Vantaggi
-It's a great place to do engineering work; the challenges of defense contracting are extremely interesting. -Good opportunities to build skills and grow your career if you are willing to network. -It's an extremely stable industry. -As an entry level/early career employee, you work 40 hours per week; no more, no less. This can be a pro or a con depending on where you're coming from; the one caveat being that hours are fairly inflexible. If you need to do overtime it is paid.
Svantaggi
-If you're not a white man, it's pretty inhospitable out there. The casual sexism and racism by fellow employees is off the charts. Upper management is pushing D&I initiatives, which are great, but it really doesn't translate into a lower level cultural change. You can succeed professionally, but day-to-day interactions with coworkers will be exhausting to navigate. -You can negotiate market rate pay coming in, but you won't see much salary growth which is a huge issue if you're early career. (Perhaps not so much if you're coasting to retirement as many are.) -Benefits are mediocre; would expect better from a company whose main benefit is stability and work/life balance. Decent 401k match, high deductible health plan, small bonuses, no stock.