Defense Firm vs Commercial??

[rwingace]

I was wondering if anybody had any advice on the differences between working for a Defense Firm as oppossed to a Commercial industry such as Telecommunications?

I currently work for a Defense contractor and I am getting frustrated with the amount of documentation needed as well as the pressures of having to account for every task I do in a day to every couple minutes on a time sheet.

Is this similar to all engineering companies specifically RF/Communication related fields?

Any thoughts on this topic?

 

[MacGyverS2000]

You already listed the big difference, documentation, though quite a few commercial firms will still have an inordinate amount of documentation to go through. With defense, you can often jump from project to project as one winds down and another winds up (if you know the right people). If commercial loses a major contract, many people find themselves out of work and looking for another employer.

I'm sure we could write at least half of a book on the pros and cons of each.

Dan - Owner

http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com

 

[controlsdude]

getting layed off is an opportunity to get a big raise. Has anyone every got a big raise year to year at the same company, very few!

 

[MacGyverS2000]

The way the economy is now... I think I'll stick with 3-6%/year and slightly higher job security ;-)

Dan - Owner

http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com

 

[zappedagain]

I've worked for both (let's see, Industrial, Consumer, Computer, Defense, Automotive, Telecommunication - and yes, CDude is right, you 'typically' get your best raise when you hire in). There is A LOT of variation from company to company. Documentation is typically less, unless you get into the automotive industry; then it is about comparable.

If you get involved with government contracts you'll see the same time constraints on time sheets (maybe to the hour, not the minute).

In the commercial world, you may find much more strenuous scheduling (we need in two days, we don't care if it will take two weeks...).

As it has been said many times on this forum, find some work that you find interesting and putting up with the rest of the 'engineering' isn't so bad. IF it still is, find another career.

Z

 

[DHambley]

The main reason I can think of as to why they want so much documenation is that beauracrats actually think that doing a lot of paperwork actually adds value to a product.

I've worked on more than my share of SDRL's, qualification test reports, development test plans, planning stratagey documents, risk reduction planning documents, etc. to the point where it has become obvious that the paperwork is more important to the government clerks that the actual product!

oh well, there's my thoughts on the issue.