Is SAIC a good company to work for?
Yes

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@jobgrades
Is SAIC a good company to work for?
Yes
Which job should I get in San Francisco?
Try the local startups.
SAIC - Stability, not Excitement
Salary: $116,000
Posted by Software Engineer, in San Diego, CA, USA on November 21, 2014 SAIC is mostly a IT technology company these days. It seems like over 1/2 the employees are ex Navy or Marines. This is good because in-general, these people are trustworthy and hard-working. All types of platforms are used including MS and Oracle. There is a current push to update all software and hardware to the latest versions. Most products center-on business needs, i.e. finance, accounting and communication. Margins are tight so no place to become a millionaire, but a great place to work at fair-pay and keep your quality of life.
VMWare - Pretty Cool Place to work
Posted by Sales Ops Manager, in San Francisco, CA, USA on January 17, 2008 The company is great, it feels like I'm taken care of...typical silicon valley startup style. Awesome Perks, free food everywhere, free school bus like service to me to work. Company has an awesome product.
Workwise, you've seen one sales ops job, you've pretty much seen them all, so issues are all apparent, and mostly same with all companies. But the company is brining on people like mad, so training and ramp up speed is tough, so experience is definitely a must to join this company.
Overall, I love working here, and am gaining weight as we speak.
Cisco - Company was good to me
Posted by Intern to Financial Analyst, in San Francisco, CA, USA on January 17, 2008 I was an intern turned Analyst after I graduated school locally. I learned a lot from the company and loved the way they would rotate their employees.
Perks were a plus too, free drinks, and some snacks. Free commuter checks, and other things here and there.
Tough to get in, but once in, you have a variety of jobs to choose from after about 2 years of serving your time on the original job you were hired for. Only thing to be worried about is if you choose the route of rotating, you learn different facits of the business, but don't move up as fast.
Pay wise, I moved around different jobs, and didn't get much of a raise, but to their defense, it was during the .com bust, and I should have been grateful I still had a job. After leaving, I learned so much, that I got promoted just by going to another company...overall, a good experience.
Pfizer - Internship
Posted by Computer Programmer Intern, in San Diego, CA, USA on January 29, 2008 Generally, an internship here was a good experience. I learned a lot about production-level coding. They have a lot of talented and friendly staff that you can learn from too. While I was there, I programmed in Java and misc Unix scripting. They also do C++.
I think that interning here would be great for UCSD computer science majors as well as any pre-med majors. It's just about across the street from campus and they even have a shuttle to and from.
The biggest problem I had was that the level of pay was sub-par. I was getting paid more being grunt web programming elsewhere! Pfizer should really consider changing their pay structure for interns.
Google - The Darker Side of Evil
Posted by Staffing, in Los Angeles, CA, USA on March 08, 2008 Work Culture:
Positives were: laid back culture, lots of fun,social events, great FREE breakfust/lunches/dinners (in Mtn View office), free snacks, culture of work hard/play hard, generally nice, friendly people (in HR and other departments), huge egos among the engineers were a downside. There was a lot of drinking and alot of happy hours (almost too many) in the Santa Monica office. It kind of felt like high school where everyone wanted to fit in and you felt peer pressure to show up at all of these off-site, social events. Those who "socialized" more faired better in their jobs. Those who didn't were marginalized.
Staffing Salary Benefits:
Salary and benefits meet industry standards. Rock stars are rewarded handsomely. Stock allocations have dwindled substantially since the IPO and are not the goldmine they once were.
Job Security:
Job Security used to be much better than what it is now. Recruiting contracts have been shortened from 1 yr to 9 months and far fewer conversions to FTE are happening. For most existing Googlers terminations for cause are rare unless you're blatantly underperforming, but future layoffs could potentially be on the horizon as Google's stock continues to tank. Google has already been written up in Vallewag about allegedly laying off many recruiting contractors.
Career Growth:
Google has a thin layer and few levels of management so it is very difficult to have a career path of upward mobility there. This is even more magnified in remote offices. It's better suited for an engineer who wants to be an individual contributor and team player.
