Applied Research Associates reviews

ARA is great job for someone coming just out of undergrad, MS, or PhD. It is a great initial industry job to use as a spring board for bigger, better opportunities. But, aside from that, an engineering/scientist position here is not as competitive as other companies; let me detail why: 1. Salaries are artificially low (compared to the overall industry) because of their Employee Stock program (ESOP). In exchange for below market salary you will receive stock in the company once a year (you also receive 401K match up to a certain percentage). 2. The ESOP is not fully vested until you are 3 years in, so you'll have to stick it out for 3 years if you want to leave with all of your ESOP funds, BUT you are paid out once per year over several years after you leave, not all at once, so don't expect to walk away with cash in your pocket. This is great for people who have accumulated for 20-30 years, but for lower tier employees, you may consider a job with higher salary and no ESOP to be better financially. 3. Company overhead is extremely high (also a problem due to the ESOP and other benefits), so employees are expensive. This makes it so that annual raises are usually 2-3% (there is often an end of year bonus, but it is taxed so a large chunk is taken out). Expect your salary to increase very minimally unless promoted internally over the years. 4. This is a "soft money" organization, so managers manage the scientists and research engineers who publish proposals to the Gov't for funding constantly. Funding is never guaranteed, and hours can't just be billed to overhead because of see above #3, so there may be times of great excess hours to work on projects and more stressful lean and mean times. It's not just as if there are infinite hours to work on projects, so sometimes deadlines may be fast and stressful. And, if you're in a research position, when you're not working on the work itself you are trying to write proposals or support writing proposals for additional funding. 5. ARA is a mid-size defense contractor. It is not a goliath Raytheon, nor is it a tiny, nimble cutting edge company (like some of these MIT-startup type labs). It is now too big to win contracts that are coded as "small business" set-aside (which can often be lucrative), yet it is slightly too small to be winning the $1B contracts that Raytheon, Lockheed, etc. routinely win. This puts ARA in a weird spot and makes it less competitive than a lot of companies. Plus, because of the ESOP and overhead costs, again ARA is expensive compared to competitors when trying to win contracts. 6. ARA spends a lot of money on having the sleek corporate look (they spend big time money on corporate leases in high priced areas (DC, Boston, LA, etc.), yet produce kind of low-tech Windows based software for the Gov't, and often use outdated tools. Our division had a 1 computer 1 person policy (usually just a low performance laptop), whereas my old company bought us whatever we needed and principal scientists regularly used 3-4 different machines very effectively. with multiple monitors. ARA even charges their customers a "computer fee", which customers absolutely hate, and doesn't seem to be industry standard. ARA also doesn't have THAT great of a reputation in the Gov't world, but that is just what I picked up on over a few years (most think they are too expensive for what they produce). 7. Managers constantly talk about GROWTH, and hiring more and more people, yet their turnover is fairly high. I think that because of the above #1-6, fresh grads that have worked at ARA for a few years realize the downsides and low pay and use ARA as a springboard for better opportunities. That's just what I saw as MANY young people end up leaving around year 3 (funny, that's when you are fully vested in the ESOP and can take all your funds). Don't get me wrong, people do end up staying longer, but there is a noticeable amount of young people that leave after a short-ish time. Interestingly, the 20-30 year veterans that have seen incredible ESOP gains saw those gains because ARA was basically a "startup" all those years ago when they got in, but now as it is a larger company, I am unsure if those 25% stock gain per year are sustainable, but that's just my guess that it's not. So, it's hard to say if sticking it out and staying for many years just because of the ESOP is worth it, you'd have to really like your work and the company and people, etc., which some might. Finally, ARA is completely restructuring as a corporation since ~6 months ago. Many senior executives are moving around, including the CEO, and all the main sectors and groups have shifted around. Expect some turbulence.