MacDonald Dettwiler Reviews in Vancouver, BC Area

Pros

-Amazing project management skills (2 yr project was only over time by 2 weeks)
-Great leadership in aviation.
-People in the office are happy.
-Easy to take time off with little notice
-Great team building events
-A great deal of design goes in to their software.
-Although they are a larger corporation, individual projects are much smaller, giving MDA a less bureaucratic feel.

Cons

-Shared offices have no natural light
-I've heard pay is lower than comparable places, however the stress level is much lower here.
-Keeping track of time for billing purposes can be tiring at times.

Advice to Senior Management

-There has been a lot of internal talk about saving up cash to build the organization. Bonuses, salary increases, etc should be given to those who got you there. MDA has a reputation of low paying work and this could easily be remedied because money is not all that tight.

Pros

Diversity in kinds of work
Free parking (really!)

Cons

The business and leadership is risk averse and this flows down to everybody, to the point of looking for reasons not to do anything like innovate.

Zero salary increases in the last 5 years (ok, one year I got a $200 increase. ) No motivation to improve there, is there?

Management is reactive not leading the employment issues of 2012; zero raises, zero employment and a lot of people looking to leave soon.

Advice to Senior Management

Lose Friedmann. He's been there too long and has too many brown-nosers around him. There is some benefit in a complete replacement of senior management. Let's find out what that is.

Pros

good benefit package, good training grounds

Cons

low pay in comparison with other organizations, big divide between the engineers and non-engineers, advancements and perks are always handed to the first group, no opportunities for advancement for the support staff

Advice to Senior Management

say 'good morning' to people in the hallways..

Pros

great place for entry levels to start learning proper structure of programs and work with multiple teams to integrate into one complete product

Cons

really really crappy pay i gotta say, area is very rural, nearest place to eat is quiznos, feels like a jailcell

Advice to Senior Management

pay the employees better, organize more company sport activities, hire more women because there are way too many guys in mda

Pros

High Quality Software Engineering work.
Private Offices
Food on site (even if it isn't very good)
Can bank extra hours worked for time off

Cons

Very low pay.
Broken commitments / promises from HR and managers.
Below local inflation annual pay increases when you get a good or excellent performance review.
Very cold / strict senior management / HR policies.
No real effort made to keep departing staff with better job offers.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop speaking as if we are world leading company when we can't keep good staff or hire good staff due to low pay.

Pros

Great health benefits package with opportunities to move up in the field. They recognize those who have been with the company for a long time and celebrate their tenure.

Cons

Very structured. Can be difficult to get a way in edgewise. Managment can be stubborn or authorotarian with little room to play with budgets.

Advice to Senior Management

Take advanatge of your employees and their knowledge. Move them around and find the right fit before forcing them to move on. A competitive salary package that shows advancment opportunites may help as well.

Pros

Teams are very supportive and friendly, you learn a lot, great experience, get to work on challenging projects, nice environment

Cons

compensation is a bit low

Advice to Senior Management

great

Pros

- Lots of great people to work with and mentor from
- Consistent work loads for the most part
- Chance to take classes inspired by real-world experience
- Peer reviews are good way to get feedback
- Work hours are pretty close to 40 hours a week, and flex time is available.
- Lots of international work available without much experienced required.
- You get to work with cool space stuff!!

Cons

- Poor salary commensurate
- Tough to get promotions starting out, need to put in time, may not suite many software engineers
- HR policies are sometimes weak and predatory
- Some divisions lack ethnic diversity
- Development often uses waterfall techniques instead of more agile ones
- Lack of turnover in some areas makes it hard to move up the ladder

Advice to Senior Management

Keep the company together, you know that the aerospace and commercial sectors offset each other during various economic cycles, and it provides good movement opportunities for the employees who want a change of pace.

Pros

Most of the work is interesting.
There is very little bureaucracy.
No cubicles, people have (shared) offices instead.
There were few or no layoffs in the recession.

Cons

The pay is very poor for the industry.
Most offices have no natural sun light.
Not all work is good for professional development.

Advice to Senior Management

You had better start raising salaries as the job market picks up, or you will be losing workers to higher paying competitors.

Pros

The work is challenging and interesting. There are plenty of opportunities to find your niche and pursue what interests you most, and the people (right up to senior management) are approachable and seem to be interested in the success of the employees.

Cons

The pay is not really competitive when compared with similar work in the industry and in the region. Too bad, because there isn't too much else to complain about.

Advice to Senior Management

Raise salaries.