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 and defence industry (3.6 stars).

Reviews by job title

4K reviews
1.0
Jun 11, 2017
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Some super smart people and has some interesting capabilities. Some nice offices and free Kit Kats. Otherwise not much else.

Cons

I was in a role that matrix reported to two members of the main board. This business has really gone off the rails (eg staff morale, financial performance, geographically over-extended) due to an acute pressure (from the shareholder BAE Systems) to deliver very steep 'hockey stick' growth rather than steady sustainable growth. This pressure for growth above all else has driven a number of rushed acquisitions and is also behind the attempt to 'pivot' the entire company to be more focused on products and cloud solutions rather than the Detica origins of consulting and system integration (which is inherently harder to grow quickly). The business is now too complicated, isn't properly integrated and is spread across too many countries for its size. In my time working there, there was endless 'double speak' as the leadership tried to talk up how well the strategy is going, whilst the financial results and staff morale were going south. The recent public results reveal a financial loss and only 11% growth despite £hundreds of millions of investment in acquisitions - and being in a number of markets that should be really strong.

1.0
Jan 29, 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Decent work life balance and some good technologies. But quickly becoming outdated in the market. Average pay but depends on how you negotiate

Cons

Poor leadership, ZERO training and ZERO job safety. All the jobs are being outsourced to one of 2 places -- Poland in Europe and Malaysia in Asia. Only the US has been spared and that is because there is a lot of business in the US and the senior leadership there have a lot of say in how things run. Be very wary of joining the company both in Europe and Asia as you maybe fired at any time just to cut costs. Everything is controlled out of UK and APAC just suffers because the leadership -- a) don't have any clue what's happening on the ground and b) Think that all the trainings and facilities available in UK are the same globally. Poor and pathetic place I've ever worked in

3.0
Sep 16, 2015

OK but room for improvement

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- There are some smart people in the company. - The programs/projects are generally interesting and challenging. - Opportunities to travel and relocate internationally.

Cons

- Multiple acquisitions have resulted in a fragmented company without a clear direction. Strategies have been defined but in reality company direction is based on today's opportunities. Direction also very much depends on local leadership, their sometimes limited understanding of the local organisation and perhaps short-term KPI's. - In an attempt to get a grip on the organisation an large number of policies and systems have been introduced which requires a large support team to operate and maintain this system. As a result the organisation is sluggish and too many stakeholders are involved in most decisions. - There's a high dependency on UK staff flying in regularly or relocating, especially for more strategic positions.

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.