- More like a Soviet bureaucracy than an engineering firm. You spend your days fighting red tape and pedantry. I've hardly ever seen actual designs or hardware, I'm mostly just trying to get people to sign off reports that no-one asked for, and no-one will ever read.
- Analysis Paralysis. You can't sneeze without first writing a 10,000 page sneeze-approval report signed off by a dozen departmental heads. The report will be inconclusive. Your chief engineer will decide it's best you avoid sneezing until a 20,000 follow-up report is issued next year.
- The amount of time people spend squabbling over nothing is incredible (See Parkinson's Law of Triviality). Managers make no effort to rein this in - vast amounts of company time are swallowed up by this.
- It's so hard to do anything positive or productive at this company. Instead, many people choose to make their impact by bickering. Plenty have made a career for themselves by simply showing up at meetings and arguing over anything and everything, creating the illusion of knowledge and authority.
- Progression is generally based on time served; there's a big pool of managers that were promoted by default and really shouldn't be managers. Many have a patronising attitude towards their younger colleagues and tend to disapprove of ambition - they'd rather you sit quietly and don't make them look bad.
- There's a vindictive undercurrent to promotions - the lucky few that manage to progress are often given impossible workloads and no pay rise, and told they'll be promoted in a year if they can handle the workload until then. I get the impression that management just want them to fail so they can sneer at them, rather than actually help them develop and progress into capable employees.
- Morale is low, very little team spirit and cohesion. To be honest, there's somewhat of a sour and hostile atmosphere across the site. The grads like to hang out (until half of them leave for better money at the end of the grad scheme), but there's basically no socialising and things like after-work drinks are unheard of.
- Salary. MBDA claim they pay market rate. I don't know what market they're looking at, but it ain't the engineering one! I've progressed fairly well at MBDA, but my friends at RR, BAE, Airbus, GKN, Atkins, Dyson and JLR all make more than me.
