Viasat used to be my dream job. During COVID, that went away. While execs laid folks off they also took on big bonuses and gave remaining employees poor raises. Lots of brain drain occuring recently, especially with high performance individual contributors. Senior leadership is an out of touch old boys club.
There's two kind of employees at Viasat: the lifer and the new grad. Viasat does not tend to hire many middle career engineers from outside. That'd be far too expensive compared to a new grad or overseas. This means nobody is cross pollinated. It's the "it's always been done this way" or the highway.
The culture at Viasat is very plastic. P&C/HR will tell you what the culture is: "fun, innovative, embrace ambiguity, etc." In reality, the culture is one of chaos, an embrace of mediocrity, and under resourced. Often when a company boasts about there own culture like Viasat does, that's when you know it's manufactured. Truth be told it's not the worst culture of anywhere I've worked, but it's not the happy go lucky utopia HR/P&C says that it is. They'll brag about all the corporate development and leadership trainings that you can't do because you're too busy completing JIRA tickets.
Advancement and growth opportunities are foggy. Some managers are very good at sharing and helping you grow. Others not so much. Embrace ambiguity! Additionally, lots of internal politics on commerical side.
Pay is just average to below average. Don't expect to earn top dollar, even if you work hard enough to.
