4/10 (or even 9/80 as the rest of the defense is) is a double edged sword: it's great that you have a consistent schedule and work hours, but you need to keep track of your work down to 6 minute increments. What this means you will basically always work 40 hours (overtime only when close to deadlines) so it's more relaxed than other industries but it also means you can't just go home early on some days (you'll need to use PTO to do so). And again, you gotta keep track of your time which is tedious and annoying to do Because it's nearly always classified work, you gotta work in classified labs which means no phones and a bunch of rules and regulations The ultimate objective (protecting the US) is awesome, but your direct work actually can be pretty mundane and boring at times. You need to put the time and effort in and prove yourself (and wait for new contracts) to get placed on the really cool work (but you could argue any large company will be like this) Defense can be pretty behind compared to industry standards, especially in software (BUT Lockheed is actually more modern than other defense companies haha). An aerospace/mechanical engineer will be doing top of the line work, electrical engineer maybe, but software will most likely not (it is there but its in R&D and you gotta prove yourself to be placed on that)
