General Atomics Reviews

Pros

Great work/life balance, staffed well, friendly co-workers, 401k with match up to 8% (4% added over that by employer), and a pension on top of it. Benefits like free company gyms all over San Diego, good cafeterias, and even a GA pool near Torrey Pines.

Cons

Because of the work/life benefits, pension, etc people rarely leave. That results in few places to advance in some departments like project management and engineering, due to the number of employees competing.

Pros

Good healthcare benefits, some potentially interesting projects.

Cons

*Standard pay raise in 2022 is 5% points behind CPI in San Diego. *Post vaccine availability, company officially stopped any WFH as management has stated they don't trust engineers to get their work done. Opposition to 9/80 for years prior for the same reason, only relenting summer of 2022 because of high attrition and employee dissatisfaction. *Three layoffs in the last 18 months. *Lots of R&D projects that don't go anywhere. *Company reorgs every year or so. *Salaried, but also responsible for charging at least 40 hours a week to a customer. One person will be loaded up with 60-70 hours of work (while only getting compensated for 40) and down the hall someone else is forced to use vacation time because their management doesn't have 40 hours of work for them and overhead is "too tight".

Pros

Privately held: Almost run like a non-profit with huge investment in IRAD and ability to fund decisions and actions that would be unthinkable in publicly traded companies. Market leader: Market is cornered domestically and a significant head start on most competitors globally 9/80 work schedule Company truly cares about its employees (evidenced by a severe avoidance of layoffs whereas other companies would have done multiple layoff events)

Cons

Company culture of Engineers playing in their sandbox and cost doesn't matter. The company really is a bunch of Engineers playing (and actually making cool stuff) and they just happen to make aircraft that sometimes they sell for a profit. There are a lot of people that have grown up in GA and continue to think that what made the company grow 15-20 years ago is what should continue to be done today.

Pros

* I've experienced a pretty healthy work balance. But it can very much depend on your program, for programs that are behind schedule and over budget it can be awful. * Pension and decent benefits. * Job security. I've never personally seen or heard of anyone getting fired for poor performance, only misconduct. Layoffs are pretty much non existent. * If you're a good engineer it's pretty easy to stand out and be recognized. Though it's not necessarily going to be reflected in your paycheck. * Depending on your program you may be able to work from home a few days a week. Not clear if this will be permanent change yet.

Cons

* Tech stack terribly out of date. Refuse to use modern tools, frameworks, and development practices in favor of in-house tools that are just awful. * Painful and archaic software development process. If you want to work somewhere agile run far, far, away! * Practically no automated testing or CI/CD. * The experience you gain will have little relevance outside of other large defense contractors. * There is a good chance you will spend more time dealing with bureaucracy and red tape, writing emails, and dealing with terrible issue tracking tools than actual writing software. * Software Engineers end up doing more System Engineering than the actual System Engineers. * IT and DevOps support for software is practically non existent. Current "security" measures make life hell for developers. * Good Software Engineers either end up leaving or going into management. There are little incentives to stay on the technical route compared to other companies. * Your pay will most likely slightly below average and way below some of the big tech companies. * Upper management is oblivious to all of the above.

Pros

Company does not layoff often. Executive leaders really do try to avoid those. Giving 4 stars due to stability of employment. But how happy you'll be at GA-ASI depends a lot on who you are and what you value in your company. Access to lots of info, if you take the effort. Even if you're a number cruncher, you can get on the mfg floor and see what GA-ASI builds or talk to Engineering. Lots of changes in company processes you can get involved in (not necessarily modernizing, though)

Cons

Slow promotion opportunities in PM if you don't get into the right circles or the right manager. Can feel like you get stuck. Pay is falling g behind other companies Old-school mindset in the top leadership. Slow to adopt things that are more common in other aircraft mfg companies. From workforce things like remote work, equal pay / opportunities for women to top level planning and organization identity

Pros

GA's EMS Group provides a technical environment to work on some of the most technologically advanced products and capabilities in the defense industry. The diversity of industries and technology offerings gives flexibility to work with strong engineering teams and contributors. The potential to influence the future of emerging technologies is exciting.

Cons

GA's EMS Group Senior leadership does not delegate and empower effectively and is not fully leveraging the business, technical and project management capabilities effectively.

Pros

Worked at GA for over 15 years. Great benefits. Stable employment.

Cons

Management killed this company. Took the best of the talent and ideas and suffocated them. Could have been a killer company that would have been a better than Boeing. Management killed it. People with amazing skills and talents that would have made a success out of anything they did - but they killed all of that at the management process level. Sad story that is repeated all the time. Managers driving a company into being bankrupt. Lazy fat parasitic people that kill all the great things in a company and demand huge salaries and do nothing to contribute to the bottom line.