Vantaggi
Defense sector's boom and busts are not necessarily correlated to other industries boom and bust times
Svantaggi
Maybe stuck using very old software technologies. May not have access to the internet from your desk. Raytheon is such a huge company, it's difficult to give advice that applies to all locations and job titles... For software in El Segundo, you have to realize that Raytheon is not a software company so everything lags: technology, knowledge, compotence, opportunities, expertise, best practices, you name it. Moreover, line management lacks the skills to make organizational improvements in these areas -- really, they are just trying to stay afloat. Ratings are political. Advice I got which made sense: if you are a hard core patriot who wants to defend his country, then this could be the place for you. Otherwise, you need to weigh the tradeoffs and decide if this postion is your best choice. Also, if you were a woman in the software area, you could greatly benefit from the 'good ol gal' management structure that was created -- it was very, very strong...