Great If You Are Non-Male &/or Non-White
Pros
- Decent pay. - If you like this sort of t thing, 9/80 work schedule (9 days work for 80 hours - work 9 hours per day minimum and get every other Friday off). - Even new grads get a minimum of 3 weeks (120 hours) of PTO, I believe right away, or after the 1st year of employment. - Large company with other Raytheon companies in the family, so there are endless opportunities to move around for different opportunities and even different locations.
Cons
- The first issue is that it is in Tucson. I am an Arizona native, so I am familiar with the whole state, and unfortunately, Tucson stinks. It is run down, dirty, trashy, and just depressing. Don't be fooled by the one or two areas that are nice, which are far from the RMS site, because it is both too far and too expensive, and you still have the rest of Tucson around you. - Now, for RMS...they are terrible about trading or teaching new hires about how things are done there. Many I have spoken to have admitted that this is an issue. They throw you into a program and the company without any guidance and you are expected to just figure it out. No support. Many of the people there have NEVER worked anywhere else (many started there before Raytheon bought Hughes) and they have no ability to imagine that there are better, more effective ways to do things. - Next, they are hiring so fast that they do not have room for people. I had a "lilypad" assigned to me (not a desk, but a corner near a conference room where a person would normally sit to wait for the conference room to clear out before your meeting). This would not be a big deal if it was ANYWHERE near my coworkers or program. I had a lily pad (remember, not a desk) assigned in a different building across the campus from where I was to work with others. This is not something that a few people experience; it is the norm. Almost all new employees will not have a place to work. It took me a full year to get a desk assigned to me in the same building as my colleagues, but not near them, as they were all clustered together but I was off across the building...but at least I was in the same building with a desk assignment. - Affirmative Action is strong with this one. You would expect that at any government contractor, but they are actively looking for ways to promote everyone oth re than white men to leadership positions. They had a meeting in each group to discuss what RMS can do to get more women and People of Color (POC) to apply to and to be given jobs over men and non-POC, defined as non-white. So a Vietnamese person is the same as a Cuban is the same as an African descendant...as long as you are female &/or non-white they are actively looking to move you up. That may be great for you. If you are female or a POC, take advantage of it. It isn't your fault that the door is opened, so go for it. But if this kind of thing bothers you as a principle, then know that it is there. Here is a perfect example of this for you. In my 10 years of being an engineer, I have learned that being a Chief Engineer is a big deal. You have to know your stuff, have lots of experience, and be an expert in your field. Chiefs are often synonymous with being a Fellow. These are technical gurus. I like learning from these Engineers. At RMS, there was a Chief Engineer that I worked directly with that was very young. This Chief was a female POC, and I assumed that she was a super-engineer because she was only about 32. Usually, Chiefs/Fellows have 25-30 years of engineering experience, so meeting someone so young made me think she must be a prodigy. Another engineer started recently that has 10 years experience like myself, and he remembered graduating with her. We were both impressed, until we started working with her. She wasn't any better or worse than anyone else with 10 years experience. Later, we found out the whole story. RMS wants to promote certain individuals over others, so while her pay-grade was th e same as ours, she had the ceremonial title of Chief Engineer with all of the unilateral decision making abilities Chiefs have. She did not have the experience equal to that of a Chief at most any oth we company, and it showed. - PTO stinks because you have no guaranteed vacation time. If you get sick, it comes out of the same bucket as your vacation. - The general climate of the people I worked with is that work and career is paramount while personal or family life is secondary. - Even when the Program Management for the program I worked asked for volunteers to telecommute to free up desk space, not just my "functional" management say no, but almost everyone I knew were told no, no matter what department they worked for. I understand that many of the other Raytheon companies are encouraging telecommuting, but for some reason, RMS is not wanting to accept that paradigm shift. - There are many other cons, but I have already written a book here.
