Disconnect from upper management, for most part it seemed like upper management (executives) would just do things without consulting engineers.
To continue off that point there seems to be some cognitive dissonance in the executive staff. They all gave a great speech to the co ops and interns about how they would only work at a company whose culture and values matched their own. They then promptly fired a bunch of people with no warning and forcibly escorted them from the building, some of these people had worked for the company 10+ years and were close to requirement. I don't think that speaks very highly of what the c suite's cultures and values are.
In a lot of ways this company is stuck in 90's in terms of practices when it comes to the software side of things and business practices.
The co op program really needs work. It is not bad and I really liked how much freedom is given to co ops to complete their tasks. However, a co op's experience is also supposed to include continued learning beyond hard technical skills. This is a chance for students to learn how to operate in the professional world. Whether or not a student gets this experience depends entirely on who their mentor/direct supervisor is. I got very luck and was given a good balance of guidance and freedom. But other co ops seemed to get a lot less from their mentors and were in some cases, left without any help from the person that was supposed to be their mentor.
