This Job Made Me Rethink Being an Engineer
Pros
My time at General Atomics helped mold me into a much better engineer than I was when I started. We had to learn on the fly often which it helps sharpen your skills. The pay is okay but not competitive. My experience at GA may have been a one off and probably does not represent the company as a whole. They have a number of teams to work on and I think I may have been on the worst one. I would suggest doing your research if you plan to work at the company to avoid experiencing what I experienced.
Cons
Extremely high stress environment with very little recognition for hard work. I would work 50-60 hours a week mandated or face consequences. I had the misfortune of having a supervisor who had no interest in being a supervisor. He was unfit to be a supervisor in my opinion. Any mistake I made just fed into his belief of me as a terrible engineer and I received zero recognition for any of the great work I did. I was never going to be promoted and I was denied titles that I was already doing all the work for. Do not expect previous experience to count toward promotions, they look out for those who have been there the longest. Which begs the question, why have previous experience in the first place. The raises and bonus's are also extremely low. To enjoy working at this company is very team dependent and I was unfortunately placed on the team with the quickest deadlines and most mismanagement.
