Pros
Depending on where you are and the team you’re on, Raytheon can have a small company feel. Teams can become very close. The work is challenging and provides a sense of purpose.
Cons
Raytheon keeps coming up with new changes to make working there not worth it. Salary is no longer competitive with other companies. Depending on the group and your manager you will never get more than a merit raise. Benefits are awful. This company has the worst 401k match of any company I’ve ever known and they really try to make it seem like it’s a great offer. Medical benefits are also high deductible only and will keep getting worse every year. The company does not believe in rewarding hard work, they believe in rewarding niceness. Leadership in this company is some of the worst I’ve ever experienced in my career. Management is so concerned about “personal brand” and not offending anyone that they will let people who are HORRIBLE at their job remain in their position while continuing to try to train them on knowledge they should have but can’t retain. This puts a lot of strain on other employees as it causes them to have to pick up slack for extreme under performers with zero recognition. I know I’ve put in many, many 12-16 hour days trying to clean up bad work and hold the hands of these employees while management does nothing or continues to try to be overly delicate. Now that Raytheon has merged two existing midrange levels in the organization, those people who fell in the lower of the two pay grades will have to wait years longer to be considered for promotion and, as mentioned before, will not receive any considerable raises in the meantime. Raytheon also will not give a merit increase to match inflation in areas that have experienced significant cost of living increases suddenly after covid. I was told by management since they were “allowing” me to work remote that I could just leave my home and move to a different state because it wasn’t the company’s problem that the cost of living in the town which I resided even before hire increased by 25% in one year. I was offered a suggestion to quit or move to another team because moving to another team would allow me to negotiate higher pay. I had started my career with this company in a town where, when I started, the pay matched the cost of living in the area, we lost a contract and I was forced to move into a different group in a more expensive city. I offered to move to the city and was told no because they didn’t want to give me a cost of living increase. Then after covid, the cost of living in the town I reside increased to match that city and management refused to give an inflation increase while encouraging me to look elsewhere for employment. I asked what I could do to earn a significant increase and was given no direction. Also note if you work from home, you will work far more hours than you ever did working in the office. Management is out of touch with actual time it takes to complete tasks and gives unrealistic deadlines while piling on more work. On a weekly basis you never know what your daily schedule will look like. I’ve worked 9-5, 9-10, 9-5 and then would have to take care of other home responsibilities and would work 10-2 or 3 AM. This was a very regular occurrence. If you work from home with this company you are basically on call and will never have a life outside of work. One year ago, under my old group, I would have given the company 4 stars. Now I’m only giving it 2. Don’t work out of the Aurora office if you can avoid it. They are very out of touch with best practices in the industry and behind most other groups in the organization.