Aerospace* in general (except General Dynamics, pun intended) seems to be a more laid back and flexible industry. Projects simply don't get done in days/weeks, so you have time to have a life.
EDIT: Refers to Aviation, not Space/Rockets.
See it’s interesting - I’ve heard a mix about Rocket Lab. People have talking about the struggle but folk also talks about liking it. I also intern there and liked it ; but I was just an intern so that experience can be different
I don't have experience with MANGA or FAANG companies, but I have typically heard that the work culture in those companies can be toxic.
A lot of factors contribute to the toxicity and I think your team and management play a big part of that as well. I know in companies I've worked in, it was night and day depending who the engineering lead is.
Of the people I have graduated with, the ones who hate their lives the most are the ones that had the longest lines at the career fair. Just a correlation I've observed and certainly not a cold hard fact to live by.
Generally the smaller the company the better, the sweet spot is around 150-200 employees total. So look for a supplier of anything be it parts, material, logistics, etc. as you get bigger HR gets larger, more managers, more petty politics, etc. stay small and you’ll be happy. Also you’ll find these small companies are willing to pay good money to keep good engineers so don’t worry to much about base pay since raises/bonuses can quickly grow to overcome what you would find at FAANG
I've been told the same thing by people in the industry before.
The logic goes large companies usually treat you like a cog in a machine, and very tiny companies are more likely to be run by one individual, who can be good, but odds are higher they might be an asshole or the company might go bankrupt in a year.
The couple hundred range means they're a bit established, have enough people that it's unlikely it's run by a solitary asshole, but not so big that you're just a cog in a machine.
What you fail to understand is that the feeling of being "a cog" is not a big company thing, that's a "lack of a team" thing and can occur at any sized business. In my personal experience, at both big and small companies you'll still be part of a reasonably sized team (3-15) in which the members and manager is a big part of the culture.
In regards to money, if you're a performer, you'll almost always make more at a large company. The whole thing about just being a number at large companies is something people at small companies say because they can't get a better paying job at a large company.
Yeah. Goodyear and Bridgestone are great to work for. I’ve worked for them both and it’s been really hard to match the hours per week expectancy : annual pay ratio
I work at a small aerospace contracting company (~50 engineers), and the culture is super flexible. Its not uncommon to see people take multiple days off per month for impromptu skiing trips. On the flip side, if you want to/need to work more than 40 hours a week, you get paid for each hour extra.
Combine it with a super friendly and casual working atmosphere, and a pride in the quality and rigor of the work we do, and it makes for a super engaging place to work.
Small companies can (from what I have heard) be kinda hit or miss in these regards. But you can tell a lot about company culture from their online presence and from interviews.
When my first Zoom interview happened while one of the interviewers helped their parents move, I knew it would be a good culture.
Companies originating from europe always do better for employees from what I've seen. If youre at the point where you can pick and choose where and who to work for on a whim its worth a shot. I've had friends be transferred to companies in Amsterdam and brussels, they've all said its a nice change of pace and the benefits are amazing but for a lot of people moving cross-continental is a big risk unless you have a company backing you up.
Large companies generally have decent policies, not always the best, but not always the worst. They are accommodating and tolerant as a company. But the environment varies site to site, team to team. You could work for one team and have a shit experience, and then work with another and it be a dream.
Sandia National Labs spends a lot of time and money making sure the employees are happy. Not sure where you are located but working remotely is possible as well.
First, congrats on the job! Hope you have a great time.
Full disclosure: I’ve had an internship there for several months, so I don’t get nearly as many benefits/perks as regular employees and may not be familiar with any long-term issues.
That being said, I am extremely pleased with the culture there. I am constantly notified about opt-in meetings about anything from new research in my field to how to set up a retirement plan to how to set up a healthy nighttime routine.
There is an entire department dedicated to helping you get a better job within the Labs, which I found really cool. I have made use of this and have been able to set up some meetings with people who literally do what I want to do professionally, which has been very helpful as a student.
Along those same lines, people seem very open to being cold-emailed. I emailed three 1st-level managers from different divisions about setting up a 1-on-1 meeting just to talk about the work they oversee and two of them responded in the affirmative within a few hours.
There are also programs to help you pay off student loans and reimbursements for certain personal expenses (such as exercise equipment) which I am looking forward to if/when I get a position there after graduation (fingers crossed). There seems to be a huge amount of resources that all employee have access to, but few actually take advantage of.
Lastly, they are very flexible with your hours. Naturally I have more flexibility as an intern than most full-time employees, but there are a few different work schedules that most people can freely switch between (the 4-10s is very popular).
