10+ yrs in Engineering with no regrets, yet GA-ASI's future success is not guaranteed
Pros
- variety of technical challenges & opportunities - company's mission & products are meaningful - strong performing employees are generally recognized & rewarded - meaningful work: I can reflect on my time at the company and easily identify many ways that I personally have added value to the company & its products - the Predator family of remotely-operated aircraft systems is a really cool product and awesome to be a part of! - amazing learning opportunities from many leaders who are responsible for the company's success this far - easy to move around within the company to pursue growth opportunities
Cons
- despite significant growth over the past decade, many elements within the company continue to resist *growing up* to a level of maturity that should be expected of an organization this size - the company's limited budget for annual raises over the past ~5 years causes the average employee's compensation to fall behind market value within a few years unless the employee or his/her manager takes specific action to maintain equity - persistence of small-company behavior: e.g. senior executives remain too involved in detailed design decisions, rather than establishing clear requirements and empowering the design teams to achieve them - mediocre process definition / implementation / consistency: too much reinventing the wheel - company is struggling with recent enterprise-wide MRP software change to SAP
