- You will never see your manager. Not only is it complicated as to who actually helps you get promoted (hint no one but yourself), but the only constant is the goals that NG sets nationwide.
- The work was disappointing. Obviously you can't discuss cleared work here, but I was led to believe my job would be much more interesting than it was.
- Mentorship is laughable. Now I'm not expecting things to be handed to me, especially because Google is your friend. However, if I ask questions about something that I'm new on, I shouldn't be jumping to literally every cubicle on a team in an endless round of "ask Bob".
- Benefits are lackluster. I honestly think they take advantage of people straight out of college by dangling big numbers and cool job titles, but your insurance terms are bad for the industry and got continually worse while I was there.
- Office space is depressing and too small for the needs of the company. We had full-time employees sitting two to a cubicle because NG HQ never authorizes Xetron to rent new space. Every once in awhile an executive deigns to come out to the sticks to see us, but our continual pleas to just rent more space is always denied. At least the people leaving are helping that out for them, but it's a simple problem with a simple solution that shows how the bureaucracy of NG fails their people.
- No emphasis on employee health during Covid-19. This is what drove me out. I had a family member symptomatic after coming in contact with it at their work and they still wouldn't let me out until I begged their medical staff in Baltimore.
- Management is a good old boys club. They have their favorites who worked on contracts with them over 20 years and trust them implicitly. I've seen decisions and opinions take a complete 180 in the span of a month because of what someone on the inside is. You may aspire to grovel until you join them, but I'm telling you there's better out there.
In summary, I honestly believe Cincinnati is the location that Northrop Grumman forgot. Lack of office space, poor management, engineers dropping off poorly run projects left and right. All for "mission" work that turns out to be very different than what they tell you they work on. I want to believe NG outside of "Central", "Ohio", or whatever they call it now is better. The bread and circuses from popcorn, donuts, and the occasional scraps from lunch meetings isn't cutting it. There are better tech firms in the area to work at, you don't need that clearance outside military or DC-area work, and this place should be avoided. If anyone avoids making the mistake I did when I came here then the time to write this was worth something.
