Pros
The best reasons to work at Woodward are a fairly good benefits package and relatively healthy job security. Woodward has a pretty nice health package, a bonus plan that pays out most of the time (2009's economic issues excepted), and a fair 401k match (4.5% to your 6%, and 5% WGOV stock). Additionally, this company prides itself on employees who have worked 25 years or more with the company. Woodward does do a fairly good job of trying to keep employees in bad times (Again, 2009 excluded) and in general because of the markets it is in does not have a lot of exposure to any one downturn. I enjoy working for Woodward overall.
Cons
Woodward is neither fast past, exciting, or efficient. Mobility is fairly limited as the positions up the corporate ladder tend to remain filled for long periods, or hired outside the company. These and other attributes are par for the course for large companies, and Woodward is no exception. Woodward's largest customers are very very large, and we model ourselves much like they do in terms of engineering speed and process inefficiencies. Additionally, every year or two the senior management has pushed forward some sort of reorganization of the management structure. The impacts are miminal except to the reporting stucture, but it is a concern that our sales structure seems to lack traction to succeed. Woodward tends to expand by purchasing other companies rather than organic growth of its own product lines. While in general it will treat the acquisitions well, Woodward will take its time fully integrating the company and the acquired persons may never feel fully integrated. Finally, if you are to work in the sales area, you'll find that Woodward lacks the resources to support new engineering projects more often than not. This can be frustrating when one realizes how much new business we turn away.