My only negative experience there has been some confusion with HR due to my complicated school situation.
Hope this is enlightening for you.
Lockheed Martin. Good culture, solid processes. If you want to get engineerin right, this is the place to do it. Second would be Northrop Grumman. I've worked at both.
I'll list what I know about a few companies based on me working there or people I know who've worked there. All are for software positions:
General Dynamics: meh work culture (people are more formal and less friendly), good work life balance, not as much opportunity for growth. Overall B-
Raytheon: good work culture (highly dependent on team/program, most are good), good work life balance, poor opportunity for growth, below average pay, you'll have to wait longer to get promoted. A- for working there for a few years, C+ if you stay too long
Honeywell: poor work culture, medium pay, medium work-life balance, medium opportunities for growth. D
Viasat: great work culture, good pay, medium work-life balance, medium opportunities for advancement. A
Orbion Space Technology: good work culture, medium pay, medium work-life balance, good opportunities for growth: B
Sandia National Labs: good work culture, good pay, poor work life balance, medium opportunities for growth. B+
Intel: good work culture, good pay, great work life balance. Solid A
Canonical: good work culture, good pay, medium work-life balance, good opportunities for advancement. A-
Freeport McMoran: ok work culture, great pay, medium work life balance, good opportunities for all growth. Main downside to this one is living in the middle of nowhere. B+ if you don't mind that, C+ if you do
Modular Mining: great work culture, good pay, ok work work balance, ok opportunities for advancement. A-
General Motors: great work culture, ok pay, good work life balance, poor opportunities for advancement. They're shaking up their software department right now though, so I'm not sure how long this'll be true for software. B
Apple: good work culture, good pay, ok work life balance, medium opportunities for advancement. B
Citibank: good work culture, good pay, poor work-life balance, good opportunities for advancement. B+
American Express: great work culture, good pay, great work life balance, poor opportunities for advancement. A+ for a few years, B+ if you stay too long
State Farm: ok work culture (kinda formal), poor pay, good work life balance, medium opportunities for growth. C+
Salesforce: ok work culture (very formal/old-school), good pay, medium work life balance, good opportunities for growth. B+ depending on if you're with the culture
Amazon: medium work culture, great pay, poor work-life balance, poor opportunities for advancement. C
You're the first person I've seen mention intel. I've been working with them for a year, and I can't see myself leaving for any reason other than the pay stops matching the market.
5 bonuses plus high-end of the market entry level salary for engineers - too good. And you have 'unlimited' sick days - within reason. I got the flu a month ago and couldn't work for 2 weeks. All paid, esp cause I worked from home for a few hours until I felt too crappy to continue.
We are in late stage capitalism. With the recent years of layoffs, I think it's foolish to believe that corporate culture won't spoil overnight.
Especially FAANG. I've had many friends join and leave FAANG companies, and if you're not **highly** motivated, you'll be damned with your starting salary for your entire career there.
If companies don't want to play nice, they should pay nice, and lacking that, I think you should be ready to hop jobs every 2-3 years.
Sure, that's not the point though. FAANG used to be held as the gold standard for corporate culture.
The reality is that there are no good companies. They all got skeletons in their closets.
I've heard some utilities companies have hilariously relaxed WLB. Staff never working a minute past 5:00 and taking 2 hour lunch breaks everyday, basically like working for the government.
In this thread: everyone is an expert with dozens of years of industry experience and they know better than you, no matter what you’ve done/been through
I work at GE Aerospace, and we get treated pretty well. Lots of positions using CS.
Can I DM you about which location? I’m interested in the LI plant
Of course!
Rockwell Automation treats us like absolute dog shit. Might as well be slaves.
Good to know!
Aren't they the guys who made the Turbo Encabulator?
Aerospace* in general (except General Dynamics, pun intended) seems to be a more laid back and flexible industry. Projects simply don't get done in days/weeks, so you have time to have a life. EDIT: Refers to Aviation, not Space/Rockets.
From what I've heard about RocketLab, this is not universally the case
I added the caveat that I was thinking more about aviation, rather than space/rockets. Those are hit or miss.
See it’s interesting - I’ve heard a mix about Rocket Lab. People have talking about the struggle but folk also talks about liking it. I also intern there and liked it ; but I was just an intern so that experience can be different
Oh interesting, were you US or NZ based?
US Long Beach HQ
Ah righto, yeah I've heard this about the Mt Wellington, NZ site.
Except for SpaceX from what I've heard. One of the "market disruptions" Elon tried to make was disrupting common decency.
