Boeing

Over the years, Boeing, like most companies, has started to cater to the millennial over the seasoned employee. It's as if the company is betting their entire future on what these new employees may be able to provide versus what the current employees do provide.

If you're in your 40s or above, your future is pretty much set in stone. Reaching a technical level 4 is probably it. Level 5s and above, as well as older level 4s, are always at risk of being tossed out due to the salary they're being paid. The company is trying to migrate to an average technical level somewhere between 3 and 4. Once you move from reviews that "exceed expectations" to ones that simply say "met expectations," you know your time is limited.

If you are willing to move into management, your future is wide open. Staying in a technical track will never keep pace with the management track when it comes to salary and bonuses. Bonuses on the management side are nearly double that of the technical side.

Side note: If you are female and/or a member of some sort of defined minority class, then more possibilities exist now and into the future. The problem the company has now, in my opinion, is people who probably shouldn't even work there are taking the management track, and it's starting to show in the decisions being made. Managers are rarely, if ever, put on the street for poor decisions but are simply moved to other areas "more fitting."

Recent contract wins for military items have increased the number of technical opportunities present, but you will work long hours with little to no overtime pay under a schedule that is not achievable. Your bonus will not make up for these long hours. Accolades will go to the management and exec levels at the expense of the technical levels. You will have to dial back your expectations of reality as well. Think you can get a project done in a year? No, better plan on three. And it will be way over budget. All of these things will be out of your control.

For the most part, your work will be judged on how well it looks in PowerPoint opposed to what actual contribution it has to the performance of the product or the bottom line. I've seen a number of technically bad ideas actually make it into a product. Some of the most basic engineering concepts are lost on a number of both new and seasoned employees. Questioning these ideas will only bring shame upon yourself unless you're willing to really stand up to them and call them out for the junk science they are. Most are not willing to do this and simply keep quiet, or leave the company.

Work output expectations from new hires are typically low. In fact, most expectations are low when it comes to new hires. Show up when you want, leave when you want. Don't want to work on something? That's OK, here's something more interesting. I'll have the seasoned engineers do your real work for you.

An 80% solution to a problem is OK because the company will just propose to fix the other 20% in the next contract proposal. Then do only 80% of that requirement. On and on and on. Now you know why a hammer costs the government a million dollars. Why fix a problem when there is more money to be made in prolonging the problem.

2019 will be the first year where the company has a tiered plan when it comes to medical cost deductions. The less pay you make, the less you pay in medical premiums. Some will pay nothing this year. They say the executive level will pay the most, but I seriously doubt that, as there are typically employment contracts which dictate nearly all exec perks. For a number of years, we had a no-cost HSA, but the deductibles kept creeping up. This year, we still have the high deductibles, but there are monthly deductions now.

If you want to have children, 2019 and beyond is the year to do so. Three months of paid time off along with 12 weeks of FMLA, as well as short and long-term disability pay if you want to go that route. I would expect you could have a child, take 3 months off, work on making another, and then in 9 months, take off again. Some people could do this a number of times and do little actual work all while getting full pay and bonuses. If your spouse works there, then these benefits apply to them as well.

If you make it 10 years at Boeing, you will find it very difficult to move away from the company and expect to make something close to what you were making. They have really skewed the salaries in the area. The pay is above average for the area, especially considering the tasks that some do for the pay they make. There is a lot of dead weight around the company that, for some reason, lives on. When they come through with the ax, it's not the fat they're trimming, it's just salaries.

Indecisive/bad management, few opportunities for the older generation.

Stop betting on the future and go with the employees who put you where you are.