software engineer

mechanical assembler

system engineer

senior software engineer

senior system engineer

Collins Aerospace

Pros – Cedar Rapids good for family life.
Great business growth since mid decade, although doubtful future prospects.
Technical work is boring or interesting depending on role and project (but terrible management and culture is a huge drain and makes it not worthwhile).

Cons – Company propaganda: Rockwell Collins is about Integrity and goes by the book on principles.
Fact: I discovered that for people that are connected inside the old boys/gals circle, Integrity and ethics are mere convenience. They can juggle and flip it any way they want to suit their own agendas. Key people including people in Management, HR and Ombudsman are involved in behaviors that Rockwell should not be proud of. In addition, what I see from other bloggers and what I heard and saw inside the company is not encouraging.
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Company propaganda: Rockwell middle managers in Engineering are focused on providing customer value and will put themselves on the line to achieve it.
Fact: In my experience and observation (and getting information from several quarters), the middle managers and long-time engineers are coasting along and need scapegoats to pass the buck.
New hires with experience in other companies are particularly vulnerable. HR mentioned during new hire orientation that it is not what you know and are capable of doing that matters in this company but rather who you know.
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Employee is made to believe: Engineering managers and long-time engineer old boys/gals have good intent but it is just difficult personalities leading to difficult team dynamics.
Fact: There is persistent and deliberate bullying and displacement of talent at Rockwell Collins perpetrated by people who are confident they have the support to get away with it. The support may go all the way up to Executives who seem callous when it comes to real issues inside teams, lest many problems would not exist. New employees especially with experience from other companies are easy target.
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Myth: Rockwell Collins has an inclusive work environment. Rockwell Collins has very high technical talent that is above and beyond ….
Fact: There is competition inside Rockwell on who excludes whom and people going to great lengths to edge people out. The rat race is encouraged by Management itself as some others in this blog have alluded to.
Fact: Average talent base at Rockwell. Lot of people coasting along with no incentive to do real and great technical work, and many are doing work without trying to change the status quo. If anyone new comes along that have differing views, then just squash them. Paper pushers thrive. Crony behavior is rampant. Outsourcing to Asia, steep growth and density of foreign workers in Cedar Rapids as a proxy for competent leadership. Rockwell does not have it in its DNA to create a strong global culture either. Foreign workers have complaints about Rockwell as well.
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Myth: Foreign workers are needed in the U.S because we are not able to find US citizens that have suitable qualifications.
Fact: Employment of U.S based engineers and employee satisfaction inside the U.S are now closely linked to supply-demand characteristics of the global labor workforce. Management inevitably uses the path of least resistance to satisfy urgent psychological (ego & arrogance), maybe sometimes for genuine lack of domestic worker, by bringing in foreign workers at the expense of building a strong work-force domestically.
If they have any disagreements with anyone, an easy step is to dislocate that worker and get a foreign worker that will obey all commands and orders without disagreements even if it is wrong for projects and products or better still just outsource the work to Asia to improve cost competitiveness.
On the other hand, Respect for foreign born workers is very low in this company. If you are a foreign-born or foreign worker, spare yourself and dont venture in this horrible company. The company lacks diversity when it comes to synthesizing different viewpoints.

They think 'Global' means ordering Asians to complete highly technical work tasks and expecting Asians to bow down in complete silence and respect while having low respect for Asians and looking down upon them in certain disdain. There are many Engineers here like that, if you like that in todays workforce, maybe you should join. But dont expect this culture to last long.

Company leadership is unable to create teams where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.
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Myth: In Rockwell Collins teams work by sharing, inclusion and collaboration and keep things transparent to all employees. All employees have free and fair opportunity.
Fact: Engineering Leaders buy into rumors or maybe even create them. Rumors are rampant and generated particularly about employees that have innate curiosity and desire to do better and grow, but also bring expertise from elsewhere in the industry. Intellectual dishonesty is rampant among the old boys/gals Rockwell network. Verbal slurs are used if necessary to bully people. Innovation, product quality, product development cost, culture and professionalism are victims along with the bullied target.
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Myth: Rockwell Collins Engineering Management Leaders take responsibility, are eager to be on the forefront and have bias for assertive action that benefits employees, products and customers. They like to take ownership for their behaviors and actions.

