easy work.

Cons

No challenges; lots of talk - not much walk. Talk about dicernable value- - but I don't do anything more than any other support contractor that charges 1/2 what MTIRE charges. NO OPPORTUNITY for advancement. No mentoring. No clear path for promotion. The annual performance review is a joke. I write my own. Folks deciding on whether to give me a pay raise or promotion don't even know me, my work, or my ability. Terrible leadership.

Advice to Senior Management

Get the promotion process fixed. Get rid of dead weight. don't give everyone an annual pay raise. Read some of these other reviews on this site - most are right on target. This place is broken.

Pros

The best place I've work that takes work-life balance seriously. They do take care of the employees. Great benefits and flexibility, despite the fact that we are a not-for-profit.

Cons

a bit laid back and low key

Advice to Senior Management

Give us a real recreation center, like pool and ping where we can play and stimulate team cohesion.

Pros

Work life balance; mission focus; not-for-profit/objective; smart, dedicated work force

Cons

Weak management; disconnect between senior leadership and workforce; mixed, often contradictory messaging re goals & objectives, and how organizations are managed and employees are rewarded; lack of consistency between professed vision/goals, and much of work taken on; over valuation of consensus at the cost of impact; corporate officers do not function as a team

Advice to Senior Management

More accountability for officers and senior leadership to work as a team; more empowerment of employees with the means and authority to accomplish expected goals; less emphasis on need for consensus -- provide all the opportunity to review and provide input to goals and direction, but then make the hard decisions necessary to achieve the most impact (versus upset the fewest people within MITRE)

Pros

The Good - outstanding benefits package and work-life balance! Company President and Board of Trustees appear to be making sound strategic moves to position MITRE for future turbulence in the defense industry. The President is keeping employees informed and has received high marks in the employee blog.

Cons

The Bad - middle managers who make promotion decisions based on personality and favoritism. The Peter Principle is alive and well at MITRE, although there are some middle managers who are actually good leaders as well.

Advice to Senior Management

The Ugly - look for those people who have been doing solid, contributing work for years who never receive recognition - also, open the MITRE Innovation Program to more people by limiting the number of MIP projects that one person can be on at one time and limit the number of years that a person can be on MIP funding - some people have made a career of research projects, while others are doing the direct project work for the sponsors.

Pros

- Important, satisfying work in the public interest
- Abundance of technical challenges and interesting, leading-edge technology projects
- Freedom to learn and grow in a variety of technical disciplines
- Freedom and mobility to change careers while staying in the same company
- Great compensation, benefits, training and educational assistance
- Job offerings at numerous domestic and international sites provide cultural opportunities if you are willing to move
- Excellent work/life balance
- Phased retirement that allows company to retain highly experienced staff well beyond retirement age
- Intelligent, motivated and committed people

Cons

- Congressional ceiling limits company growth and ability to support our nation. While this keeps us focused on the most important work most of the time, the artificial limit is often cause for internal turmoil between competing business units due to the zero sum game.

Advice to Senior Management

Stay the course, manage our costs and increase our value proposition. Continue to focus on the most strategic work while creating opportunities for for-profit organizations.

Pros

Varied work, management are nice people compared to most engeering managagers elsewhereplaces, flexible work hours .

Cons

Not much advancement opportunities, programs go thru 'feast or famine' due to ceiling

Advice to Senior Management

solve ceiling problems

Pros

There is a strong focus on working in the public interest, even if that means less MITRE staff on the job, the truth is the truth. The leadership tries hard to keep the employees from just falling in line with the government sponsors because it is easy, they work hard to keep us focused on what the government SHOULD be doing.

Cons

Because of the public interest and the support of the government, MITRE does not control it's own destiny the way a private company does. We don't sell things to the government, we try to make the government better and more efficient - sometimes our best work needs to be done where the government is most dysfunctional - that can be hard for employees to do, especially new employees.

Advice to Senior Management

Stay focused on controlling costs, we are making progress, let's not get comfortable.

Pros

The best MITRE attribute is its work/life balance. My child was sick in December for several days. Not once did I feel pressure to connect my computer or call in. And my supervisor would call just to check on me and my child.

Cons

The downside of working at MITRE is the promotion process. It is definitely not a level playing field within the different centers nor between technical and support staff. I do see that improving.

Advice to Senior Management

Please continue to keep the employees at all levels in the loop on the corporate strategy and reminders of the reason we are an FFRDC.