BAE Systems USA reviews

Our customers have low expectations, and so do we. The focus is always on the one next thing, never on creating something sustainable or lasting. Constant crisis mode is the norm. Serious cases of reinventing the wheel abound. Management is penny-wise, pound-foolish. IT is a joke and they buy inadequate hardware for their Ph.Ds and Engineers. Upper management is terrible at communication or appreciating the money we bring in. Last year after we exceeded our targets they effectively cut everyone's wages by 10%, stopped offering comp time and swapped to a terrible insurance company to save the company money. They don't seem to realize they compete for engineers with other software companies, not just the defense sector. You will end up doing work above your pay grade. Everything is constantly under-staffed, and they don't fire people who don't pull their weight. Your choices are watching a project fail or busting yourself to see it succeed in exchange for a pat on the back. Every promotion is simply a recognition of work someone is already doing. It does mean that if you want a promotion you can just start doing the job; in a couple of years the title change will probably happen. There is too little team lead and architecture experience to support the algorithm development. Most people have been at the company for less than 5 years. Office politics can get messy. It helps to have thick skin, a suspicious mind and a healthy ego.

Politics everywhere. I was an employee at three different physical locations, all filled with disgruntled employees who wouldn't do their jobs. Several other employees and I would be burdened with all the burden, but I would get to work. IT, in particular, is rife with people who do nothing. Management will lie through their teeth if it means they can keep stringing you along to work harder without compensation. They have an impact award, designed for going above and beyond, but it is often used instead of paying employees for overtime pay. This would be fine except you generally get paid significantly less than what your salary would be. When placing boundaries with management after an internal Shakespeare's of I need to be notified at least a week before coming in for an entire weekend, I got met with hostility. Then, a made-up scenario that sent me to HR was disingenuous and portrayed me as flying off the handle and losing my temper when the manager was screaming at me for asking a simple question: Are we upgrading these computers to a particular OS? There are way too many managers telling everyone what to do constantly, you could do with 1/4 the amount of managers and twice the workers.