Managment: As they say, your manager can make or break your experience. Unfortunately I had a moody, emotionally unstable and volatile manager who was unprofessional and the king of office politics.
Overall Comments: Google is a great place if you want to be surrounded by bright minds & soak up all of the perks and great company culture. I had tons of fun shooting pool, drinking mochas, and playing Guitar Hero. If gaining 15-30 lbs from all the free food/snacks is your goal this is place to be. Of course if you work in Mtn View you can work off the calories at the company gym. Workwise, if you're an engineer or product manager it will probably be rewarding and you'll learn a lot. There can be significant frustrations with the bureacracy/process that exists at Google, but at least you get a sense of organization and not controlled chaos. A lot of the engineers are very high maintenance and have huge egos sometimes to the point of being arrogant and condescending. It is difficult to hire people there because the standards for prospective engineers are exceedingly high. This is why so many Googler Engineers feel excessively proud to be "in the club," have a lot of loyalty and rarely leave (there is very low turnover). What I discovered is that the standard for recruiters who get hired as FTEs or converted from contractor to FTE is low. Many of the recruiters don't have college degrees or have degrees from unimpressive, less prestigious, lower-tiered schools. It is almost as though Staffing Management feels threatened by recruiters with brains who actually produce and don't engage in "rectal smooching". The "B" players in management tend to hire "C" players. For the most part people at Google are pretty cool, but like every company there are some very rotten apples. Just hope that one of these apples doesn't end up being your boss.
U.S. Department of State
Posted by Intern, in Washington, DC, USA on January 15, 2008
Great experience for those interested in U.S. foreign affairs. Interns are not subjected to the typical intern work, such as filing, copying, etc. And many interns actually have the opportunity to attend brown bags, important meetings, and contribute to important documents.
Microsoft - A pretty rad place to work
Posted by Software Development Engineer, in Seattle, WA, USA on December 14, 2007 A cool job at a cool company. We make so many products; there is always something interesting going on. The challenge is that you need to seek out the good work. It won't fall in your lap unless you try to get it.
The city itself sucks and the ratio is terrible. Live in Seattle, commute to Redmond. It is the only way.
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory - Awesome place to be a summer intern!
Posted by Computation Technical Scholar, in San Francisco, CA, USA on November 02, 2007
I worked as a summer intern in the computation directorate. I had an awesome experience at LLNL. The people I worked with were very helpful and just great people in general. Every intern gets assigned a project to complete over the summer, and I was lucky enough to have a wonderful mentor who gave me an interesting and challenging project where I worked with generating vector graphics in real-time.
I really enjoyed the academic and research-oriented environment. I would highly recommend attending the seminars that are provided for the summer students to learn more about what new research and cutting-edge technologies are being developed at the Lab. Here are some examples of seminar topics: details about how LLNL is constructing the largest laser in the world, discussions about how to achieve controlled nuclear fusion, supercomputing (they have the fastest supercomputer in the world), the forensic science center, and more.
California Pacific Medical Center - Flexible schedule for interns!
Posted by Intern Pharmacist inpatient, in San Francisco, CA, USA on October 25, 2007 I appreciated the flexibility in scheduling, which was perfect because I was a student. I had awesome coworkers who instantly made me feel at home from the beginning. I felt comfortable asking them for help. The internship provided me exposure to inpatient pharmacy, and allowed me to see the benefits and differences in working for a hospital setting. A great experience for those curious about hospital pharmacy. They typically hired 2 new students per year in the spring, usually from UCSF.
I was not too fond of working late (until 11:30pm) but I am an early morning person. Then again, it is a hospital too.
Cardinal Health - Great environment for new software interns
Posted by Embedded Software Intern, in San Diego, CA, USA on October 22, 2007 Cardinal Health has a great environment of principal engineers and other interns that are willing to help you out on any project you might have. I learned a great deal from this position and the people I met were extremely competent and knowledgeable. Tasks range from software debugging and testing to design and development of your own projects, depending on your initiative and skill set. It is a great position for anyone looking for their first internship or an experienced graduate with a strong embedded background. I highly recommend!
