Pros
1) It's an isolated part of Orange County-- your former co-workers and potential future employers and co-workers won't see you driving to work here! (You just need to figure out something to substitute on your resume when you leave here, as I guarantee you will if your IQ is above 95). 2) You can use 5% of your brain capacity and still keep your job, and probably be considered a high performer. It's a great place to get a paid rest while you prepare for and plan out the rest of your career. (Don't stay more than a year doing this, though!). Not for the newly graduated though--you won't get any useful experience here, and a pretty significant resume stain early in your career. 3) If you are an African American: Number one stated management goal each year is not to develop new products, increase profitability, or expand markets, it is specifically to hire more "people of color" (read: African Americans) and more women. They haven't filled their Government-dictated quota. If you are a black woman engineer, they will role out the carpet, provide a huge bonus, and huge salary for you. In fact, give you anything you want. So you may want to consider if this is you. Of course, Google will probably do the same, so what would you need this rat hole for. (However, If you do meet this requirement, you CAN get paid a full salary here and be promoted regularly, while the requirement for actually showing up physically for work is strictly an option.)
Cons
The main workforce including the management are the low performers and n'er do wells that were left over when Hughes sold out to Raytheon (the bright engineers and management were all long gone by the early to mid-90s). Even in it's heyday, this particular division was considered the black sheep of Hughes (low tech). HR, which is the usual bunch of 30-ish know-nothings, continually endeavors to hire top quality engineers under the storyline that they are involved in advanced development and Raytheon needs and has top tier engineering personnel. But this is a well constructed lie, and the few quality engineers who do join are usually stunned at what they find, and within a short time are running to get the hell out ASAP in order to mitigate serious career damage. Morale is the worst I've seen in any company. It's as close to the night of the living dead as one could imagine. The building interiors are dreadful and haven't been painted or re-carpeted in decades. I was there a short time and within a week or two was out looking for a new position. Too bad one really can't sue in California for "Hiring under false pretenses", local law offices would be having a field day. Strangely though, the rest of Raytheon isn't that bad from what I could see, and actually has an aggressive management and some highly competent engineers. It's just Fullerton, which the rest of Raytheon tends to view as a leper colony. Avoid this place like the plague, unless you absolutely have no other choices, or as I said above, want a paid vacation while you re-tool on your own for another career or another company.