Fact: As an example, during the new hire orientation meeting, a high level executive deferred a question from one of the new hires to two Engineering Directors standing next to him. Both these Directors seemed to be ball playing, giving the ball back and forth and finally the impatient and frustrated Executive jumped in and answered the question. None wanted to risk giving an answer and be held accountable. So they figured its best to stay out of the action. Point I am making is people are more interested in preserving their legacy, fame and their self-preservation than are interested to contribute and get the job done. Right or wrong for the company or for society, these people in high leadership seem to do this because they know it works and for themselves. This culture seems to be widespread in Rockwell Collins. Now one of those Directors is promoted to VP level and the organization he has left behind through his ‘leadership' is as always in dysfunction.

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Advice to Senior Management – This is the lousiest set of management competencies assembled in one place that I have seen.

Bring in decisive leadership and promote people who can execute with the right mindset and reasons.

Do not expect positive business impact when you use fear, intimidation, rumors, coercion and other shenanigans on employees.

Treat employees very well. Dont treat them like sheep and cattle. They are your most important assets. Come out of management hubris and idiocy based mangement into something reasonable for the knowledge based economy.

Command and control style works only in a predictable world where Rockwell can develop a second rate product architecture and then relax for the next 20 years using the efforts as a cash cow. It will not work that way.Take action on employees who propogate this culture. It is contrary to what is necessary for todays global and dynamic workforce with global competition where customers are international.

Give leadership based on compassion a try. Include it in your corporate values. Develop empathy in leaders although it may not be first nature to Rockwell managers. It helps in developing people, teams and in developing products that your customers deserve. It will also help reduce costs. Look at your neighbors and learn. It is sound business practice to learn from outside industry. And of course learn from employees who come from outside Rockwell with a different take on your products and development process and are trying to help. It is good for shareowners.

Start thinking about a culture with global mindset without being completely unfair to U.S based employees. Respect foreigners and foreign born US employees. I mean True Respect! Not show business and dog and pony efforts that this company isadept at. It requires real leadership and not cheap arrogance, favoritism and cronyism.

Embrace change. Bring in management leaders that are reactive and not reactionary and who practice Rockwell values. Treating people who do real work like cattle is not the way of the future for society.

Good luck!

Some upper management needs schooling. A lot of friends and family type issues.•	Provided day to day working leadership within a production facility by ensuring that safe-working procedures, good housekeeping practices and all company policies are adhered to at all times.
•	Plan and organize the efficient and effective use of manpower, equipment and material resources.
•	Scheduled, distributed and control work assignments to provide smooth flow of both priority and routine tasks to ensure efficient utilization of personnel and production requirements were met in a timely basis.
•	Provided support and direction to employees on all questioned challenges.
•	Worked with my team to drive continuous improvement through driver measures, open team dialogue and actively participating in Driver/ACE board meetings.
•	Participated and supported all ACE related activities and drive ACE initiatives.
•	Interfaced with appropriate support personnel (Manufacturing, Engineering, Production Control, and Inspection, in the investigation of production problems encountered in meeting schedule requirements and/or quality standards.
•	Acted proactively to ensure a safe work environment and promote safe work habits through formal audits and continuous contact with the shop floor.
•	Acted as a coach and mentor to improve employee performance and engagement.
•	Resolved employee concerns by listening, analyzing and taking action.
•	Conducted performance reviews, lead coaching discussions and participate in hiring activities.
•	Coordinated overtime and vacation planning to ensure adequate coverage during shift.
•	Worked with the teams to understand the need to drive continuous improvement through driver measures, open team dialogue and a bias for action; actively participate in daily Driver measure board meetings.
•	Performed daily morning Gemba walks.
•	Established lines of communication between other supervisors and cell leaders, determined the area of responsibility to ensure assignments are completed in accordance with procedures and instructions.
•	Assisted in reviewing “real time” problem areas that have been identified by monitoring QN's and PDS sheets. Also ensuring proper actions has been taken to correct problems from recurrence.
•	Supervised the on-going reduction of inventory and elimination of waste from the business by promoting and applying LEAN principles and daily TPM and 5S in the shop.
•	Investigated production issues to determine feasibility and suggested new production ideas including acquisition and commissioning of new production.
•	Worked with our Maintenance team to drive rapid closure of all daily machine issues, and identify opportunities for PM, TPM and additional support.
•	Performed other duties when assigned.

