Boeing

• Above average pay and great insurance.
• Very easy to work flex time/take time off, depending on your manager, of course.
• Cool products.
• Lower-level/group management is generally very competent and tends to take care of their direct reports.
• Despite the typical "union" attitude of some shop workers, the union workforce is very competent and good at what they do, and they save engineers' butts more often than anyone will admit.

The company is very Baby Boomer heavy, and not many are retiring. This means there are few opportunities for new hires, and you may get stuck in menial jobs for a while. I think this will hurt the company in the long run, because people like me are tired of wasting their time and are actively looking for jobs at competitors. So, once the Boomers start retiring, there will be a shortage of experienced people to pick up the slack.

The company is being hit fairly hard with government spending cuts and pressure from 787/747-800 schedule slips, so there is very little "overhead" budget or company-funded programs right now.

Because of the budget crunch, many "development-oriented" functions like aerodynamics, propulsion, and avionics are almost at the stage of laying people off due to a lack of work or budget to support them.

Middle-level management (department managers and up) are hit or miss as far as competence. I think the department managers are good at their jobs, but there are way too many upper-level managers who work in bureaucratic positions between the execs running the company and the managers supporting the programs. This muddies up everything.

The company has not won a major US government contract since the MDC merger. If we don't win a major contract in five years, the IDS division will probably be bought by Northrop or LM by 2020.

We need to cut down on mid-level bureaucracy and find ways to fund internal development. This will allow us to cultivate the talent the company will need to win a major contract or two for new systems, ensuring we can stay in business.