I was first contacted by HR on June 5th and interviewed on June 11. I received a Letter of Intent on June 20, an offer on July 3 and was supposed to start on July 14, but a last minute glitch would have delayed that a week. A rather long process.
It could have been even longer as I pushed for a response from Raytheon after I received another job offer. Also, the day before I was supposed to start work their nurse contacted me and wanted a physician report before she would clear me for work. I had broken my wrist eight months earlier and hurt my knee in the fall, so the nurse wanted to confirm I could walk and type! Raytheon's medical group had taken a week to process my medical form, so by the time I could arrange to meet with a doctor and have Raytheon process the doctor's response it might have added a week delay to my start date.
When you accept an offer from Raytheon, you're given many different forms to fill out. You're also directed to more than 16 internal documents to read that describes work policies. One document listed another document that you were to bring with you on the first day, but didn't provide a link to the document. However, I found it in their online document library. I carefully read this document but could not agree to signing it. Here's the clause in their "Employee Agreement - Proprietary Information, Inventions and Other Intellectual Property" document that concerned me:
"2.10 Employee hereby grants Raytheon the right to use, reproduce and to authorize others to use and reproduce his/her name, picture, likeness, voice, biographical information and the like as Raytheon may deem appropriate."
There doesn't appear to be a time limit as to when they can use your name and other information. Also, they don't have to ask your permission or inform you when they use that information. I assume they're requiring this because they want to use your personal/professional information to market any ideas/patents/copyrights you develop as an employee. I'm a nobody, but I'm a somebody and I don't want my name and other information used without my consent or knowledge.
The other issue/concern I had related to the medical information they require before you start. They require completion of a 4-page medical form that asks about your visual, hearing and speech abilities, physical impairments, blood pressure, chest problems, allergies, chemical intolerances, occupational injuries, immune system deficiencies, medications and vaccines. They want the dates you had illnesses such as Measles, Mumps, Small Pox, Typhoid, BCG, tuberculosis skin test, etc. The last time I supplied that much information was for an insurance application.
They take the answers on this form seriously, and as I mentioned earlier, a broken wrist 8 months earlier concerned them. If I needed to use a cane or was old and had bad knees, I'm not sure I would have qualified for the job. If they're willing to hire people who are not able-bodied, they must be defining disabilities pretty narrowly.
I had been looking forward to working with the people I met during my interview. But Raytheon's paperwork and policies raised red flags. I feel it has a lot to say about how Raytheon treats it's people.