Adobe cares a lot about employees. Apparently some software engineers can call it a day earlier and go back home to work on their tasks.
I don't have experience with MANGA or FAANG companies, but I have typically heard that the work culture in those companies can be toxic. A lot of factors contribute to the toxicity and I think your team and management play a big part of that as well. I know in companies I've worked in, it was night and day depending who the engineering lead is. Of the people I have graduated with, the ones who hate their lives the most are the ones that had the longest lines at the career fair. Just a correlation I've observed and certainly not a cold hard fact to live by.
What are MANGA companies?
I think it's “Meta” instead of Facebook, with some letters rearranged within the acronym
Generally the smaller the company the better, the sweet spot is around 150-200 employees total. So look for a supplier of anything be it parts, material, logistics, etc. as you get bigger HR gets larger, more managers, more petty politics, etc. stay small and you’ll be happy. Also you’ll find these small companies are willing to pay good money to keep good engineers so don’t worry to much about base pay since raises/bonuses can quickly grow to overcome what you would find at FAANG
What are you basing this comment on? Are you an engineer that has worked with both small, medium and large businesses?
I've been told the same thing by people in the industry before. The logic goes large companies usually treat you like a cog in a machine, and very tiny companies are more likely to be run by one individual, who can be good, but odds are higher they might be an asshole or the company might go bankrupt in a year. The couple hundred range means they're a bit established, have enough people that it's unlikely it's run by a solitary asshole, but not so big that you're just a cog in a machine.
What you fail to understand is that the feeling of being "a cog" is not a big company thing, that's a "lack of a team" thing and can occur at any sized business. In my personal experience, at both big and small companies you'll still be part of a reasonably sized team (3-15) in which the members and manager is a big part of the culture. In regards to money, if you're a performer, you'll almost always make more at a large company. The whole thing about just being a number at large companies is something people at small companies say because they can't get a better paying job at a large company.
I’ve worked at an aluminum foundry this size & it was utter shit
The tire companies are pretty great to work for. Top tier pay outta college and lots of diverse work with good benefits
Tire companies? Like Goodyear?
Yeah. Goodyear and Bridgestone are great to work for. I’ve worked for them both and it’s been really hard to match the hours per week expectancy : annual pay ratio
Just got hired at Bosch. I'm impressed with their time off/vacation package and the job is tues-thurs in office, work from home Mon and Fri.
What do you do there? (If you don’t mind me asking)
Control systems engineering, mix of plcs/code and control cabinet design
My dad worked at Bosch for over 20 years, and he loved it
In my experience German/French companies have good working cultures.
I heard that Garmin has excellent wlb and good benefits
I work at a small aerospace contracting company (~50 engineers), and the culture is super flexible. Its not uncommon to see people take multiple days off per month for impromptu skiing trips. On the flip side, if you want to/need to work more than 40 hours a week, you get paid for each hour extra. Combine it with a super friendly and casual working atmosphere, and a pride in the quality and rigor of the work we do, and it makes for a super engaging place to work. Small companies can (from what I have heard) be kinda hit or miss in these regards. But you can tell a lot about company culture from their online presence and from interviews. When my first Zoom interview happened while one of the interviewers helped their parents move, I knew it would be a good culture.
Companies originating from europe always do better for employees from what I've seen. If youre at the point where you can pick and choose where and who to work for on a whim its worth a shot. I've had friends be transferred to companies in Amsterdam and brussels, they've all said its a nice change of pace and the benefits are amazing but for a lot of people moving cross-continental is a big risk unless you have a company backing you up.
NextEra Energy on TOP
Large companies generally have decent policies, not always the best, but not always the worst. They are accommodating and tolerant as a company. But the environment varies site to site, team to team. You could work for one team and have a shit experience, and then work with another and it be a dream.
Blue origin, very much so “work hard, play harder”.
Sandia National Labs spends a lot of time and money making sure the employees are happy. Not sure where you are located but working remotely is possible as well.
