Pros
Excellent 401k plan and low cost employee contributions for benefits (medical, dental etc.).
Cons
The "BAE Systems - EI&S (McLean, VA) formerly known as BAE Systems - Information Technology has been changing benefits along with other BAE Systems business units to reach a uniform standard, this means someone loses something and possibly someone gains. This business unit employees previously received 5 weeks of leave annually (personal leave and sick days combined) and just lost one week permanently. It is likely other employees in other business units received less time and now there is a standard of four weeks of leave among all business units. These changes are "sold" as the result of company surveys and needed to remain competitive. This loss of leave lessens the incentive for employee retention. These changes could have applied to new employees and been grand-fathered for current employees. Your "job title" may not accurately describe the actual work you are providing at the customer location. Your pay grade also means little in the sense you can easily compare job vacancies should your desire a transfer to another contract or business unit. Each contract negotiates different salary ranges for the pay grade level. So if your a labor grade 'X" and you think you see a position that interests you on another contract that also has a labor grade "X" in your particular job description, you could be discourage from seeking to transfer because you would need to accept a salary reduction for the other position. There is no uniform standard for salary ranges by labor grade as it will vary by each contract. You are considered a salary employee only for job offer purposes but treated as hourly for time-sheet and benefit purposes. Most employees work at their customer offices and if you can't get to work for government closures (read snow storms in Washington, DC metro area) you do not get paid. You are expected to use your personal leave balance to get paid on your time-sheet for the days you missed work (cannot charge your time to the government contract). You may or may not be able to make up the lost hours depending on the government managers decision if there is work to be done outside your normal working hours. This company unit does not manufacture anything, it provides skilled IT employees to work on contracts primarily at customer locations. Contract billable hours represent the income stream. Without you being billable to a contract there is no need / sense in retaining your services. Over the last five years, many middle level and up managers have left the company and individuals outside the company are hired to replace them. This actions virtually eliminates any internal promotions for low and mid-level managers. Several of the higher level management positions have gone to retired government managers who were senior in their positions. The expected "hope" as with most other defense contractors is that these individuals will bring new business to the company from their inside knowledge and point of contacts. The results over the last five years have not been fruitful! A recent trend.....is surrendering their leadership position. The goal of most companies in this business is to be the "prime" contractor, fill the positions with your employees and earn contract bonuses or award fees for exceptional performance. BAE-IT used to be good at doing this until the new management decided to not re-compete for the prime contractor position when several contracts expired. Rather, they decided to become sub-contractors to their competitors thus giving away the hard work performed by the employees to have been able to win the former prime contractor status and award fees. This surrender-ship offers less revenue to the company and fewer opportunities for the current employees. The new prime contractor slowly inserts their employees into any new positions or positions lost through attrition (resignations / terminations/ transfers) until all their people are in place. Employee training used to be highlighted by HR but oversold. You were expected to attend company training courses after working hours on your free time. For many employees, this is a great dis-advantage if you have a long commute from your home to your customer work location and then try to reach the corporate offices with Washington area metro traffic :) In fairness, the company is providing the instructor, course material and the facility to host the meeting. The company does offer some CBT and online study materials. Don't expect to attend any 3rd party vendor training during normal work hours except in exceptional cases. You will need internet access from home with cable modem speeds to complete your time-sheets and other company communications. You won't be able to do this from customer locations or at least for the vast majority of employees.