SAIC Reviews

Pros

Support from all levels of management, peers collaborate readily, team spirit prevalent, pay for performance/competency, unlimited learning/growth opportunities

Cons

If you work in an area that is considered a remote position to a main SAIC office, opportunities for advancement will be limited. This should be obvious.

Pros

Sense that management cares about the employee, not just the bottom line. They are also committed to ensuring that employees have the opportunity to take other positions when they come available.

Cons

Communication lapses. Sometimes there seems to be a delay or lack of communication between the two management teams supporting the employees.

Advice to Senior Management

Optimize communication between the contract and company side of the leadership team to enhance the level of comfort the employees feel towards the competency of the leadership.

Pros

Entrepreneurial structure of the company makes a very large company feel like a small company, yet with most of the benefits of a large company

Cons

The benefits were only average

Pros

Very flexible work place (this is really up to my division - not the company as a whole).
Good benefits.

Cons

Poor salaries for newer / younger employees. Times were much better in the years before the company went public, and the raises the older workers got were MUCH higher. Therefore, there is now a de-facto two-tier pay system - one for those there before the company went public, and one for those who began their career afterwards. The older employers make a good 30% premium all other things remaining equal.

Advice to Senior Management

Start working on removing some of the dead weight in middle management and the large amount of poor performers who've been feeding at the trough since 911 bonanza began ten years ago. Many of these workers do not carry their weight, and are becoming a burden on those that perform.

SAIC (and all the other big miliatary / government contractors) are going to run into trouble as the technical talent moves to smaller / younger companies where they're not required to subsidize the large salaries and expensive health bennies of the older workers.

Pros

- High quality Employees
- Interesting work
- Promotes social responsibility and employee volunteerism
- Flexible with respect to working hours

Cons

- Says "people first" but doesn't follow through
- Insular management at higher levels, with a good deal of "do as I say..."
- Obsession with making numbers is leading to ethical lapses at all levels of management. Paying lip service to ethics doesn't cut it...there is no follow through
- Attempts to "realign" services has led to disastrous results for people in the line trying to do work for customers.
- Sacrificed employee loyalty when IPO occurred....not the same company

Advice to Senior Management

Hold senior leaders accountable for bad results. Enforce policies uniformly at ALL levels (e.g., if rank and file can't use iPads due to security reasons, senior managers shouldn't have them either). Through poor communications, fragmented, stove-piped management, and poorly executed realignment attempts (i.e. "shared services") you've lost a lot of employee (and mid-manager) loyalty, which used to be strong. The only way to get it back is by holding senior managers accountable for CityTime, DCAA issues and disenchanted former employee owners. Clean some house. Walk the talk

Pros

Great stock option plan; pay was competitive.

Cons

Divisions in other locations were actively competing for contracts against other SAIC divisions. It was an environment where we competed against ourselves and many good people were hurt.

Advice to Senior Management

Have the left hand meet the right hand more often.

Pros

The benefits--medical, dental, leave--are decent in my division. However, for a company of this size, better benefits could be had.

Cons

In my division, there is a culture of heavy office politics, which is partly due to a trickle-down effect from the government agency we support. I've seen many talented people leave, which is a great loss to the company. I have not been impressed with the people promoted--they do average work but are superior sycophants and/or backstabbers. As noted by other reviewers (even those in other divisions), there is an astounding lack of truthful or open communications, accompanied by a lack of management. The result is that there are many conflicts within fractured teams.

Also mentioned in other reviews is SAIC's tendency for talk, but no action. The company says it values its employees, but there is little evidence for this. For example, here is a short list of chronic problems our facility has experienced: Clogged toilets, periodic flooding from break room fountains, lack of basic supplies for the bathroom or kitchen, no trash disposal services, lack of holiday parties, mold-infested carpeting...the list goes on. Employees have frequently asked for better service, but management remains unresponsive. For that matter, management is rarely seen or heard at all.

According to workers who have been there awhile, things have gotten worse--especially after the move to go public on the stock market.

Advice to Senior Management

Try to be in touch with your employees' needs. Something as simple as upgrading coffee machines, or ensuring that office supplies are always available, go a long way to fostering mutual respect.

Pros

They treat their employees with respect. A lot of your peers are good technical people. It has many locations located all over the states for you to relocate if needed.

Cons

You basically work from contract to contract. When the contract ends, it's up to you to find your own job. There's little assistance from HR for job placement even though you are an excellent performer.

Pros

Big company with a decent reputation, good location, fair compensation

Cons

Older culture (age of peers) where I didn't fit in, older culture limited my career progression

Advice to Senior Management

Realize leadership potential from all levels of the organization. Don't limit to just hiring managers coming out of military retirement. Also, there's a lot of benefit to hiring younger blood in the company.

Pros

Well known company
good pay and benefits

Cons

long hours for my specific job
not the best environment, kind of boring

Advice to Senior Management

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