Pros
Great benefits, every other Friday off, fairly easy to follow work structure.
Cons
Way more cons than pros, hence the 1 star. Lets start with the management. It sucks and can make your life miserable. I had several managers over my years there, and you cannot hold them accountable for anything. You have a work from home arrangement with your prior manager? Well this one doesn't allow that. You work from 7am-3pm? Well this one requires 9am-5pm. Nothing is consistent and no prior arrangements are honored, usually. I had one manager honor all my past arrangements and he lasted all of 5 months. Next we can do the company culture. Never before have I seen such emphasis on inclusion and diversity to see the culture be the complete opposite. Many groups are established for black, Hispanic, disabled, LGBT, you name it. Then, you find out management is mostly a good ol' boys club with some pretty racist and sexist overtones. You can bring it up to HR, but they won't do anything unless you have some real damning evidence. If you lack that evidence, you'll also paint a target on your back. Basically the hypocrisy in middle management about implementing policies in made by upper management is laughable. Next is HR & Ethics. These groups mainly exist to protect the company and they don't care about you at all. If you are doing something, no matter how small and easily fixable it is, that could threaten the company, consider yourself on the way out. It is not unheard of for people to make anonymous claims to HR/ethics to get people fired. I've seen some older employees targeted because of small stuff, but they'll use whatever they can to terminate them. Lastly is the career opportunities and pay. The pay is par, at best, for your location. Most other DoD contractors in the area pay more, but most aren't willing to get you a clearance like Raytheon is. It is entirely common for people to get their clearances and start looking for another job, because you can get a 20% increase by moving across the street. For your own job advancement, it is less about how well you perform and more about how long you have been there. When I was up for promotion, the first questions were "You're over 30, right?" and "You have a masters, right?". It was less about my actual evaluation and more about my time in the company. So if you're a high performer and expect to be promoted accordingly, look elsewhere. At the end of the day, this company exists for people who like a lot of structure, red tape, and overwhelming bureaucracy. If you became an engineer to be creative and have some freedom in your product, this isn't for you. If you're looking to coast to retirement, this company is absolutely for you. Bare minimum and becoming a number are the way to do things around here for many.