I worked at UTC for 5+years. UTC had 14 schedule changes during my time, to the current work load of 4on/4off 12 hour days, with a high frequency of calls early am on your days off to come in for OT. They have no problems paying OT you work. Work loads are visually tracked and expectations are often unrealistic. Support and management are often unavailable when you need them. The Spokane plant has a very high turn over due to management, schedule changes and ever increasing production expectations. There are never enough people to meet production demands and every day you have to explain why your department failed to meet them. This leads to conflict within the teams. There always has to be someone to blame. Managers in general are inexperienced and overloaded, and don't always handle things the best ways. Communication severely lacks at this facility. Promotions are given to the most popular employees over those who are most qualified. This facility expects a lot from all of it's employees and doesn't care if you have a life outside of work. Before it was bought out by UTC, the atmosphere was "family" oriented. Now it is strictly "corporate" oriented. HR is no assistance to it's employees for any matters. Plant manager allows managers, engineers and admin to run the facility. Often times people spend more time micro-managing other people than actually contributing to successful production.

Bottom line is, its a rough, stressful and frustrating job to go to day in and day out. However, if you can tolerate the gripe and dedicate yourself 100% (no other life than work) to your job, it pays well and the benefits are pretty good.

PS: To give you an understanding of the "corporate" standing UTC has, when the tax rebates came out for big employers, Walmart and other big businesses gave their employees bonuses. UTC used that money for itself to pay off debt and obtain contracts. UTC used to give out holiday bonuses and quarterly bonuses. Also planned family events at discounts. All of these perks rapidly declined to none (UTC buyout) since I was employed. From a business standpoint, I get it. But employees are valuable and should enjoy their job, as much as the shareholders enjoy the money we make them! Last thing to note: During the span of my employment, UTC fired and rehired over 500+ employees. There are only a couple handfuls of people still working from when I was hired.

Once you get familiar with the material management and accounting system,  Collins offers very challenging work assignments in a business casual workplace. It is like a family here and something about the culture and inclusiveness drives you to get involved. The culture is team-driven and customer-focused.  Achievement of goals is paramount to job security.  You are expected to perform your duties well and help others to achieve theirs and with an attitude of graciousness.

Most of the people you work with are brilliant, sharp, hardworking and have a can-do attitude. They enjoy what they do and spend 60-80 hours a week in the pursuit of building the future of Collins here in Sterling. The hardest part of the job is the political and managerial ambiguity.  It is a fast-moving technical environment as well.

I would say that the most enjoyable part of the job is creative freedom; to use the available tools and freedom to create new tools to get my job done. My manager is supportive most of the time. I also like to work with supplier partners to build win-win relationships. The programs I work on and the people that staff them are the best in Industry. You could not ask for a better team of people, than Collins Aerospace.

Navigating the political structure well-enough to achieve the Vision that could be realized at Collins takes a person that deals well with workplace ambiguity.  For a relatively small presence in Sterling the politics are highly visible.  The policies are issued from Cedar Rapids, IA. and they are not always constructive to getting the work performed in a timely manner and internal systems and audit functions are not always helpful when necessary. Owners of the  command media and MMAS system, have the authority to actually slow work flow causing financial, technical and performance risk to the programs we support and the subcontractors we are trying to partner with long-term. An attitude of gratitude works well.

Local management is excellent and does their best to run interference with Cedar Rapids. That being said you must have a calm, well-thought out approach to work and a barrier from frustration. If workplace ambiguity is difficult for you, give some thought to how you will manage it including getting a mentor.

