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General Atomics

If you're considering internships in technical communication/technical writing, then I would definitely recommend you try out an internship at GA-ASI or any of GA's affiliates. Even if you don't have much experience or even education in aerospace, I encourage you to apply anyway, especially if you can demonstrate effective writing skills and communication during the application process (e.g., sending the recruiter a sample of any of your work in a tech writing course at school or even a document you composed yourself). 

Now, in regards to the company itself, I thought it was a great company to work for overall, despite having to work from home most of the time because of COVID-19. I thought the work culture was very friendly and inclusive and that the employees were very courteous and helpful when it came to my work on different projects. 

As an intern, a good majority of your tasks will include but are not limited to collecting information for these documents via interviews with SMEs or browsing the company's databases, using structured-authoring tools to develop these documents, and interfacing professionally with various stakeholders on the job. Some examples of documents I would produce included but were not limited to operational/maintenance procedures, troubleshooting guides, and other manual content.

If you have at least some interest in wanting to learn more about aerospace and the many technologies within the industry, consider applying to the internship to get valuable experience as a technical writer, to build your skills as a tech writer throughout the process, and to have an opportunity to work for a company that continues to make great strides in its aerospace innovations with its collection of UAVs and other similar technologies.

General Atomics EMS:
Benefits are solid; the ROTH 401K is great, they have on site gyms, lawyer insurance, and work schedule is soft.

The pay looks good at first, but then you realize they maybe give 2% raises, so you get outpaced by inflation quickly these days.  Medical insurance is not at a discount, could find similar rates for the same plan on the open market.  The bonus is based on corporate performance, so the phrase "we lost/didn't get a contract" means the bonus gets throttled.  The contracts are also wildly underestimated so that they can win the bid, so as a technical specialist there were never any available hours I was allowed to charge to projects, but I wasn't allowed to charge to overhead either.  The project managers seemed overworked, but the technical specialists felt like we did a lot of sitting and waiting which would be a cushy job if you don't want go anywhere in your career and know how to lie about your government contracting hours.  

The require you to be on site, but I simply sat on the computer for all my meetings because the manufacturing site is in Mississippi and the rest was computer work, therefore I had a completely remote job....that I had to do from my in-office cubicle.

I would complain about management because it was terrible, but they did a complete realignment of the directors and VPs two months before I left in 2022, so I do not have  knowledge about how that worked out, but at least they recognized there was an issue.

During my employment at General Atomics, I was originally hired for a specific role in our metrology group to help production.  There were a handful of employees who each were responsible for 1-2 processes in the clean room, including the position I filled.  With my hunger for growth, I got myself involved with learning all the metrology processes and became the support role for the whole production floor.  This position allowed me to dive into process improvement and make the overall production more efficient where I could help.  In addition to the production role I was originally hired for, there became a need to manage the group's database (FileMaker Pro) so I stepped up to the challenge.  I taught myself the FileMaker Pro code and ended up making beneficial changes in the database (metrology tracker, fully automated capsule status, automatic data importing) which helped with clean room process improvement.  In addition, I created two databases from scratch (PAMS Batch, Direct Drive Capsules) for other groups in our department and linked them to our IFT databases.  This allowed for better organization of more readily available data throughout the department and new data avenues for statistical analysis.  I also managed a few projects and gave presentations to our client Lawrence Livermore National Labs (LLNL) about the results of various experiments.

The best part about this company is the people that work there. People like having fun while getting the work done, so it's a positive environment in that sense. 
However, the management is disorganized and does not have a clear plan. I worked for the company twice, with several years in between, and nothing changed while I was gone. The company is family owned, and the owner's main priority being to make as much money as they can. The compensation for work completed is lower than the industry, which often leads to quality people leaving within 1-2 years - it's easier to get more money if you leave for a year and come back, than to get an internal raise. 
Due to the recent layoffs, employee morale is low, and those who remain are being tasked with more and more work with fewer resources and support. If you are salaried, a 10 hour day is the norm and getting calls and emails after hours and on weekends is common. 
The company does not do a good job of growing talent from the inside either. While they offer access to LinkedIn Learning and tuition reimbursement, they do not give employees time to take these courses. 
All in all, at the individual level, you will find people who support you but from a company culture, there is a major lack of support for employees.

Growing Pains - Plenty Of Work But Not Enough Time or Resources.
Potentially a great work environment with fun and friendly coworkers.  Private Company has been under the radar for so long but now is evolving and bursting at the seams. You will hit the ground running from the time you sit down. Your day will be filled with plenty to do and that is great but the demands on top of that are a bit stressful as the tools are not in place to assist with being efficient. Company is now being exposed to operating as a major player. Employees are overworked and managers are like robots who are only concerned with metrics and don't tend to employee concerns.  Staff disintegrates rapidly causing repetitive vacuums and constant new hires. Most new hires are college grads. Experienced people leave and are rarely replaced. The untrained grads quickly get stressed out and then they leave. This cycle repeats so nothing is achieved and the work continues to back up for those who hang in there. Very manual operation for such a big company. If you are happy to just have a job, then you'll love this place. If you want to maintain your sanity and keep your stress level to a minimum, then look elsewhere.

