Apr 15, 2015
MBDA reviews
4.4
93% would recommend to a friend
Éric Béranger
90% approve of CEO
89% positive business outlook
MBDA has an employee rating of 4.4 out of 5 stars, based on 1,024 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an excellent working experience there. The MBDA employee rating is 21% above average for employers within the Luft- & Raumfahrt, Verteidigung industry (3.6 stars).
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1K reviews
3.0
Mar 29, 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook
Pros
Bonus is good, with overtime allowed. And flexible working hours are very useful. Subsidised gym is a benefit too. There is an element of performance related pay increase. If you are in the right place at the right time, you can do well at Mbda. Alternatively, if you want to just do a 9-5 and aren't ambitious it is a good place to work. Some people seem to be able to move to different projects quite easily. At a company level they seem keen for internal movement. The personal development reviews can be useful in trying to do what you like doing on a project (bounded by the projects needs). Mbda seems to treat most of its grads well, and rotate them through different projects. It seems to be good for the first few years.
Cons
The pay is not great, and you can end up with someone being promoted to the next grade earning more than what someone who came in at that grade. It is essential to find it how much you are worth and negotiate on that basis. Don't expect much of a pay rise beyond standard living increases. The company has a number of employees who lifers, who get promoted based on years worked than competence. As I stated before if you like to just plod along it is great for you, but for those who are more ambitious, the lifers can be frustrating to work with. Also, as they don't move to different jobs they present a layer of management that will be in post until they retire. Within 10 years the company demographic maybe quite different with those lifers having retired. This may present the company with an interesting time for knowledge retention, but provide more opportunities for those that want to progress. There is a resistance to change which is proliferated through people working on the same projects for so long. More movement is needed to increase use of best practise. While it is touted that there are three strands to progression/promotion. It is difficult to identify who is on which strand. And how someone progresses on a non management strand is vague/not communicated. The actual practise and implementation of the policy is unclear and to my knowledge untested.
2.0
Mar 22, 2015
Comfortable and pleasant, but company culture discourages progression or delivery
Former employee, more than 3 years
Stevenage, England
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook
Pros
- Excellent work life balance - Management really do care about the wellbeing of their employees - Flexible working - Friendly and sociable people - Relaxed environment - The exec team are genuinely trying to improve things
Cons
- Progression based on age rather than ability or experience (I was told directly to "wait ten years" before considering a minor promotion) - Stagnant salary and little chance to change it - A culture of gold plating and indecisiveness leads to troubled projects - Success is defined as following process and being very risk averse (no matter if it makes a poor product that is over budget and behind schedule) - Senior and principal engineer have little decision-making power, because many Chief Engineers aren't confident enough to delegate. Myself and my team were often idle for days as we were waiting for an over-worked and stressed out Chief Engineer to make a minor decision on our behalf.
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