The difference in annual raises for someone that worked their butt off and someone that is average is roughly 1-2%. Average raises are in the 3-4% range with "good" years in the 5-6% range. Save the company a billion dollars? Here's a 5% raise! After a while, you realize that the extra 1-2% isn't worth the hassle of working so hard....
The company demographics are horrible. There is almost nobody there aged 35-55 with 15-25 years experience. It's those with less than 10 years and those with over 25 years and that's it. As a new hire or mid-level engineer, you're basically waiting for a bunch of old, fat white guys with 30+ years in to retire or die before you can truly move up the ranks. Half of them hate working there and wax nostalgic about the good ol' days from 20+ years ago.
The negativity in the workforce ingrained over the last decade has become a cancer that has infiltrated the entire company. In their defense, much of this attitude has been a direct result of an adversarial and irrational relationship between top management and the engineers - care of the now (thankfully) former CEO. Maybe in another decade you might actually find people that enjoy working at this company again, but for now, morale is very low and people are frustrated with a company that is only a shell of what it used to be. Many of the older workers are on cruise-control, just waiting out the next 3-5 years before they can retire.
With the loss of pensions, the trend of job-hopping rather than staying at one company, and big software firms nearby paying big bucks, I can't imagine most new hires will last the 15-20 years necessary to become replacements for the experts that will soon be retiring. The company reminds me much of IBM circa 1995...
Bean counters run the company. Prepare to spend 1/3 of your time giving status, planning, and tracking once you hit mid-level. Despite all of that planning and tracking, things are still late and over budget. "But *this* time we'll fix it all!" This has driven the very same bean counters to demand more and more work be outsourced to outside companies. I have seen many unique, highly technical design jobs shipped out and never to return again. These are projects that get done once every decade or so. Sending it out even once means that the next time you want to do it internally, you'll be forced to re-invent the wheel since nobody will be around that remembers how to do it. I've even had the pleasure of major work being outsourced only to have that very same outsourcing company contact us directly and ask if we knew of another company that could do the work since they didn't actually know how but accepted the work anyway. This is the insanity that has become decision making at The Boeing Company.
The company is over-reliant on processes. Ordering a box of screws from an outside vendor takes four separate people to process and approve the order and another half dozen to receive and deliver it 2-3 weeks later - if it doesn't get lost somewhere inside the company beforehand. This is something that I could order myself with a credit card in 10 minutes and have at my door in a few days. They took away purchase cards from engineers many years ago because they thought they were too wasteful. Starting to see the pattern yet?
A laughably weak engineers union: Paid overtime (time plus $6.50, don't ask why) is great when you see folks in software working 60-70+ hours a week and getting paid for 40. However, the same union has made it difficult for management to fire the truly incompetent and/or lazy. Compound that over 40+ years and you end up with some truly stupid people being paid large sums of money to do nothing of actual value. The worst part is, many of these people don't even realize how truly screwed they would be if they had to find a job anywhere else. For instance: I have worked with "engineers" with over 20 years "experience" that could barely manage to produce work I would expect an intern to do and ask technical questions so basic that I wonder if they have serious memory problems. Layoffs are also done roughly based on seniority - which is exactly how they ended up with the horrible demographics they currently have in the first place. New hires notice that they get the axe while some seriously stupid people get to stay and guess what? They don't come back!
