MBDA Reviews

Before you read my review of MBDA, please appreciate that I have given this much thought and even re-written this a few times before posting. This is not the mad rant of a disgruntled employee like so many reviews are; it might seem negative but this is the truth in my opinion. I have worked for MBDA (Stevenage) for somewhere between 18 months and 2 years. MBDA employs a large number of contractors and they get paid substantially more than permanent staff (some of them brag about it), many are lazy and the rest just don’t have to work that hard, they have the least amount of responsibility and are generally given less interesting jobs and fairly light workloads. If you are a contactor and you’re just looking for an easy ride then this is the place for you. If on the other hand you are permanent staff such as a project lead or team leader, expect to be worked to death for less pay and virtually no recognition. Tip: negotiate a good pay rise before you join because they are quite desperate and once you’re in it doesn’t matter how good you are or how hard you work, you are never likely to get better than a 'good performance' rating. You will need to have god-like abilities to get better than a good rating. Work load varies hugely between different departments and different roles. Some people (mostly contractors) will spend their time internet shopping or watching iplayer for hours on end, while others have the work load of at least two people (as a minimum) with peaks on top of that (no exaggeration). We are promised more resources and the company has a big recruitment drive, yet there are many times the number of people retiring than there are new starters. The company advertises vacancies like 'principal engineer - lethality and warheads' (Google it). MBDA is the only UK company that designs and manufactures Missiles; how many people do they think are going to apply for this job! If the location is good for you and you just need a job and you can tolerate a lot of nonsense, then MBDA is for you. If you are seeking career advancement then I recommend looking elsewhere. MBDA is hugely inefficient and I just hope for MBDA's sake that its foreign competitors are no different or MBDA is going to find itself priced out of the market; it already has a well known reputation for selling the most expensive Missile Systems. The culture here sucks; it seems to maintain an outdated defence company's mindset of knowledge is power; in general there is little collaboration or knowledge sharing, there is a tendency to quickly reject good ideas due to nonsensical political reasons or because its seen to be just too difficult to do anything different. People are generally guarded and tight-lipped; either worried that they are going to find themselves opened up to be criticised or that somehow giving up knowledge, reduces their importance/status. There is endemic misconception about what can or cannot be done; indoctrinated staff try to bolster their own self importance by attempting to enforce rules and practices that are unfounded. If you are an ambitious, talented and progressive individual then you will feel defeated here regardless of how good you are as an individual.

- More like a Soviet bureaucracy than an engineering firm. You spend your days fighting red tape and pedantry. I've hardly ever seen actual designs or hardware, I'm mostly just trying to get people to sign off reports that no-one asked for, and no-one will ever read. - Analysis Paralysis. You can't sneeze without first writing a 10,000 page sneeze-approval report signed off by a dozen departmental heads. The report will be inconclusive. Your chief engineer will decide it's best you avoid sneezing until a 20,000 follow-up report is issued next year. - The amount of time people spend squabbling over nothing is incredible (See Parkinson's Law of Triviality). Managers make no effort to rein this in - vast amounts of company time are swallowed up by this. - It's so hard to do anything positive or productive at this company. Instead, many people choose to make their impact by bickering. Plenty have made a career for themselves by simply showing up at meetings and arguing over anything and everything, creating the illusion of knowledge and authority. - Progression is generally based on time served; there's a big pool of managers that were promoted by default and really shouldn't be managers. Many have a patronising attitude towards their younger colleagues and tend to disapprove of ambition - they'd rather you sit quietly and don't make them look bad. - There's a vindictive undercurrent to promotions - the lucky few that manage to progress are often given impossible workloads and no pay rise, and told they'll be promoted in a year if they can handle the workload until then. I get the impression that management just want them to fail so they can sneer at them, rather than actually help them develop and progress into capable employees. - Morale is low, very little team spirit and cohesion. To be honest, there's somewhat of a sour and hostile atmosphere across the site. The grads like to hang out (until half of them leave for better money at the end of the grad scheme), but there's basically no socialising and things like after-work drinks are unheard of. - Salary. MBDA claim they pay market rate. I don't know what market they're looking at, but it ain't the engineering one! I've progressed fairly well at MBDA, but my friends at RR, BAE, Airbus, GKN, Atkins, Dyson and JLR all make more than me.