Rockwell Collins Reviews

Some of the worst management I have ever dealt with- worse than my former managers flipping burgers. Constant passive aggressive emails, poor training, wasteful meetings, obvious favoritism, lack of caring about their employees they report too and I was lied to/deceived numerous times regarding potential opportunities. Both individuals I reported to did not know the job or basic concepts needed to perform to an acceptable level. Also accountability throughout the department was not upheld, especially regarding timeliness and quality of work and for those that did perform at the highest level expect only a small amount of appreciation and further compensation. Career development is a complete joke- something they talk about constantly, even though it mostly doesn't exist unless you're buddy buddy with the managers and talk about flowers and sunshine. Good morning sir! What a great day to be alive here at Rockwell Collins- can I get you a cup of coffee? The bottom line is this is a STEPPING STONE for many people- not a career, which many managers take offense too. Unfortunately the trend for hiring is to bring in some retired military individual who they know is tired of traveling and wants to settle down- they don't encourage entry level growth and exit. And by the way, expect major favoritism for the military workers. Any recent graduates should certainly pursue this job, however I highly encourage looking elsewhere as soon as possible- also NWS doesn't seem to look at this experience as high quality- only one individual during my tenure was offered a job there. Also if you are not from Houston you more than likely are going to hate it- an unbearable summer that seems to last for 8 months, terrible public transportation, high crime (which is near the office), crazy traffic/drivers, and surprisingly a relatively low amount of activities to do for the 4th largest city in America.

Rockwell Collins is a toxic work environment. It requires a very special kind of self hatred to actually like working in this place. There is only two valid reasons I can come up with why anyone would want to work here. You want to live in Iowa and you're an engineer. Cause there's not many other places to work except RC if you're an electrical engineer in Eastern Iowa. 80% of your time as an EE will be spent doing paperwork and if you're lucky, the other 20% might involve some design work, that's if you are VERY lucky. The technology is outdated (think 1990s), the management is outdated (think 1980s), the company infrastructure is WAY outdated (think dial up internet; except dial up would be faster). Rockwell brags about it's 'technology'. Truth is it's 7-10 years behind the technology curve that the rest of the world works in. You'll be working on old old stuff, especially if you're a software engineer. DO NOT COME HERE IF YOU ARE A SW ENGINEER. EVER. Deliver pizzas if you have to. Just don't come to Rockwell. Think 5 inch floppy drives. Yep. That's right. If you like BS paperwork, you might fit in. Try DOORS, Microsoft Project, Subversion, Clear Quest, Clear Case, PREP, SAP, for starters. How about Lotus Notes for your e mail? And how about no SPICE simulation tool? How about no Sigrity, no HFSS, no net constrait tool, the crappiest layout tool you will ever see (Zuken CR5000). Would you like to spend most of your career linking requirements in DOORS? Well, maybe this place would be for you...but I doubt it. Most of the engineers I worked with fit into several categories. Some want to live in Iowa and like RC, some have no marketable skills to offer any other employer and they are literally stuck at RC and don't like it, and the retired in place people whose only wish is to last long enough to get enough points to qualify for retirement. All versions are mediocre engineers. There are a few bright spots, but usually they leave for greener pastures. If you are eager to learn and grow your career, these engineers are not the ones you want to work with. You will learn NOTHING except the Rockwell process, good for only one thing; working at Rockwell. Trust me. Now as for 'moving up the ladder' in engineering? Forget it. Only path up is management, usually program management. You'll spend 15 years toiling away as a grunt engineer before you are even considered for a promotion to principle. Yeah, 15 long years. And most admins get treated FAR better than grunt engineer types. Why? Supply and demand. Think about it. 1 place to work in Cedar as an engineer, 100 places to work as an admin. Supply and demand. They are comfortable hiring engineers to do admin work because it's so difficult to find admins to work at Rockwell, no lie friend. My advice: there are so many other real companies in the country, even other avionics places, where you'll do far better than working at this dismal, depressing, soul crushing company. You have been warned. If you do choose to join, plan on 1 year then getting the heck out. You have to stay 1 year to not have to pay back the moving and bonuses.