Layoffs, Pay Freeze, Federal Raids... That pretty much sums up the current state of CTC.
Pros
- Occasionally get to work on interesting and challenging projects - Decent pay (if you were hired back in the glory days) - Paid leave policy
Cons
I have worked at CTC almost 10 years, so I have seen first hand the steady decline over the past 6-7 years. The rate of decline will likely accelerate following yesterday's raid from federal agents. Employees coming into work found the roads blocked off and the parking lots filled with armed agents from the Defense Criminal Investigative Services, Air Force Office of Special Investigations, and the Criminal Investigation Division of the IRS. 600 employees sent home for the entire day. Depending what the agents find, this really could be the final nail in CTC's coffin. Over the past few years employees have seen health care plan costs skyrocket, retirement contributions cut in half, less and less contract awards, hundreds of employees laid off, and a company wide pay freeze. Of course, the pay freeze does not include leadership bonuses. CTC had 1,500 employees a few years ago, now it is somewhere between 900-1,000. Nearly all of the staff that gave CTC credibility as a tech company have left. The few that remain are mostly employees that have family ties in the area, actively looking for another job, or holding out hope for a layoff with severance. There is one other type of employee at CTC that will never leave... those are the employees that have climbed the ladder and failed in their management positions. When you fail at CTC as a manager or above, your title is demoted but not your pay. Most often those employees are demoted to the highest technical level, yet most have entry-level technical skills (or less). Promotions for deserving employees are almost unheard of now. This leads to a common situation where low to mid-level technical staff, who have virtually no hope for advancement, are required to do the work of the unqualified upper level technical staff who are making three times their salary. In my professional opinion, about 75% of the upper level technical staff at CTC would be unqualified to hold those positions at any other tech company. Working for CTC evokes similar feelings as watching a loved one suffer with a disease or old age. Half the company seems to be hoping for death the other half is hoping for a cure. I am one of the ones hoping for a cure, but each day it is becoming more and more apparent that CTC's illness is terminal.
