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Lockheed Martin

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Lockheed Martin reviews

4.1

84% would recommend to a friend

(14,565 total reviews)
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James D. Taiclet

83% approve of CEO

73% positive business outlook

Lockheed Martin has an employee rating of 4.1 out of 5 stars, based on 14,565 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an excellent working experience there. The Lockheed Martin employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Aérospatiale et défense industry (3.6 stars).

Reviews by job title

15K reviews
4.0
Aug 13, 2008
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Generally stable job environment, there are the occasional layoff threats, but there have been few people laid off in my 10+ years there. Generally intelligent managers who have actually been successful technical workers before moving on to management. Highly ethical people. Only 40 hr weeks with flexible schedule. Salaried workers who work on the weekend or over 45 hours gets paid straight-time overtime (e.g., working 60 hours in a week gets you 55 hours of pay.) Alternatively you can take it as comp time and use it as vacation. 9/80 and 4/10 schedules available (Fridays off).

Cons

Slow, big company. Quota system for raises about 60% of people get the "Meets Expectations" rating, 30% a level higher, and only about 10% get the highest rating and raise. This quota will be shoved down your manager's throat, so if you're in a group of 10 people that have done the work of 30 and gotten the attention of executives because you did such a bang-up job on a project that made Lockheed Martin look great it doesn't matter. 6 of the 10 will still only get the average rating. Oh, and maybe a plaque for your wall. And maybe, just maybe a small bonus, a few hundred to a thousand dollars.

4.0
Jul 3, 2008
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Lockheed Space Systems has a terrific work-life balance. Three weeks of vacation is standard for all employees plus holidays. The 9/80 work week is wonderful; you get every other Friday off!

Cons

There is a lot bureaucracy that can make getting anything done very difficult. The publishing of research is discouraged by the legal department. Promotions hard to earn and based entirely on the employee's age, not skills nor knowlege nor talent. There are many near-retirees in trumped-up roles that contribute little. A lot of great, young engineers start their careers at Lockeed then quickly jump ship when they see miniscule raises and no opportunites.

4.0
Jun 15, 2008
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The best reason to work for LMT are the projects we do. You can't work on the kinds of things that you do here anywhere else. Want to work on Manned Space Flight, Planet exploration or an important defense project... this is the place. The technical challenges are tougher than anywhere else I've worked. The sense of purpose is also stronger than anywhere else. It's important to realize too that LMT is really hundreds of companies under one name (the product of 20 years of M&A). If you feel stuck or don't like the culture at a particular position and you work in an area where LMT has a couple of different operations you can move on, and often find a very different experience somewhere else. That sort of flexibility is really nice. Finally pay is good, benefits are excellent, and paid vacation is excellent. Flex work schedule is also excellent. If you just look at the pay you're not going to be blown away. But remember that generally overtime is paid even for salaried positions, which means you work less of it, and when you do you get paid.

Cons

I once tried to count how many levels there were between me and our CEO and I came up with 11. I've never met our CEO. Keep in mind what I wrote in "best reasons" which is when you work for LMT you're really working for one of the hundreds of companies that LMT M&A'd in the last 20 years, with easy mobility between companies and a uniform set of pay/benefits and schedule. This creates to put it mildly a political and beauracratic challenge. Want to get good a negotiating a beauracracy... this is the place for you. I suspect many jobs have this challenge but I'm guessing it's more acute at LMCO. The other chief downside is the cyclical nature of our work. To survive here you have to realize that you are a contractor, and you are selling your services to a project. When the contract goes away (and it will, and it may go away at a senator's whim) you need to quickly find the next contract. Lockheed is supportive, but it's still nerve-racking knowing that you have an expiration date at the end of a project.

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