Not innovative at all - Configuration Design Engineer Boeing Employee Review

1.0
Jul 23, 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The company does pay well, and does provide good benefits, but that's about the limit :/.

Cons

This is not a company for "free thinker" engineers. The engineering side is run by "subject matter experts" who are 20 years behind in their field. When challenged, they respond with something along the lines of "we already have the best in class capabilities, why do we need to change?". Job status has no basis in merit: it is purely based on how long you have been at the company (which explains why some really unqualified people are considered experts). Whenever people poke their heads out of the box, they get pushed back down. They actively hunt down & destroy disruptive innovation, despite claiming "innovation" is a company value. Design is largely done by intuition and experience of the experts, which usually leads to poor performing designs and cost over-runs. The design mentality is largely the same as it was in the late 1980's, but with incremental technology improvements. Also, there is the bureaucracy. It took a full year to get approval to bring in non-standard computers for a group that needed better computers. Any time someone tries to do something new/non-standard, it has to go through a massive approval process, which inevitably ends up getting an expert to say "well, we don't need that, we already have the best", despite whatever evidence you show to the contrary. And, since they're the experts, their word is god.

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5.0
Apr 13, 2026
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CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

great wlb, great 401k perks

Cons

not many growth opportunities at the company

3.0
May 27, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Easy going, nice benefits, free further education (masters/PhD). Great for an engineer starting out who needs to dip their feet in the pool of engineering for a few years and to get a great 401(k) match at the start of your career (compounding growth). Great for late stage career due to the benefits and solid enough pay in a low cost of living area

Cons

pay-scale lagging, no emphasis on learning new things, no punishment for people who are bad at their job. After working for 4 years, I feel like I should have jumped ship after 2. I haven't been given meaningful work that really challenges me in a while. Now I feel pigeonholed into staying because I have enough years of experience that I really should be considered senior, but I haven't been given work that reflects what I senior engineer should be capable of. Now I'm trying to jump ship before it's really too late. If I stay here another 2 years I think I will be genuinely unemployable and will have to stay at this company forever.

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