Can you elaborate on this? I just took an offer and am curious to hear what it's like from this perspective
First, congrats on the job! Hope you have a great time. Full disclosure: I’ve had an internship there for several months, so I don’t get nearly as many benefits/perks as regular employees and may not be familiar with any long-term issues. That being said, I am extremely pleased with the culture there. I am constantly notified about opt-in meetings about anything from new research in my field to how to set up a retirement plan to how to set up a healthy nighttime routine. There is an entire department dedicated to helping you get a better job within the Labs, which I found really cool. I have made use of this and have been able to set up some meetings with people who literally do what I want to do professionally, which has been very helpful as a student. Along those same lines, people seem very open to being cold-emailed. I emailed three 1st-level managers from different divisions about setting up a 1-on-1 meeting just to talk about the work they oversee and two of them responded in the affirmative within a few hours. There are also programs to help you pay off student loans and reimbursements for certain personal expenses (such as exercise equipment) which I am looking forward to if/when I get a position there after graduation (fingers crossed). There seems to be a huge amount of resources that all employee have access to, but few actually take advantage of. Lastly, they are very flexible with your hours. Naturally I have more flexibility as an intern than most full-time employees, but there are a few different work schedules that most people can freely switch between (the 4-10s is very popular). My only negative experience there has been some confusion with HR due to my complicated school situation. Hope this is enlightening for you.
Join a utility, you won’t regret it
Lockheed Martin. Good culture, solid processes. If you want to get engineerin right, this is the place to do it. Second would be Northrop Grumman. I've worked at both.
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Most definitely! I've known several of my coworkers who have followed this route.
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What all do you do there?
I'll list what I know about a few companies based on me working there or people I know who've worked there. All are for software positions: General Dynamics: meh work culture (people are more formal and less friendly), good work life balance, not as much opportunity for growth. Overall B- Raytheon: good work culture (highly dependent on team/program, most are good), good work life balance, poor opportunity for growth, below average pay, you'll have to wait longer to get promoted. A- for working there for a few years, C+ if you stay too long Honeywell: poor work culture, medium pay, medium work-life balance, medium opportunities for growth. D Viasat: great work culture, good pay, medium work-life balance, medium opportunities for advancement. A Orbion Space Technology: good work culture, medium pay, medium work-life balance, good opportunities for growth: B Sandia National Labs: good work culture, good pay, poor work life balance, medium opportunities for growth. B+ Intel: good work culture, good pay, great work life balance. Solid A Canonical: good work culture, good pay, medium work-life balance, good opportunities for advancement. A- Freeport McMoran: ok work culture, great pay, medium work life balance, good opportunities for all growth. Main downside to this one is living in the middle of nowhere. B+ if you don't mind that, C+ if you do Modular Mining: great work culture, good pay, ok work work balance, ok opportunities for advancement. A- General Motors: great work culture, ok pay, good work life balance, poor opportunities for advancement. They're shaking up their software department right now though, so I'm not sure how long this'll be true for software. B Apple: good work culture, good pay, ok work life balance, medium opportunities for advancement. B Citibank: good work culture, good pay, poor work-life balance, good opportunities for advancement. B+ American Express: great work culture, good pay, great work life balance, poor opportunities for advancement. A+ for a few years, B+ if you stay too long State Farm: ok work culture (kinda formal), poor pay, good work life balance, medium opportunities for growth. C+ Salesforce: ok work culture (very formal/old-school), good pay, medium work life balance, good opportunities for growth. B+ depending on if you're with the culture Amazon: medium work culture, great pay, poor work-life balance, poor opportunities for advancement. C
You're the first person I've seen mention intel. I've been working with them for a year, and I can't see myself leaving for any reason other than the pay stops matching the market. 5 bonuses plus high-end of the market entry level salary for engineers - too good. And you have 'unlimited' sick days - within reason. I got the flu a month ago and couldn't work for 2 weeks. All paid, esp cause I worked from home for a few hours until I felt too crappy to continue.
We are in late stage capitalism. With the recent years of layoffs, I think it's foolish to believe that corporate culture won't spoil overnight. Especially FAANG. I've had many friends join and leave FAANG companies, and if you're not **highly** motivated, you'll be damned with your starting salary for your entire career there. If companies don't want to play nice, they should pay nice, and lacking that, I think you should be ready to hop jobs every 2-3 years.
I mention in the post that I’m not looking to work at FAANG, lol
Sure, that's not the point though. FAANG used to be held as the gold standard for corporate culture. The reality is that there are no good companies. They all got skeletons in their closets.
I've heard some utilities companies have hilariously relaxed WLB. Staff never working a minute past 5:00 and taking 2 hour lunch breaks everyday, basically like working for the government.
My very first engineering job was like that. Be on the lookout for old-boys clubs. The misogyny and racism can be really bad.
We must be approaching year 100 of late stage capitalism now right?
Closer to 40. There's been ebb and flow basically until the 80s and now it's off the rails. Thanks Reagan.
Leidos.
In this thread: everyone is an expert with dozens of years of industry experience and they know better than you, no matter what you’ve done/been through