Pros
Thales does important work that assists our military and first responders. The radios are fabricated primarily on site which is very interesting to see. There are some very intelligent engineers with a lot of experience who can be a good source for some personal growth. Work is casual and relatively calm for most programs. Most programs have all the tools they need (software and hardware). No matter what your experience level, you will be doing design and testing on and for real products. You will not spend all day pushing paper here.
Cons
The biggest problem at Thales is accountability. The metrics for projects and the demands of senior management create a finger pointing atmosphere. There is frequently a rift between the hardware and software groups because neither wants to be the one holding up progress. There are people who spend all day shifting blame around from group to group. The engineers themselves are often not the problem, but so many have been forced into a position where their default reaction is to blame someone else. Management is aware of the problem but has done little to nothing to fix it. It's a bad sign when the projects that get priority are the ones with the loudest yellers. I had a manager basically tell me that verbatim.
