BAE Systems reviews

3.9

75% would recommend to a friend

(4,188 total reviews)
avatar

Charles Woodburn

81% approve of CEO

71% positive business outlook

BAE Systems has an employee rating of 3.9 out of 5 stars, based on 4,188 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The BAE Systems employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Aerospace & Defense industry (3.6 stars).

Reviews by job title

4K reviews
1.0
Nov 30, 2017

Morale at an all-time low

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

401k matching, free snacks, drinks

Cons

BAE Systems Applied Intelligence is the epitome of dysfunction. The lack of accountability is astonishing. People are put in leadership roles who want the titles, but who aren't leaders, make bad decisions, and then attempt to hold other people accountable for when their poor decisions have negative consequences that they didn’t have the critical thinking or experience to anticipate. Bad decisions and lack of strategy are also why the company is struggling financially and going through "re-orgs" (the diplomatic term for lay-offs). Some of the most critical functions have been impacted due to lack of strategy and the "leaders" being so far removed from the customers that they are so out of touch with the market. This company is so large that they make it impossible to do business within the commercial space. BAE Systems may be good at defence type work, but they haven't a clue on how to operate in the commercial sector. The arrogance, lack of real leadership in management, and upper management who haven't earned their titles have put the company in grave danger. The uncontrolled, narcissistic personalities in management results in unethical behavior and have jeopardised the interests of BAE Systems and its employees. The talent that made the company what it once was have jumped ship. The constant "re-orgs" only re-affirm the lack of strategy/direction and the ineptness of the upper management team.

1.0
Jun 30, 2017

Long on cons with one or two pros

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Zero stress. Super relaxed working environment. Nobody works more than 40 hours a week and nobody checks email during off hours. EMEA gets a ridiculous amount of vacation time, which on one hand seems unfair to Americas employees, but the flipside is that nothing happens whatsoever for all of August and December so it's like a working vacation for Americans. Overall a great place to work if you're not ambitious or just want to take a career break for a while.

Cons

An absurd amount of bureaucracy. It's impossible to get anything done. This is a defense contractor, so if you're used to working for a commercial organization get ready to be shocked. If you're coming from a startup you wonder if you stepped into a vortex to an alternate universe. Corporate communications are atrocious and the board is disengaged and aloof. Culture is a mess. They bought two commercial software startups that were high growth market leaders and managed to run both businesses into the ground and drive away all of the talent they acquired. Every A player from Norkom and SilverSky from the execs to the rank and file is now gone. Most of the B talent has left as well. A lot of the A talent from Detica remains to this day, so it seems that Ai is destined to be a prestigious, low margin, steady growth consultancy. Which is actually fine if that's what they want to be, it just makes no sense whatsoever to try to incubate software companies in that environment.

1.0
Jun 2, 2017
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

at one point there were some smart people working there. few and far between now.

Cons

Poor management; legacy products, high attrition; mediocrity is rewarded; Kevin Taylor ( recently fired) went on acquisition spree; consolidation overcame engineering and the last company acquired came with really poor management; Americas is particularly bad with three presidents in three years.

Viewing 1 - 3 of 4,188 Reviews

Glassdoor has 4,688 BAE Systems reviews submitted anonymously by BAE Systems employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if BAE Systems is right for you.