Pros
The best reason to work at Lockheed Martin is that we have a direct impact on the success of armed forces. Our products are used in the global war on terror everyday and they often times are determines whether or not a soldier returns from battle unharmed. There is a great sense of pride in the products we make and the customers we serve and this can be seen from upper management down to the shop floor assembler. Another great reason to work at Lockheed Martin is that in most cases if you are willing to work hard, you can get noticed and rewarded for your efforts. Lockheed Martin is a great place to be for an engineer due to the state of the art products being designed and built as well as the network of 100,000 engineers at LM.
Cons
The main downside to working at Lockheed Martin is the compensation. Despite holding 3 masters degrees and working 70-80 hours per week for the past 2 years, I will still just get a 4 to 5 percent raise this spring. Most people at Lockheed Martin are clock punchers and really have no aspirations to advance their careers. Despite this fact, I continue to work very hard only to be rewarded with an additional 1% or 2% in yearly merit raises. Another downside to Lockheed Martin is that management is slow to promote young people even if they are qualified and work harder than their older counterparts. The culture at Lockheed Martin suggests that you have to have been here forever to know what you are talking about and thus get ahead.
