Prós
The 401K, benefits, and tuition assistance are significant perks to working here. Stretch assignments are plentiful and give young engineers an opportunity to try new things and be innovative. Lots of company-wide innovation competitions as well. The schedule of working 10 hours a day for 4 days a week is helpful and gives you a good work-life balance. PTO is good and helpful in keeping that balance as well.
Contras
Culture is the biggest drawback from my time working here. Progress is slow for daily activities and there is reluctance to improve the older aircraft systems. Using out-dated technology is commonplace. Possibly due to the pandemic, there is very little social interaction and collaboration. However, this trend has continued to be prevalent, so the feeling of isolation is common. Working on the U.S. government contracts or Advanced Development Programs is sought after at this company and I would recommend pursuing these programs over Foreign Military Sales contracts as a first job. While there is an abundance of innovation competitions and stretch assignments, a lot of projects do not make it to actual implementation because of a lack of funding.