Northrop Grumman Reviews

Pros

Great opportunities to do different stuff, you just have to put yourself out there
Support from upper management about getting more involved in the company and persuing activities
Management is trying to be more "innovative" which is really (slowly) shaking things up (positively)
Internal programs to stimulate employees being empowered to take over their own careers

Cons

If your project ends, you are out of luck. You have to find your own new position and you are given the same priority as an external employee. (although I think this situation depends on the group)
HR center is worthless, you call for help and they just read back the literature. No deeper understanding of benefits.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep pursuing more modern ways of growing the company.
Find something to do when people have gaps in charge numbers because you can really be loosing great people due to funding issues on projects.
Employees really like getting involved in helping out

Pros

As a large company, Northrop holds the potential for many job opportunities while maintaining continuity with one employer. Good benefits and leave packages. They do make a sincere effort to assist RIF candidates in finding another position within the company.

Cons

Typical of most corporations, managerial promotions are typically based more on who you know and who likes you - favoritism, nepotism, etc. than on whether you are truly the right or most deserving candidate for the position. I think there is an opportunity for HR policies to stem some of this type of activity but my experience has been that they tend to work more to help the manager find the loophole than to keep the out of line promotions from happening. That said, there are still the job category level advancement promotions which are more equitably distributed.

Advice to Senior Management

Kudos to corporate leadership right now for the time and expense invested in the Employee Engagement Surveys across the sectors. I'm just not sure that your implementing level managers really take it seriously. From what I've witnessed, they just view it as another hoop to jump through. You've got to link your corporate engagement goals to their pockets.

Pros

While some of the program leadership is not managing problems well as a company I feel very well taken care of. I was recently part of a "destaffing" and was relocated quickly to a new program in the same area which turned out to be a better move for myself.

Cons

If your good at what you do, you work alot of hours but so far I have been approved for extra pay for those hours but it strains the work/life balance.

Pros

- There are some cool projects to work on. My current project is great and is the only reason I am still with the company.
- Pay seems to be competitive with other large companies like Northrop Grumman.

Cons

- The company has changed from having a long-term focus and developing its employees as a vital resource to just hiring and firing whoever they need for a project. There is no job security and you will be laid off as soon as your project is complete.
- The benefits used to be okay, but the company is cutting our benefits (like paid vacation) to save money. This is disturbing since the company is profitable and the senior officers are paid millions of dollars a year, while the actual engineers are treated worse each year.
- It's become difficult to get money or other resources to do research or pursue technology that might benefit a customer. The company doesn't invest much in research anymore.
- The company has become less agile over the last few years and now it's almost impossible to get a computer that's ideal for your work needs or to get permission to install needed software like VMware Workstation. The IT and other departments now make their own jobs easier at the expense of those of us who actually do the engineering work for our customers.

Advice to Senior Management

My immediate management is competent and caring. The levels above that, all the way to the top, appear to be either unsure what to do or concerned only with saving their jobs and profiting themselves and the shareholders. No one I know feels valued by the company and we all know we can be laid off at a moment's notice no matter how exceptional we are.

Northrop Grumman has a toxic work environment. Many of the best people n my operating unit have already left and more are leaving soon. I am still with the company only because I like working on my current team and doing great things for our customers, and my colleagues feel the same way. If our project ends, we will all move to new companies.

This is a challenging time for Northrop Grumman, but the senior management's approach to improving the company's profitability has driven away most of the most talented engineers in my operating unit and those of us left will leave if/when our project ends. I'm not sure how to fix this situation, but I can tell you that reducing benefits and making it harder to do our jobs with increasing bureaucracy is not the way forward. Also not helpful is the fact that when you moved the headquarters from California to Virginia, you paid (or overpaid) all the expenses of senior management, who already make millions of dollars a year. When a great engineer sees that the senior management makes ridiculous amounts of money to make dubious decisions, and that the future of Northrop Grumman depends entirely on questionable forces out of his control, he begins to look elsewhere. The Engagement surveys are also a slap in the face of the line workers. It should be obvious why people are becoming less engaged over time and having managerial work groups will not improve the situation.

Pros

Good Company to work for
Salary is fair
Benefits are very good

Cons

Communication is slow or too-late
no recognition for work well-done
Be careful about getting "pigeon-holed" into a position with no chance of advancement.
they try to back-end shift-pay into your base salary amount

Advice to Senior Management

Start listening to employee concerns. Talk to employees more(in your charge) and promote career advancement rather than always trying to flatten the organization
Allow employees to advance their careers by moving around to gain more experience in other areas which will benefit them and the company

Pros

Good salary compared to similar jobs, and if you want, you can get away with doing absolutely zero work or being completely incompetent.

Cons

Your coworkers will often be lazy idiots. There is endless bureaucracy, nothing gets done, and you'll never be recognized for your contributions. If you ever have dispute with the company you have to get a lawyer before they will pay *any* attention to your concern.

Advice to Senior Management

Fire the useless people, promote the people who actually do work.

Pros

Very good work -life balance. during my stay, I rarely work overtime. The managers were lay back, and easy to talk to.

Cons

The information within the department does not seemed to be transparent and the promotion standard does not seemed to be clear.

Pros

Very big company and diversify environment and can be a place to seek a career for life. Lots of opportunities to work in many different areas.

Cons

not much of bonus. Salary is not very competitive. Lots of politic to deal with sometimes. Need constant learning and working on various hardware/software projects.

Pros

Pay was better than average for the area (I was scouted from another company, so pay was a little higher than some coworkers), the benefits and time off were good

Cons

Treated like a high school kid. Was actually told that we had to send emails to management to go to the restroom. NO opportunity for advancement. It was a job, not a career position. Complicated reference process means there is no way to verify I have worked there. No information shared from other parts of company, a change would already have been implemented and we wouldn't know about it. Favoritism runs rampant, if you went to school with the right manager, you would be just fine.

Advice to Senior Management

Call Center manager should take a close look at the amount of work getting done by Team Managers and Team Leads. Treat employees like people, not numbers or statistics, take a "people" approach instead of a "text-book" approach to management.

Pros

Work on top programs, with bright people, in an excellent work environment

Cons

Pockets of excellence, and some pockets of surprises. The good news is word travels fast within the company, so not-so-great middle managers become known. However, when joining as a new-hire, it's daunting to determine if you'll be working for an ace manager, or a sociopath.

Advice to Senior Management

Minor suggestion - better feedback system on middle managers. Where there are constant complaints, there may be a management problem. High turnover in groups is also an indicator.