Raytheon Reviews

Pros

Compensation
Longevity
Opportunities
Good work environment
Working on developing better career pAths
great benefits
Way ahead of area in pay availability

Cons

Clique
Poor work life balance understanding
Difficult to advance quickly

Advice to Senior Management

More open to every employee - strengths and weaknesses and how to grow

Pros

there is something new & interesting to work on every day. sense of accomplishment at the end of the day.

Cons

you start off at a high salary which in turn means poor bonuses and raises. can be hard to be promoted without jumping around from job to job.

Advice to Senior Management

trust that your employee know what they are doing. dont hover. ask for advice you may not always be right even if you think so

Pros

pretty "decent" pay especially if you are single.
depending on where you work, it's heaven, hell, or somewhere in between.
respect isn't given so I guess you don't have to respect others. so I guess that's a pro. :)

Cons

this company values people with the ability to get a high clearance than the actual technical merits / education of the employees. I have seen time to time where new hires who really actually know nothing (and this isn't really a joke) get paid as much as people who have served with this company for 5-10 years with TONS of experience more than the new hire. Even tons of experience when the veterans came to apply as a new hire.

Advice to Senior Management

hire competent people and pay them well.
those who are NOT competent don't pay them well. stop paying the INCOMPETENT people to come to Raytheon. make the interviews tougher. be competitive.
stop hiring people based upon their potential clearance ability and/or clearance levels.

Pros

I enjoy the work very much, am on a great team, leadership is supportive, computer tech-refresh & IT Help Desk support is good, and I feel appreciated. Realistic long-term job security and advancement for highly skilled, diplomatic, flexible people. For everyone else, the "do your best" approach keeps you gainfully employed, unless you really don’t know what you’re doing and blow work off. Wide range of thousands of Programs world-wide. A logical personal performance measurement, to allow "points accumulation". Many company technical symposiums year-round. Company stands it ground in Government negotiations, stays on budget and schedule, and invests in IRAD with discretion.

Cons

Too many high-level engineers come unprepared to meetings, too many people in meetings, too many hijackers and distractors in meetings. Depressing to sometimes see high-level engineers content doing clerical and data-entry tasks. Advancement stops unless you help bring in new business (which is fair, I suppose). You start wishing some people would demonstrate more initiative, persistence, creativity. Silly process changes, as in, "remember that approach we used for capturing Goals and Objective for the last few years, now we think it was dumb, so we're improving it again". Occasional high stress level and personality conflicts. Struggle to find a balance between self-promotion and modesty. Tedious mandatory annual training (Ethics, IT Security). Inundated with every politically-correct corporate-backed special interest under the sun (Women / Blacks / Hispanic / Gay Societies), overbearing in my opinion. Company stock price on a very rocky road.

Advice to Senior Management

You're doing well, considering the circumstances of fewer major DOD contracts. You shouldn't be forcing us to forfeit value of unused MOD time / PTO at years's end - it's basically stealing, since the Government paid you for our time.

Pros

The way the company used corporate holidays allowed for maximizing time off at Christmas

Cons

lack of concern for relocation when contract was ending I submitted my qualifications for 20+ open jobs w/o any positive response. With me being within 2 years of qualifying for the corporate retirement plan one has to wonder

Advice to Senior Management

none

Pros

PTO, Flex Schedule, Retirement benefits. All in all, the benefits package is better than most companies. They truly endorse a work life balance and for sure as a company they are in the lead for benefits.