Overall, it is a good place to work and it could be great. Enjoy the challenges. In fact this might be a great job-fit for the right person.

On the surface the company looks le a great place.  Once established in the ranks, it's apparent that the only focus is dollars.  The constant spiral of continuous improvement is merely for show.  Management doesn't support quality initiatives. Metrics are ignored and the only thing they show is a lack of action from leadership/ management. Management will flat out tell you they don't have time to train up employees.  Individuals have been let go for fraudulent maintenance encouraged by their leadership who is still present. Absolutely no accountability. People constantly overstep their roles and responsibilities in order to support numbers and will disregard established processes and procedures making it more difficult in those areas where lines have been crossed.  This degrades the morale of the employees and creates a constant battle for those who are truly passionate and engaged. Leadership goes so far as to take customer goods and transport them in their personal vehicles, violating too many requirements to count, just for numbers.  The manuals/ procedures are ignored even after leadership approval.  The current QM has started multiple times that he cannot wait for his 12 months to be up so he isn't required to lay back relocation costs.  The previous QM to that created a toxic relationship between Ops and Quality, pulling wool over everyone's eyes until finally let go.  It's a shame they don't embrace the excellent employees they do have and merely look to just stay afloat to get by.  This place is all show and no action. This is very well known amongst the rank and file within the site who all feel undervalued. Communication from management is terrible and often the highlight of employee surveys with no resolution.  HR does not like conflict but loves hosting lunches! They have no ability to take advantage of the golden nuggets if information they often speak of. Can't even successfully close their own internal audit findings without WWIII happening. Numbers numbers numbers, which would improve if they walked the talk.
Proceed with caution.

This review if focused on the Electronic Systems Center located in Phoenix AZ.  This site was part of Goodrich before being acquired by UTC Aerospace Systems.  It is now part of the newly renamed Collins Aerospace.  

I would recommend being very careful when considering working there.  Over the last four years leadership has turned over several times and employee attrition has been very high.  That doesn’t happen in a well run, successful organization.  My experience is that there is a poor overall level of competence at all levels within the organization.  This site is responsible for development of high criticality airborne electronics, but when you look closely at managers it becomes obvious that there is almost no real world design experience.  The people in these management roles have little to no ability to make reasoned decisions or assess the quality of work or skill of members of their team.  

What you end up with is a culture where you spend a majority of your time planning and re-planning projects, creating unnecessary project updates, and trying to work around roadblocks.  All this extra work makes  50-60 hour weeks necessary to get the important work done.  The competent people in the organization inevitability become frustrated and move on.  

Historically, higher level leaders did not communicate a coherent vision for the organization.  I would be surprised if that has changed as I believe it comes from being part of the UTC Aerospace Systems.  The executives very tightly control what goes on within the different sites.  This lack of autonomy makes it hard for leaders to drive positive change.

If you consider working there ask a lot of questions.  If you are an engineer ask your prospective manager technical questions.  Ask about their role in past projects.  If your leader cannot demonstrate technical competence do not work for them.   Try to use your network to identify people who can directly share insight into what it is like before you make a decision to work there.

What is the best part of working at the company?
The on site cafeteria was very good.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
I was hired due to my experience on a particular PCB layout tool suite the company had decided to implement. However after starting work I was immediately tasked to design boards using the older soon to be phased out tool. I thought this would be a short term situation. However after the 6th month I decided it was time for me to move on. This was by far the most stressful part of working for the company. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
I would have to say the overall environment and culture was in my opinion very adverse to change. I did notice that most of the people I interfaced with had been employed there a long time. Over 15 years on average. That being said when I would ask why a certain task had to be performed a certain way, even though the PCB industry worldwide moved away from such practices I was told "we have always done it that way". One example I can share is the practice of putting TARGETS on each layer of the board. TARGETS were used long ago when the industry used light tables to line up the layers when either hand tapeing or reviewing the mylar prints. Today light tables are no longer used and the electronic data is automatically aligned by the software tools. Short answer, TARGETS are obsolete yet they have to be in the data because it's the way we do things. This is just one of many such issues observed and the environment is rife with this mindset.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
The people I worked with day to day were very nice and helpful with any questions I might have with the soon to be obsolete tool suite. They were very well versed in how to used the custom apps that were written for the older tool and were eager to share. However I quickly learned to not mention the new tool as this seemed to immediately change the environment from pleasant to bordering on hostile.

