Boeing

The best reasons to work at Boeing are the overall benefits/compensation package. Boeing offers excellent health care, an impressive 401K match, paid overtime, the best education assistance in the business, and very good job security.

The aerospace/defense industry is definitely a niche industry to be in; however, not all engineering jobs at Boeing have to do with aerospace. Boeing is definitely a massive company.

There are a lot of interesting projects to work on, and some really cool technology to work with. One nice thing about Boeing is the ability to cross over into different careers and get exposure to the rest of the company. You can also work in many different cities, which is a nice flexibility.

The work history behind most long-time Boeing employees is very impressive and interesting due to the large amount of technical diversity in the company.

Most engineers at Boeing can basically work how they want and dress any way they want. You're not bound to working specific hours, although this isn't always the case in all programs. Working virtually is allowed by some managers, but varies greatly depending on the group you're in.

Many managers are very much engaged in fostering the development of their employees. You have an annual meeting with your manager to measure your strengths and areas of improvement, and to chart your future goals within the company. If you're highly motivated to excel, your manager will help chart you a path to get where you want.

Well, there's a list actually.

1. The pay at Boeing is usually about 15-20% less than what you could get at Microsoft, Yahoo, or Google. Granted, you are paid for overtime, so at the end of the year you're really paid the same. Unless, of course, you're babysitting some old legacy software and never work an hour of overtime (there are people like that at Boeing).

2. Boeing is not a place to be at if you're trying to climb the corporate ladder quickly. This is an old-style, industrial/military-oriented company. Your upward progression in this company will be at a snail's pace, unless you're absolutely brilliant and solve world hunger.

3. Promotions and raises are flawed. Because of the unions at Boeing, you're too protected and normalized with the rest of your peers. For example, there are people who cool their heels on their desk and are absolutely not productive at all and they get a 4% raise. However, if you bust your butt and work really hard, you'll manage to get a 4.5% raise. I swear I've seen many people sleeping at their desk at work.

4. The most irritating thing about Boeing management is how they are decades behind current industry standards and modern concepts. It's definitely an old man's company. Most of the engineers you see are gray, balding, and pushing retirement. There's not enough young blood to come in and take over the domain knowledge of the business. As such, there's a complete lack of respect and disregard for younger talent. Young people coming out of college and grad school with fresh ideas and concepts are basically treated like idiots. Because of this, there's an enormous amount of young employee turnover, because there are better companies out there with a fresher and more vibrant corporate culture. If you can manage to stay at Boeing long enough for these dinosaurs to retire, you'll finally get a chance to bring processes up to the 21st century.

Jim McNerney takes Six Sigma too far. He's only interested in the short-term gain for the shareholders (and his own salary), and he makes incredibly blunt and short-sighted decisions for future growth and business opportunities.