Cons

Have to spend most of your time trying to figure out the politics and not just doing your job. Management will not manage but rather delegate. They seem to have all the answers after the fact - when the solution becomes painfully obvious. If you approach a manager and try to get them to take any action, you'll get clobbered. and of course when somethimg goes wrong, they'll say "why didn't you say something!"The spit second 1/2 sentence is spoken, they'll hammer you and try to make you look like an idiot. Those who survive, have learned to let the bus drive off the cliff and walk away without caring - if you want to do a good job, and try to make things happen (no matter how carefull you proceed) - your career is short lived. HR is nothing but a listening post - henceforth managers have no bounds. They post electronic bulletin board that says "raise your hand if you see something wrong" ... OMG what a joke - that's a sure way to be on the next off-list! They have a performance review policy that is nothing more than a popularity contest. If you ever so slightly (ever so carefully) try to express an opinion when something is going wrong - guaranteed at your next performace review you'll be accused of not being a "team player", even if in the process you have to accept and go with the flow while your task/project is MORE THAN 100% over budget! The review process collects input for all those who you worked with through out the year, and no matter how hard you try, they have to get some "dirt" on you even if they have to make something up! No matter how many GOOD data points are collected, they will look hard to find SOMETHING to pin on you, again even if they have to make something up - I suspect because its mandated from higher up.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop paying 100% attention trying to beat down your workers and spend more time working toward coming up with the solution. But before that happens, you have to first hire technologists - you have to understand the technology long before you can even come close to coming up with solutions. In the EE lab, software lab, etc, such incompetance is not tolerated, but in IDS IT it's allowed simply because if we mess things up the first time, we can try many times again - we have no end product to deliver to the customer. And besides, those in management positions have a lots of "little people" to blame for their mistakes and by the time their superiors figure it out, they've already given their notice to retire anyhow.

Pros

Good benefit, flexible hours, competitive salary

Cons

politics
performance rating is not transparent
communication from management is poor

Advice to Senior Management

better communication

Pros

Consistent pay - Never the highest, but not bad

Interesting technologies you won't get at many places

Several programs for advancement ***if you're within a certain category of person***

If you are self motivated, you can learn an extroadinary amount

Cons

Not a very team oriented work place, meaning there is not much of a bond

It is not the best place for young employees, the workforce is relatively older and not very accepting of younger employees.

Furthermore, they will pay you only enough to keep you from looking elsewhere. Many places will compensate better.

To get into the leadership programs, or the advancement programs, you have to be within a very select group. Even if you're an excellent performer, you have to have a manager that is going to fight for you, and provide the recognition you need.

Rank based promotions - This means that if your entire department is a top performing team, you will have less of a chance for advancement. There is literally a ranking that is done to place people 1 to XX for decisions of promotions and compensation.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop holding back promotions and pay because of years of experience. That is only a small portion of a persons ability. It is hard to stay at a company that is so focused on years of experience. It isn't jail, no one should get anything based on years served. On the same token, many employees think the job is done by "logging 40". This follows the same jail principle....serving your time does not mean you did your job.

Build better team bonds. Compared to other companies I have been at, the teams at Raytheon have small connections. There is often times drama and hostility as well.

Continue the leadership programs, that is a great goal for many people to look forward to. Some of the upper management has done a great job with these programs, and I would hate for them to stop.

Overall it is a great experience with the company. There are just a few things that would make the experience at Raytheon much better. I see only 4-5 factors that prevent Raytheon from being a company that would be one of the best to work for world wide.

Pros

Benefits, Paid Time Off, 9/80 Schedule, Flex Time and Company Shutdown at Christmas to New Years.
Co-workers (most of them really great to work with), It's a great place to work -beware a layoff can tough if you are older and have worked there a while.

Cons

Not much room to grow, Depends on who you work for, too many layoffs of good people.
Hard to move around such a large company - should be easier.

Advice to Senior Management

Respect of employees.

Pros

The work performed at Raytheon Technical Services Company is varied and interesting. The company provides many services to the US government. There are many opportunities available for Raytheon contracts.

Cons

Too many games are played behind the scenes, management both condones and participates in hiding information instead of being honest and forthcoming about changes that take place within the company.

Advice to Senior Management

There should be a thorough review of all district and facilities mangers. Get rid of those managers that are underperforming or that are not showing respect to their employees.