Raytheon Reviews

Pros

Big company with lot of opportunities to move around
Rarely expected to work more than 40hrs
Flexible work schedule but could impact growth

Cons

Only company in town so they let you go and you are moving
Only company in town so your salary can become stagnant easily

Pros

People, location, work hours, parking, security, food, facilities, offices, work out area, employee discounts, employee benefits, interesting projects, fast paced sometimes

Cons

Slow at times, some of the work required security access, hierarchy was sometimes too stiff for creative thought, not a clear career ladder

Pros

Note that while this is the Canadian subsidiary of Raytheon Company, it is run as a separate, mostly autonomous business and is very different than the rest of mother Raytheon...

For most people, work-life balance is very good - working hours are very flexible and depending on whether you are a manager or not, you can bank 24-40 hours of overtime for future time off. 12 days of PTO per year and paid Christmas break are really nice. Workloads are generally reasonable, and benefits are pretty comprehensive including $500 health spending, as well as a $400 fitness reimbursement - although options are fairly restricted in its use.

Formal training opportunities are fairly good, especially when you are new to the company, with the company picking up the tab for training related to your job. Also no problem with them flying you all over the US to other Raytheon sites and conferences for training and professional development. Watch out for the 100% clawback clause in educational reimbursements though, for a period of 1 year after completion of the course.

Cons

A big issue at this division of Raytheon is the labyrinthine office politics and 'old boy's club' mentality that comes in part from the senior leadership being ex-military. Overwhelmingly older, male demographics with a paternalistic attitude. A lot of favouritism and opportunity is slanted to individuals that cater to the status quo, and is not rooted in employee capability or performance as it should be.

Many employees fly under the radar and deliver little real value to the company's operations. Have caught senior engineers sleeping at their desks on more than one occasion, and employees with poor work ethic are not held accountable for their performance or missing business-critical deliverables. Most younger employees or those with any sort of ambition don't stick around for long and as a result turnover is pretty high amongst the employees that actually add real value to the company.

A lot of unnecessary overhead, back-office positions and bureaucracy make this division uncompetitive and overly reliant on sole-source or existing business. Seems like management is unwilling or unable to make the changes needed.

Advice to Senior Management

Recognize the efforts and capabilities of high-performing employees, and work to challenge and develop them. Hold under-performing employees to task on their performance. Make the changes necessary to enhance the competitiveness of the business.

Pros

Great benefits, occasionally interesting work, 3% profit sharing most years, good location with minimal traffic, pay is a bit above average

Cons

Engineers don't get the tools they need, instability of work load, poor communications from management, engineering work frequently consists of doing the same thing repeatedly for years at a time. Raises and bonuses are only tied to company performance, not individual performance.

Advice to Senior Management

Get some input from engineers about the tools they need instead of having an IT org decide for them. Provide more incentive to overachieve, instead of the same raises for good and bad performance.

Pros

Nice place to work, typical government contractor.

Cons

Management is old school, need work on ppl skills.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to younger engineer, encourage there new ideas.

Pros

Freedom of hours to actually perform at work. More hours worked equal more vacation time accrued. Travel time is considered work time.

Cons

Stress level and completion times. Very little influence on decisions with actual work outlines. No paid holidays and all days are considered open.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to suggestions from employees. Hire someone with actual field experience instead of listening to bean counters. Better understanding of task will also increase profits.

Pros

* Very high compensation per unit of effort ratio, mainly because the denominator is very small.
* Because Raytheon is a government contractor, full time employees work exactly 40 hours a week. If you are asked to work more, you will get paid overtime (at 1x pay).
* Very flexible work hours. Some people regularly go to work at noon.
* If you want a pretty high paying job, but you don't want to work too hard, you are not very ambitious, or you are not the brightest person in the world, then this is a great job. You will get paid well and you cannot get fired unless you commit a crime, perform sexual harassment, look at porno at work, commit security violations, etc.

Cons

* Very dependent on the defense cycle. After 9/11, the defense industry was booming. Lots of hiring, lots of money for interesting work. With all the budget issues lately (2010-2011), the first place to get cut is in defense R&D and in new projects. It makes sense: the government will pay for bullets and body armor for soldiers in Iraq, but they won't research new radar systems.
* Raytheon mainly does systems testing and integration. A lot of smart people get frustrated because the difficult, innovative work isn't respected. The genius who finds solutions to everything might not get compensated as well as the dummy that leads the test. If you like the research side, go work at MIT Lincoln Laboratory instead (although the pay will be about 25% less than Raytheon).
* Diminishing returns on compensation. Moving up in the company is mainly a function of age, not skill. Many talented engineers that start at Raytheon leave after 3-5 years because the raises are promotions are big and fast, but hits diminishing returns quickly. Those that choose to stay longer tend to be known as "lifers" because they are very unlikely to ever leave the company.
* Non-transferable skills. Programming is done on ancient language (military follows the rule of "if it ain't broke, don't if it"). All the processes and knowledge is very contained to the defense industry. Another big reason why people who stay more than 3-5 years become "lifers".
* Security clearance can be a pain, especially for people not born in the U.S. or people with immediate foreign relatives.

Advice to Senior Management

Make employees feel better. I can understand why the company is run the way it is run. The government pays by "man hours" for many of Raytheon's contracts. And Raytheon runs up hours very well, the smart engineers would say it is because they hire a bunch of dummies who can barely get work done. At least try to make it seem like the smart guys are appreciated, even if there is no financial reason to do so.

Pros

- Mgmt encouraged 9/80 work cycle. Most times, walked the talk in work/family balance.
- Really pushed diversity.
- Good pay and benefits, 401(k) is super generous.
- If you get support of management, O/T is paid.

Cons

- Company is real big on loyalty to the old timers, not unusual to have 15~20 people a month get their 25 or 30 year service pin. OTOH, very, very few new hires make it to 5 years. In about 10 years, this site will collapse as all the old heads either retire or die.
- Employment rides the DoD budget roller coaster. When programs are numerous, company hires up fast and furious. When programs get cut, company downsizes just as fast and furiously. Since Iraq and Libya have ended, look for more lay-offs as programs get cut.
- Since it is a DoD contractor, all tech is DoD; i.e. old or unique to defense industry. Most of what you would learn here is only good here. Non-transferable (to the commercial world) skills and experiences.
- Company is self important. They have their way of doing things and that's the way it is. New ideas not wanted here. (If we wanted you to have a brain, we would have issued you one!)
- Real big on siloizing projects. Lots of waste as each program duplicates efforts and resources.

Pros

Benefits are good. I have learned a lot since being here.

Cons

There is no ethics. We are extremely under paid. Does not allow for advancement or promotion like they should. Management does not know how to properly manage a group.

Advice to Senior Management

Learn how to better manage a group. Learn how to properly delegate tasks.

Pros

benefits, pay, extracurricular activities, stable

Cons

terrible management for the most part, somewhat unfair raise/promotion practices