SAIC Reviews

Pros

Benfits are OK
Pay is OK

Cons

Most people who work for the San Diego office have been there for thier entire careers. Very hard to break down this wall if you are are not part of this crowd. They single you out and treat you poorly if you are not. Do not recommend working in the SD office if you are new to the environment.

Advice to Senior Management

Treat employees better.

Pros

There were some really nice people there. Can count the number of them on one hand.
Got to play with some nifty toys once in a while.
Benefits include coverage for a "domestic partner".

Cons

Pay was average for the industry. Which is to say - if you are upper management, it suits your needs. If you are a techie or some other non-management type, it is entirely inadequate for the ridiculously expensive cost of living in Huntsville. And BTW, they are bilking the customer for far (undisclosed amount) more than what the employee earns for the services of said employee.
Company expects you to put it before your own family. I work to live, not live to work.
Ever since the company went public, it ceased to give a crap about its employees. It will lie to them (w.r.t. their job security), work them half to death with ever dwindling resources, and its work has in my humble opinion suffered due to management's greater emphasis on "appearance" of the products delivered to the customer, rather than performance.
Example: if you can make your software "look like" it is performing a certain function without it actually performing said function correctly, and it fools the customer, then you have "done your job".
Mass layoffs are now the new business model. With the ancillary benefit that the poor unfortunate employees are more than willing to sacrifice time with their families and let their home life suffer to work ridiculous hours under increasing stress, due to the fear of management's axe being aimed at their necks.
Oh, yeah. I found while there that many coworkers are mean, vindictive, and have no problem not telling you at all that they have some inexplicable issue with you, and then going behind your back (with one person, it averaged once a month) trying to get you fired. I would like to say that particular issue was with one person - but I have found from experience it is epidemic within the company's culture.

Advice to Senior Management

I am your customer, now.
My best advice is to know I'm aware of the stuff you pull, and will be checking accordingly.
Be nice to your workers in front of me. If your management is creating a climate of fear and otherwise making your employees' lives miserable, I can see the results in the quality of work that they do.
I can't tell you who to hire and fire in management, but I can pull funding.
BTW, I don't think Havenstein is running SAIC anymore. But I thought the job he did was horrible. He even at one point (in one of his missives to employees) insisted that layoffs would be avoided. Then turned around and engaged in mass layoffs. There's a word for that - starts with an "L". So, I'm giving him a "1".

Pros

Gain experience on a variety of projects, stability if you are on long term projects, some managers will go to bat for you.

Cons

Long hours, meaningless evaluations, too much red tape, senior management disconnected from rest of employees, always in fear of holiday layoffs, stock bonuses when stock is worth almost nothing, poor training, reward technical people, but overlook anyone considered overhead, HR, sexist.

Advice to Senior Management

Work harder to retain quality talent in all areas, not just in senior management and hold senior managment accountable for poor leadership and performance.

Pros

Large defense contractor
Nice chairs
Neat pencils

Cons

Poor Salary
Smelly people
Had to dress up

Advice to Senior Management

Don't underpay analysts, they will find a better salary elsewhere if you do.

Pros

Large company that has many job opportunities around the country. However, much of the work is driven by the government contracts based on the customer you are working for.

Cons

Right before Christmas I got a letter stating that I owe them close to a $1000 because they overpaid me in Comp. Leave. I always did my timesheet correctly so this was their payroll mistake. The money was due in 1 week or it increased. That is a limited amount of time to come up with a large sum of money like that.

Women - there is no maternity leave. Many other large government contracting companies have this. So if this is important to you, you may want to look at one of the other larger companies.

Pros

SAIC hires smart, competent people who are extremely professional and well-prepared to provide top quality customer support, and understands its customers well.

Cons

SAIC brings recently retired senior military officers into management positions without an acculturation to a professional, project-based, collaborative work culture. The worst still think they are in the military and order professionals around like stupid children, and if the contract is a big money maker for the company, heads look the other way.

Advice to Senior Management

Make sure the retired colonels and generals read the personnel manual and the ethics rules; put them in another assignment for 6 months before turning them loose.

Pros

SAIC has very competitve benefits, flexible schedule and various opportunities for career growth.

Cons

Because SAIC is a government contract company, you're forced to rely heavily on networking and being aggressive in order to stay employed past completing your tasks.

Pros

SAIC has great intentions and a good heart. For example, they conduct Gallup surveys within the company and address their short-comings. They just need to be careful in their growth not to lose their heart and keep treating employees with respect.

Cons

SAIC came out with their "One SAIC" mantra a couple years ago, to promote various groups working together cohesively. It hasn't materialized yet. Groups on the same level at times compete for the same contract, and management keep passing strict requirements (during these economic tough times) downward, causing tensions from one level to the next.

Advice to Senior Management

Employees serving the clients (mostly scientists and engineers) don't really know what management does. The communications released from the various levels don't always match up with the actions of management.

Pros

Quite competent technical teams in general; management fair and doesn't micro-manage. Flexible schedules, challenging work, unreasonable year-end deadlines but program management does their best to provide support. Very nice empoyee break area with cold water, ice, great coffee and tea. Middle management works hard to create a sense of unity amongst teams.

Cons

Cross displinary team communication and priorities are at odds. Salaries are on the low side for the industry and area. The physical work space is horrendous; such low unpadded walls that all conversations carry. No cube chairs for visitors so they must stand and disturb everyone in the immediate area when having a technical discussion.

Advice to Senior Management

Match industry area salaries to boost retention and fix the limitations of the physical space. Align functional teams by project and not discipline.

Pros

Treated well. Leadership is good. People are not treated like slaves. Compensation is good. Raises are good. People are expected to work for compensation.

Cons

Older employee population. Not many after work events. Some long hours are needed at times to meet project deadlines. Work location does not have food onsite.