SRA International Reviews

Pros

SRA does some very interesting work for interesting clients. Work/Life balance is OK; you can work from home as often as you'd like. Some people are very knowledgeable.

Cons

SRA must have been a very good place to work maybe ten years ago. It is stuck there and I do not see it emerging as a serious competitor to other companies in the space. It is loosing work to other competitors and this is hurting morale and the bottom line. Now that it has been acquired by an investment firm and is no longer public, layoffs are occurring rather rapidly, but they're being kept quiet. The people with knowledge (domain, proposal) are leaving the company to work elsewhere, so there's very little institutional knowledge.

It behaves like any other beltway contractor when you're an employee: no project, no work. SRA should drop the pretense that they're trying to build a 'company' based on employee loyalty and they should be straight forward with everybody. If you're not working at Fair Lakes, you are fair game to be laid off once your project ends...unless you're well protected by your friends within the company. Working at a client site makes you an outcast, but once you're in between projects you become a pariah...toxic and unwanted. Even people that once were loyal to you turn your back on you, and the sword of damocles dangles. This may be par for course with other contractors, but since SRA is not winning work at a pace fast enough to avoid you being put on the bench (which there is none), this is where I think it is failing. Once you quit, on your own, they try to retain you by making counteroffers and offering you stuff that you needed before (e.g., training) that simply wasn't there. I don't know how successful the new CEO will be trying to change the ingrained culture of SRA.

HR is a joke. A bad one. And IT is hopelessly stuck offering outdated technology under the guise of "protecting" the company. If you have a company provided laptop, with the standard WindowsXP (!) image, you're fine. If you work from a client site, using a client image, or if you try to do something from your home computer half of the websites don't work correctly.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop being dishonest to employees and be straight forward during the hiring process. Say "we're hiring you for this contract. If it ends, you're out unless you find something". SRA is too big to compete with small companies for staffing, and too small to compete with the big guns out there (i.e., SAIC, L3, BAH). Be the scrappy company you once were and foster employee loyalty by being more than another beltway contractor. Knowledge just leaves the company every 18 - 24 months. Do something about retaining the persons that can help you build the horizontals so you can compete. It's not completely about benefits: the quality of life within the company, the people you work with matter.

Completely overhaul HR and IT, specially IT. Workers are more mobile, more nimble nowadays. Stop treating them like idiot children.

Pros

Small group of people to work with on remote locations that contributes to build a close comradery among the consultants.

Cons

Too removed from the activities at the main campus with little off-site presence to provide support for activities outside of work.

Advice to Senior Management

Need to focus on education above and beyond that which is provided through in-house training courses so as to grow professionally.

Pros

Good avenue to enter the contracting industry

Cons

Salary is not as competitive as other companies

Pros

Smart people to collaborate with.
Established processes for quality control.
Nice campus, social and learning opportunities..
Good use of collaboration tools.
Great opportunities for training and mentoring.

Cons

Not a team player organization.
Changes in management, changes in personnel.
Once a project is complete they let you go.
Not virtual work - friendly.

Advice to Senior Management

Pay attention, get involved, make your people feel appreciated.

Pros

There are no good reasons to work for SRA. The only good thing about my time at the company was the other employees, but they all hated it and left too.

Cons

Total male-dominated culture. Nobody notices you're there until something goes wrong; then it's a scramble to find someone to blame. Compensation is low and their benefits are an expensive joke. It is impossible to get anything done without going through a dozen layers of bureaucracy. For example, my holiday hours were never correctly applied and showed a balance of 0 instead of 72 for the year. After I used 40, I showed a balance of -40. I emailed back and forth for months about this issue, and after I quit they claim I left with -32 hours. I didn't even use the full 72 for the year! In another instance, my raise didn't go into effect until about 4 weeks after I was told it would. Nobody in the organization knew how to communicate with anyone else.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop acquiring new companies until you learn how to manage your own. Start communicating with employees every once in a while.

Pros

SRA provides a very team-oriented, can-do, work environment which values employees contributions and skills. Managers make a concerted effort to reward good performance with both promotions, bonuses and informal recognition. Corporate support to employees at client sites can be uneven, depending upon the PM and business unit manager. Health, dental, and Vision plans are competative with other companies of its size. SRA prides intself on providing the best quality service to customers and this is reflected by client survey responses.

Cons

Careeer development is very weak. Although SRA provides some on-line training and limited classroom training, employees esssentially have to stay current on their own time and on their own dime. Support to employees in between ptojects is minimal and varies greatly from busienss unit to business unit. The new CEO recognises this and is making a concerted effort to remedy this weakness as well as others.

Advice to Senior Management

Lean forward with Mr. Ballhauses new intiatives and implement them the smart way--for bot the company and cusotmers.

Pros

Salary/Benefits are competitive.

Company encourages telecommuting where applicable.

Company has good health care benefits.

Company has a large presence in the D.C. Metro IT market.

Cons

Constant business re-alignments make for confusion. Communication to lower level management is very poor. Past four years have seen way too many reorganizations/changes.

Advice to Senior Management

Work on truly exhibiting the Honesty and Service ethic. Encourage open communication of re-alignment changes within the company.

Pros

Access and ability to work with Federal government

Cons

Larger company with many non-descript project opportunities

Advice to Senior Management

Increase the premium of the brand in the market place

Pros

Great Compensation
Good Benefits
Challenging Gov't Projects
Telecommunting Benefit

Cons

Management is Clueless and does not hear anything they don't want to.

Pros

Career advancement, good pay, being treated equally with respect

Cons

Benefits are not as good as it used to be

Advice to Senior Management

It's a good company