Boeing

• Great pay
• Good health care package
• Generous 401K matching
• Flexible work schedule (telecommuting, time-flexing)
• Learning Together program pays for aerospace-related education
• Formal and informal mentoring
• Great career advancement opportunities (for middle management)

If you are excited about developing new technology, if you are more interested in engineering than paperwork, if you are young and passionate, this place is not for you.

BSS used to be Hughes, which was a non-profit and once produced high-quality, cutting-edge technology, where no expense was spared, and engineers were deeply invested in the product. Now, under the Boeing model, BSS outsources everything, leaving only integration activities at the site. Cost reduction, lean manufacturing (terrible for custom-built spacecraft), and meeting scheduled milestones are now the most important metrics.

Innovation is killed because:

• Outsourcing has led to the gradual loss of technical expertise, where activities shifted from in-house knowledge to managing subcontractors.
• The employees are on average old "grey beards" who protect what knowledge they have to retain employment and command ever-higher salaries.
• Programs are so desperate to produce value in the form of profit that old, proven designs are propagated, and new designs are ignored because of their poor short-term investment return.
• It is impossible to fire anyone, meaning that lazy, incompetent engineers remain, creating a culture that embraces the path of least resistance, i.e., "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."

In addition, Boeing has too much management. It is the opposite of a flat management model. I have never seen so many levels of management. Everyone in charge of anything is so busy protecting their own "turf" that the bigger picture—actually making awesome satellites—is ignored. The organization is too big, too slow to react, too afraid to be daring, too old, too focused on the wrong set of goals.

• Abandon the Boeing outsourcing model. You are gradually losing technical expertise, as well as control over how your satellites are made.

• A short-sighted focus on immediate returns is misguided. It is not sustainable, particularly in terms of quality.

• Adopt more flexible employment practices. Union workers (technicians) are here to stay. Salaried engineers, however, should be expected to work hard and prove their worth. Ineffective engineers should be purged and replaced.

• Invest in R&D.