Awful company.

People do nothing and get away with it.

Low Pay. Absolutely no opportunity for advancement or growth. They have a company policy that you cannot move up into another position if it is more than certain % of your current pay. There are many internal talented employees that are not considered for positions due to this rule. It's absurd. They would rather hire from the outside and pay someone more than give a more than qualified internal employee the promotion and raise.
Poor Management. Too many Chiefs and too little Indians.
If you are retired Military, you are given a job even though you have no experience.
No matter how hard you work, you will receive the same raise as someone who is a total slacker.
No recognition for your work accomplishments
Awful Time Card System for Hourly people. No flexibility with time. No overtime allowed and if you do work overtime, it will be removed from your timecard.
There is no "team" mentality. Most departments would rather fight against each other than work together.
Those who are salary you can come and go as you please and charge your freetime to whatever you want.  

Would NOT recommend this place to anyone. 

A fix would be getting rid of HR!

The atmosphere at first was tenuous and clichés were the norm with petty back biting and behind the back talk. Struggling through to show my abilities and skills applied to the assignments, was at first noticed and appreciated. As years went by, political changes in the atmosphere and constantly being told that "they are senior to you", when finally achieving that level, now all, new junior technicians and seniors were on the same level. In lab back talk was the norm. This is where the immaturity inside the production lab came out in full view. Individuals loudly voicing their opinions regarding my advancement to Tech VI, while I was absent, on deployment CONUS. Such a thing should never have taken place and mishandled by supervisory staff. Managers, with focus on the Deployment Coordinator, made all decisions under very emotional situations and maintained a Master Chief attitude with all decisions and never displayed a sense of respect for senior personnel no matter how much they did to advance the field service support. Incompetence seemed to be rewarded and attention to detail was abandoned. Beware of a toxic environment from the very beginning if you're not a part of the clich.

Coming from an electronics background in circuit board manufacturing, I would not have expected to find a company in the area that has the need for that kind of expertise and was surprised at the compensation and benefits package. 

A constantly evolving work environment plant-wide provides new opportunities for those specializing in welding, CNC programming/operation, Engineering, machine shop and fabrication. 

Yearly evaluations and bonus programs allow for feedback you may not get on a regular basis (unless something is wrong) and 401k and Pension couple nicely with the health/dental and vision benefits. 

Communication in any production plant and multi-billion dollar company spread out over the entire Country always leaves a lot to be desired and is probably my biggest "issue" with the company. You will hear when things go bad, but rarely hear anything when you excel. 

You like Over-time? It is there for the taking. 



This was my first job out of college. I spent each day looking for and waiting for work. The work I was given was either really interesting and really quick, or extremely boring and tedious. One of the nice things about GA is that they're willing to help pay for your education to some extent. I got to take a class through MIT and have it fully paid for by the company. Management is interesting since we have one boss, under a boss, under a boss, under a boss, like any other large corporate company. The culture is monotonous. It's just like you see in movies - people driving through 45 minutes of traffic to sit in a prison-cube for 9 hours a day and drive 45 minutes in traffic to come home and sleep. Not many people are friendly here, but there are some younger engineers I've been able to get to know. The hardest part of the job is getting promoted. You can work your butt off for 3+ years and not get anything but the annual merit raise. But the departments only give one person a promotion per year per team. The most enjoyable part is the benefits. Since its a large corporate company, they have a great 401K, pension, insurance, and all that. Probably the only reason I can give this place above 2 stars.

Shortly following my time in the Marine Corps I moved back to San Diego and started to apply for jobs at General Atomics Aeronautical.  Upon my first interview I was immediately hired to support two senior directors in the company.  Within a week I successfully assisted in the move of the entire Aeronautical Manufacturing department. Throughout my time as a Department Specialist IV I learned many different areas of the Manufacturing industry.  I created a FileMaker Pro call board which was on the Manufacturing floor and kept track of the need for inspectors to process a job to move production along.  Shortly after this I was sought after by 3 different departments within the company to come join their teams.  I chose the Quality Analyst role and quickly moved into this role and fulfilled the needs of the department.  
General Atomics was an amazing atmosphere with people who loved coming to work every day and enjoyed what they did.  We were a large company but family owned with a small company feel.  We worked hard and were appreciated for it.  
I would love to find a position in which I can grow and learn and continued to be challenged yet valued.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Software engineer 306 salaries reported	$119,859 per year
Engineer 322 salaries reported	$138,441 per year
Project engineer 168 salaries reported	$136,026 per year
Aircraft mechanic 184 salaries reported	$71,175 per year
Manufacturing engineer 175 salaries reported	$99,307 per year

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