Embarrassing front line and mid level leadership
Pros
Aerospace is an exciting industry if you like high tech work.
Cons
My Raytheon experience related to my career was nearly entirely negative. Hard work and accomplishment was almost never recognized. If you weren't military or ex-military there are few to no opportunities for growth. I experienced a tremendous amount of what I can only call lazy and / or unqualified front line managers. To be successful at this company you have to be willing to never question anything, go with the flow and be a yes man. Anyone who stands tall is cut down like a blade of grass. Qualifications rarely appeared to be a requisite for promotion or even hiring. I saw so many people doing little to no work for years with no accountability. At the same time I saw very high quality people stagnate. In the area I worked leaders seemed to promote people based on who questioned or threatened them the least. Building great teams was tertiary to self preservation and ensuring there is no accountability. Everyone is too busy putting out fires to step back and develop bigger picture plans to avoid fires in the first place. For a global company Raytheon is very tolerant of poor quality talent. I would never recommend anyone that is intelligent, ambitious, qualified, hard working or dedicated to consider working at this company. I regret having suggested to colleagues to work for this embarrassingly poorly managed business. The poorly qualified manager I reported to combined with a stacked ranking system has bred a culture of mediocrity and self preservation. The harder you work the more work you will get and no commiserate recognition for contributions. All around the leadership I reported to within the engineering function should be ashamed at the level of non compliance they allow the bottom of the organization to exhibit for the real goals they set forth to direct the business. It really is amazing.