Quotes to customers by email, getting quote approvals back from customers any where between 10 to 25 a day. Talking to customers on the phone , tracking there equipment down and letting them know where it is in the process and how soon it will ship giving AWB's. Working with Technician's out on the repair floor working with Shipping Receiving. Dealing with AOG's and Urgent requests for major Airlines and business jet. Foreign and Domestic.
Doing Billing Review on the units that are shipping that day working with other people in Cedar Rapids to clear Billing Blocks, Credit holds.
Making sure all customers are happy and getting the attention they need. Weekly meeting with Program Managers, Meeting with my manager for the Sales each week so that we reach our goal each month. Working with the Service manager to get customers units out in a timely manner.
I have learned that the customer ALWAYS come FIRST.

Management : I don't mind working hard but 12 hour days are a bit much and managers  are not Proactive at all and do not listin to the employees.

Most of my coworkers are great to work with. We all work very hard and try to address the customers needs. There are some I work with that work harder at getting out of work then just doing their job.

The hardest part of my job is working with a manager that don't know what and how my job is done and just assumes.

•the most enjoyable part of the job is working with the customers and making a great working relationship with them. And making sure they get their equipment back before the plane goes AOG.
I have got some great working relationships with a lot of the people I have worked with at Southwest Airlines, Delta, JetBlue, Embraer to just name a few. I have worked with the same ones for at least 7 years and they have all become family.

During my time with UTC, I recall countless opportunities arising allowing me to discover and take on board tasks I would have otherwise missed the chance to explore, which enhanced certain experiences aiding growth and further development within the organisation.

Due to the nature of work involved, I liaised with business associates and work colleagues from around the world further developing a deeper understanding of cultural barriers and differences which broadened and improved my communication skills.

Things don't always run smoothly or according to the blue print we set in our minds, but this was eased knowing I could take comfort in voicing my concerns, trusting my line manager to listen openly with no judgement and then work through the subject I stumbled upon, providing the necessary support to resolve issues in a gentle, confidential and considerate manner.

Being an outgoing and friendly person along with a professional attitude, I've always found it easy to get  along with a diverse range of individuals regardless of position within the company, guess that is where adaptability, appreciation and acknowledgement of other peoples strengths and learnt experiences comes into play.

Busy office environments can be highly demanding. It requires capacity to focus, coupled with attention to detail which I found hard as a new comer, but not impossible once I got into the swing of things. All became easier to maintain a level head in my approach to fulfilling my duties.

Learning new aspects of the job and being able to utilize them accordingly made things interesting and where possible these new activities were improved to make working more efficient and effective for the entire team. Needless to say the group outings and togetherness was great to be apart of.

There is a lot of politics that occur here. If you rub someone the wrong way they have a say on your development/career progress regardless if you report to them or not. They like to have a lot of managers but not enough people who can actually contribute. All the managers do is ask for status updates rather than actually contribute to problem solving. So you consistently have many managers asking you for the same updates, then when they go to their meetings they present the information as if they are the individuals conducting the work. We currently have had a lot of employees leave to seek work elsewhere, yet management thinks its more of an individual problem rather than work culture issue. They do not see it as employee attrition. 
Basic structure of the work place is that you have 3-5 managers for one engineer. Instead of providing help for the engineers they think adding another manager would somehow ease the load of the engineer. Management does not understand how to manage their personnel. They conduct these employee surveys but be careful, they go straight to the manager and the manager receives only what his team said on the surveys. So if the manager has 2-3 people underneath them, they can easily narrow down who gave them a low score. 
Managers believe anyone is interchangeable and do not understand anything in the process. There are several divisions within the site, union vs salary, technical vs production, operations vs program management, department vs department. Essentially who can throw each other under the bus before the other can.


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