software engineer

senior software engineer

system engineer

principal software engineer

senior technical specialist

Hughes Network Systems

If you have given up on progressing professionally, you should immediately apply to Hughes Network Systems. Please let me be clear, I am speaking only of the Gaithersburg facility, as I cannot speak to the Germantown facility or the Lake Forest facility. 

Management is very heavy - you will meet more people with "Senior" or "Principal" in their titles than you will meet anyone else. However, there is a management fear and frenzy structure, as in upper management will pat themselves on the back until a flaw arises. It is then that everyone is whipped into working on that task and out of fear and constant micromanaging they drop all their other obligations to work on this new assignment. Once that is fixed, it appears that another flaw floats to the top, due to neglected tasks or a failing infrastructure.

Yes, the managing style of HNS in Gaithersburg is based on a whim, not on calculated scenarios or FMEA reports (yes, this company gloats about its Six Sigma but operates closer to 3 or 4 sigma at best). 

In a typical day, you will spend 50% of your time going through and generating reports or getting around red tape for tasks that are not only redundantly redundant, but inherently useless. About 40% of your time will be spent correcting the work of your colleagues, past and present. You will try your best to safeguard, but management will only provide so many resources.

Finally, because of the fear of management and the constant contact, instituting reforms is very difficult, especially if it goes between departments, as the upper management acts as if their department is an independent entity that is the sole breadwinner of the facility, and all others must adapt to them.

I have worked with others from all the departments in the facility and can safely say that the things I've said are generally true for any position. It is because of these factors that lower tiered employees are nearing retirement age and are in a state of, "Yeah, that's a big problem, but it won't be my problem for long". Concurrently, management seeks to use Temps whenever possible, as much as possible - 75% of the employees in this facility are temporary, and thus have no investment in the company.

Hughes is not a place to stay. Hughes is not a nurturing environment. Hughes is not beneficial to your career aspects. 

If you are looking for a dead end for your career, then Hughes is for you.

I worked there for 3 years at multiple positions. The CEO and staff are a bit racist. They implement illegal labor practices. The product is pretty defective. For 2 million sold products-half were returned due to defects. I would absolutely recommend this job ONLY AS A LAST RESORT. They throw a lot of over-time to new employees. However, they will fire you if you decline the overtime hours repeatedly. There were few good Gems in terms of long-term employees who look out for people (Usually people that were the same color as them). The office staff seemed pretty happy and relaxed, but the Factory Floor was absolutely terrible. 

Once, I found someone that had broken their arm on the floor and was not moving (He didn't speak English and was unable to read the million of signs posted everywhere). Managements response was to give everyone a formal warning about picking up trash. Also, Someone took a picture of me while using the bathroom, and when I told security, they did not believe me or didn't care, yet I still returned after a lay-off. I was fired because I wanted to take breaks and my supervisor wanted me to stand at my station for 8 hours non-stop, while giving others breaks. If you want a job with little money for doing relatively nothing-this place is it. 

WHAT I LEARNED
You do not know what a good job is until you have a BAD one. It was a great experience, I have a better idea of what a BAD JOB is and what a good one is. By far the worst employment experience I ever had and never plan on returning.  The cleaning staff contractors make more money that the Trained factory staff.

I have over 25 years experience in managing quality management systems. My management activities include:
Supplier quality management, (foreign suppliers I have worked with and visited included, Scotland, Germany, England, Mexico)
Performing a variety of quality audits, (internal, supplier, 3rd party audits)
CAPA development and management, (continuous improvement, problem solving)
Collecting and reporting on quality metrics,
Management of the companies document control system,
Preparing quality data for management reviews,
Managing control of non-conforming materials which included RMA processing,
Gathering data to formalize customer required failure analysis reporting,
Dealing with customers to resolve issues related to product quality and service quality,
Training company personnel on their roles and responsibilities for maintaining the corporate quality management system,
Providing assistance in manufacturing for developing and writing work instructions,
Working with individual departments to establish metrics and help set goals,
Chairing the company core QMS teams.
Developing total quality management documentations to comply with quality standards such as:
ISO 9000,
TL 9000,
ISO 13485, and
ISO 17025.
My experience has also included documenting internal requirements associated with military standards such as:
MIL-PRF-38534,
MIL-STD-883,
MIL-STD-202

Pros
Overall experience is really team-dependent, but here are my thoughts so far:
• Great work-life balance, mostly because there's very little work
• Company doesn't care about your performance as long as you do the bare minimum
• Plenty of time to find a new job while you are here

Cons
• If you applied for a software engineering position, the chances are that you'll be doing anything but coding. I've been mostly working on bug-fixed for the first 9 months.
• Management is horrendous. Forget about team leads and project managers, all you get is a couple of senior engineers who wouldn't bother to give you any tasks and a manager who has no idea what you or your teammates are doing.
• The salary is not competitive, but there's very little work, so it might actually be a pro if you recalculate it on a per-hour basis.
• Forget any good software development practices, as people don't follow them at all. Code reviews? Never heard of it. Well-defined assignments? You'll figure out what you need to do on the go. Documentation? You'd be lucky if someone left comments in the code.
• Tech stack is extremely outdated. The company mostly consists of older folks, so most of the software they use is straight from the 90s. You'll be lucky if you end up on one of the teams that use git, otherwise, you'd have to learn ClearCase.

