Boeing

The benefits are good: free/cheap medical, pension, 100% education cost, and a laid-back working environment. You can tag along without working too hard, just 9 to 5.

Expect a 2 to 5% raise every year as long as you don't screw up badly. Expect profit sharing as a percentage of your salary: everyone gets the same % as long as he doesn't screw up badly.

Job Security: The government is the only buyer for defense projects. If the contract is lost or over, you are out of luck and might be offered a transfer to, say, New Mexico.

Lack of Passion: In defense, there are many engineers who are too complacent and unmotivated to make any effort to better their work. They may have years of experience, but it's years of sitting around and being complacent. Every project has two or three excellent engineers, but they eventually get tired of the rest of the deadwood.

Big Company Issues: Internal competition and finger-pointing with other groups and sites on the same project.

Compensation: It seems the older you are, the more you get paid. Working hard doesn't increase your salary as fast or as much as you think.

Union: Some union employees won't work a minute extra to help you. They are very hard to deal with if you want to get something done fast.

There's really no incentive for them at all. I think they are in the same 9-to-5 mentality as the rest of the workforce. Senior management needs to have some incentives to get off their butts.