SPAWAR - Cool projects to work on but lots of red tape
Posted by Software Engineer, in San Diego, CA, USA on November 11, 2007
The line of work at SPAWAR can be very interesting. SPAWAR allows you to tour departments for a short duration before you decide to stick with one department. You also get to pick the projects you get to work on. There's work for every type of engineer. And if you don't like your project, you can propose one of your own for grants. You can hop around projects too. You also get the opportunity to travel if you like!
Job security is really good. I don't recall anyone ever being fired or let out.
All of this does come with responsibility and it can get stressful when you have to worry about getting your grant renewed.
I do not like the government environment. Their support system is horrible. You usually have to fix things yourself. The pay system is horrible. Their performance review structure is also horrible! It is hard to move up the ladder. You are not reviewed by your direct manager, but your department head who would know nothing of your work. You move up depending on how many years you been there and not merit.
If you can handle the government annoyances and want interesting work, this is the job for you. If I were to work at SPAWAR, I would do as a contractor instead of a full time. This gives you the benefit of interesting work but not at the expense of being surrounded by government red tape.
Qualcomm - A cool place that values interns
Posted by Software Engineer / QIS, in San Diego, CA, USA on October 15, 2007
First of all, NO CUBICLES!
The first day I got there as an internet I had an office with an accent wall. Also, when I first entered my office my brand new thinkpad was all setup with my 21'' external monitor.
My leaders were all super cool people we never lost focus that I was an intern as always were trying to help me grow and work around my school schedule.
Any equipment I needed (software, hardware) all I had to do was ask and I got it. No fighting with an IT department, just had to ask my supervisor. After you leave you have the option to buy your laptop for a reduced price too.
Minimal meetings, fast paced, structured test driven development (at least in my group)
We had lots of team building activities where we would go out for lunch or go carting at K1, etc.
There's an amazing gym to use with a heated pool. Good cafeteria.
My only grip - and the reason I left early - was the way the pay interns. They pay by your grade level, which isn't always fair.
Anyways, go to school and get the paper. And try this place out.
Oh the traffic is iffy...
Northrop Grumman - Engineering is dull?
Posted by Intern, in Rancho Bernardo, California, USA on October 20, 2008
As an intern you do a bunch of busy work. Basically all the paper work between the designs the actual engineers don't want to do, that are necessary for any changes or proposals to happen within an defense/gov contracted company. Even if you do get to do some things a little more interesting like CAD, it's all very insignificant work like modelling bolts or circuit chips. Lots of times there isnt work for you to do, and time is wasted. This however, is typical of many defense companies, not just for interns but for entry level engineers as well. Large government contractors are stable and pay well, but they are so compartmentalized that you end up doing the same work day after day. Good pay, but boring: a trade off between being in a larger company with money and smaller company with more things that need to be done.
Qualcomm - Best Internship Ever
Posted by Engineering Intern, in San Diego, CA, USA on November 21, 2007
First off, I have had a good number of jobs and internships while a student at UCSD. Working at Qualcomm has been the best of all of them (with the exception of working at SIO and having an ocean view, but I digress!)
The tasks were always fun and interesting. I was not treated like an "intern", but rather as an equal with everyone else. I received a real office (you know, with actual ways and a door!), a desktop and a laptop. I was actually put in charge of a few projects, and had other engineerings giving me status reports. In addition, I was able to learn a lot about industrial tools and methods. My manager was awesome and the scheduling was flexible to fit school.
The benefits at Qualcomm are great too! There's a gym with a pool and sauna in the building, as well as a gourmet cafe that can make almost anything you want! They even provide you with free catered dinner if you work full-time.
I would definitely recommend working with Qualcomm!
Qualcomm - Fast-paced Internship with lots of opportunities
Posted by Camera Software Intern, in San Diego, CA, USA on October 29, 2007
Without going into details, I thought this internship was awesome. Coworkers were willing to teach and I was exposed to a lot of new things. There was a mix of the tedious intern type of work and the challenging full-time type of work. If you want the challenge, it's there waiting for you. If you do well, you'll be rewarded and possibly earn a full-time position.
Overall, I enjoyed my internship and the pay was great as an intern. Team building events and annual company parties/events are definitely something to look forward to.