Boeing

Benefits are good, and pay is decent.

It is a good place for those soon to retire. Plus, once hired, it's pretty much a guaranteed job.

The work can be very easy, so those with families can go home without anything on their mind.

In software, Boeing recruiting cannot compete with Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and the other software giants with offices near Seattle.

They start off with the leftovers, which luckily have some diamonds in the rough. These "diamonds," along with any talent, leave the company within 1-3 years.

It's a breath of fresh air to finally meet someone that knows what he is talking about, but then devastating to see him go 6 months later.

Boeing isn't a software company, so an appropriate comparison is with Bank of America, with their 1 million lines of COBOL. Boeing has less COBOL, but it's common to see very, very, very old languages. Join this company if you like time travel.

Boeing has a level hierarchy and believes anyone can transfer to completely different jobs while maintaining his or her level. Combined with the restriction from asking technical questions during an interview, this leaves unqualified individuals, with excellent flattery abilities, leading the organization.

I had two software managers: one was formerly an HR manager and the other was a sales manager because, at Boeing, managers can move horizontally across completely unrelated business units. Managing is always the same, right?

It gets better when working with the software architect who is an English major.

It's difficult, if not impossible, to do anything the right way. The decision makers and those advising the decision makers are usually the weakest technically. Plus, they can't expose their incompetence, so they never ask questions. No engineer wants to create a bad product, though, so a lot of time is spent explaining things to these decision makers.

This leads me to something I almost forgot: time tracking. Boeing has a modern version of the punch card; they added the ability to charge to different groups and an alert system to notify managers of "noncompliance." An example will explain how bothersome this is:

You go to your manager asking to explain something. She asks you to pause as she switches her time card to reflect this informal meeting. Then asks you to do the same, and you reply with what to charge to. Now, as you explain to her, you have to read her eyes to pry what she still doesn't understand. After that meeting, you go back to your desk and change the time card again, satisfied with the great explanation, only to find an e-mail 5 minutes later asking for a summary of the meeting. Now you have to switch your time card again, write up the summary, and switch once again upon completion.

I've described many cons, but overall, Boeing isn't a terrible company.