Boeing

I'm a 24-year-old Software Engineer, and I have been employed here for 2 years. Education and work-life balance are the sure reasons to work for Boeing. They will subsidize any education you can think of. I took Culinary Arts from the Art Institute, and the company paid for it. I am now taking Japanese and Italian, and the company paid for it. It's a great place to work if you want to continue your education and have time during your workday to study if needed.

We get 80 hours of vacation, which I turn into many, many days off since we are allowed to flex our schedules. You can turn a 5-day workweek into a 4-day workweek by working four 10-hour days and then take the one vacation day to make it into a 5-day weekend. I've done this many times, and my boss has no problem with it.

Many of my coworkers have families, and luckily, Boeing is very flexible in working from home or changing your work hours to pick up your kid from school or if there is an emergency. Just alert everyone you're in contact with, give them a cell phone number to call you at, and work when you can.

The company moves very slowly when it comes to change. Moving data, changing servers, acquiring software – everything.

If you want something done, you essentially need to babysit the task; otherwise, it will be in someone's email for weeks. Everything has to go through multiple change boards, which usually meet once a week. So, if you are lucky, extremely lucky, it will be done in two days. Otherwise, you are looking at two weeks if it is of dire importance!

If your task is not of high priority or has a workaround, it will be put off for a while since everyone else has a million things that need to get done now.

Don't expect to become wealthy by working at Boeing. Work until you are tired of the benefits.

Leadership isn't based on talent; it's based on experience. Sometimes this is okay, but most of the time, this is bad. Luckily, my manager is great, but other people in my organization definitely have the manager from Office Space. Some of the best people to work with at Boeing aren't the management staff. They are either right in the cubicle next to you or the ones that acquire the software/hardware you need.

Most of them get tired of the constant debating that goes on in management, so they stay as far away as possible.

I lucked out and happen to be here for the start of a leadership forum and training in my organization. I want to move up, and this seems to be the only way to really get exposure to the higher-ups.

Unfortunately, most of these programs are in their infancy, which leaves them very unorganized and open for modification. I'm hoping that I can learn from the best as quickly as possible; otherwise, I am just wasting my time here.

Everyone is going to retire in the next 10 years! You had better change the Boeing image and way of business to appeal to a younger generation, otherwise this company is going to tank, and I definitely will not have my entire 401k and pension based off of that.