Pros
There really are a lot of wonderful things about Lockheed, especially for a new hire: 1) Competitive New Hire Pay 2) Meaningful Work - in my role, I'm the sole financial analyst over contracts that can be worth anywhere from $50K to $300M. The Program Managers come to me for data, analysis, understanding and advice. 3) The End Customer - The US Gov is not fun to work for; HOWEVER working with the military and knowing how quality product reach our customer IS fun to work for 4) Benefits - 401K matching, tuition reimbursement, GREAT health/dental/vision benefits compared to most Fortune 500, rotational Leadership Development Programs, classes (including Six Sigma training) 5) Work-life Balance - You work pretty close to a 40-hour work week in most positions, business or engineering; Also, a lot of sites, including Dallas, work a 9-80 schedule, which means every other Friday is off! Believe it or not, it's even more enjoyable than it sounds. Vacation is great and the plant shuts down at Christmastime (and that doesn't take away from your vacation hours! 6) Locations - After a year in a job, it's not too difficult to move to other locations across the country if you want; and Lockheed helps pay for the move 7) Products - We make fighter jets and missile launchers. What we do is LITERALLY rocket science. It's pretty cool. I like telling people I work for real-life Stark Industries. 8) Advancement - Some might feel it comes too slow, but generally you can move up a level every 2-3 years for the first 10 years, which means a pay bump.
Cons
I've had several coworkers leave for several different reasons. Here are some cons I see and have heard from others: 1) Pay - Although the pay starts out competitive, it doesn't grow as fast as other companies. Many of my coworkers left for other companies in the area and got a 20-25% pay bump. Of course, they lose some perks, like every other Friday off, etc, but they get more dough. 2) Culture - Lockheed Martin is fairly old school. That appeals to some, but a lot of Millennials I see struggle with it. Millennials often feel leaders micro-manages too much, that advancements don't come quick enough, that they are not being recognized for all their contributions. 3) The Customer - Working for the war fighter feels awesome. Working for the war fighter through departments in the US Government is frustrating. The problem is, Lockheed Martin relies on one main customer - the USG. So what is to stop the gov from demanding what they want? Competition is tough, so LM has to give in a lot. 4) No Bonuses 5) Earned Value Management - Defense Contractors have to follow a system of measurement that is unique to defense contractors called Earned Value Management. EVM can be useful but it requires a lot of extra work on the part of the engineer and financial analyst. And it really doesn't translate to the world outside of government work. 6) Pigeon-hole - This is for financiers more so than other business areas or engineers; the type of financial work defense contractors do is pretty different than most commercial companies. If you want to move to another industry but you have been at LM a long time, you might find it hard to pitch what you have done in a way that is relatable to other companies. 7) High Level Management Doesn't Care - Honestly, this is probably true for most companies. The Missiles & Fire Control division just went through layoffs (for the first time in a long time) and honestly, it didn't seem like upper management cared too much. The packages given to those laid off were decent, but it didn't feel like management shared in our pain. The CEO also seems like she has no interest in the individual employee. When the government shut down and some contracts had to be put in stop-work, she didn't really offer a lot of support to those who had nothing to work on. They just had to wait it out.