From the hiring process to training, my experience here has been frustrating. I was promised a salary but ended up with an hourly wage lower than what was initially disclosed. Training was disorganized, and management lacks the knowledge to provide proper guidance—forcing me to learn on my own while also creating SOPs for my manager. Performance reviews were unhelpful, and team dynamics made it difficult to ask questions or learn efficiently.

The company enforces strict badging policies, tracking arrivals and departures down to the minute. Remote work flexibility is almost nonexistent, and even being sick isn’t considered a valid reason to work from home. Employees are pressured into switching to Boost Mobile, with leadership implying that not doing so questions our loyalty. There are no maternity leave benefits, and the overall work environment is demotivating. The best part of the day is leaving.

I hate this place, specifically the Gaithersburg location. I didn't mind it at first until socially I discovered it was just a drag. The employees are stressed and take it out on others because poor and clueless management is constantly watching over them as if they were robots. Half of the management does not know what they are doing half of the time and when things go awry, they take it out on the employees in the assembly line.  Line Leaders and Managers do not know how to speak to contract employees professionally and are disrespectful because they think their position allows them to treat them like that. On top of that, they ask you troubleshooting questions as if they paid you enough to know that information. Furthermore, it is an unstable job if you're under Randstad contract. Never, AGAIN! I will not recommend ANYONE to go there, ever. Your freedom is limited to the MAX. This will not benefit you at all. Might make a couple bucks, but that's it.

Hughes is a company with a proud history of pioneering satellite internet; it is the global biggest player in the industry. The company continues to expand into emerging markets around the world, which is fun.

The downside is that the culture is very old and very conservative, from a business perspective. You don't go here for cutting edge business practices or rapid advancement, because generations of people older than you are still sitting in those chairs doing things the exact same way they did them 20 years ago. Those people stay because of the job/lifestyle stability, not the salaries, which are lagging.

The people at Hughes are very nice and easy to work with, but not particularly ambitious. The company is the very definition of aging, but you can get some good experience because of its unique position in the market.

The operations department was great. Management were all nice and approachable. Day to day work was different every day, the data centers were a wild place one day and then quiet the next. Hours were generally pretty flexible being that it's a 24/7 operation, so you could come in early and leave early if you had stuff to do or come in late and stay late. The only stipulation was if there was an issue, everyone stays until it's fixed. The benefits were on par with most other companies. They paid to relocate me. The pay was alright but the cost of living was high there so it's an offset. The opportunity for advancement is there but you have to be good at what you do and be motivated. I liked that in one day I could be installing servers and network equipment then be called to help on an RF issue. I only left because I had to move away, otherwise I'd probably still be there.

I worked for this organization for 6 months. After 6 months I walked out because the manager was disrespectful to me and the rest of the employees. The hours are 10 hour days which isn't enough because the department is understated. The problem here is the leadership and how they manage their departments. I worked my back off and worked weekends just to be able to ensure the work was done. I ran the department best I could when the manager was off but it wasn't good enough for him. He is a very grumpy individual who needs to retire. The rest of the leadership could use a class or two in mindful leadership as well . I do not recommend this to anyone. I would steer clear from this business as they only care about bottom line profits than cultivating a respectful and working environment. 

Working as a team is unheard of in this manufacturing environment.  Everyone is out for themselves.  The first objective is to throw a co-worker under the bus rather than helping than helping each other improve and succeed.  Management does not believe in empowering employees.  The few employees that are trusted with added responsibility are used but not given real opportunity to grow.  Morale is so low that the employees do not want to grow because negative reinforcement is the primary tool for teaching.  No one there wants to take on added stress, consistently get ripped a new one for making learning mistakes and not given any acknowledgment for their successes.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Software engineer 9 salaries reported	$96,000 per year
Senior software engineer 8 salaries reported	$99,250 per year
System engineer 6 salaries reported	$102,667 per year
Principal software engineer 3 salaries reported	$158,667 per year
Senior technical specialist 8 salaries reported	$121,000 per year

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