Working at Rockwell Collins in Cedar Rapids, IA: 52 Employee Job Reviews by Real Employee working in Cedar Rapids, IA Area

"Proven embedded software professional and good team player"

What do you like about working at Rockwell Collins?

"Great place to work, diverse, innovative and reputed avionics company with great products."

What don't you like about working at Rockwell Collins?

"Company is located in a small town in Iowa with limited social activities. Also forecasted 1000 layoffs for the coming year."

What suggestions do you have for management?

"Frequent reorgs in the company disturbs the teams and my suggestion to the management is reduce the reorgs."

What do you like about working at Rockwell Collins?

"Wide range of skill sets and opportunity to learn new things."

Do you have any tips for others interviewing with this company?

"Know what you are talking about, be confident in your skills."

What don't you like about working at Rockwell Collins?

"Large company with limited scope in your current role or position."

What suggestions do you have for management?

"Remember the assets you have in your team members and build those up."

"Pretty good but in Iowa."

What do you like about working at Rockwell Collins?

"Large company with multiple projects in several fields from aircraft, UAV, GPS to autonomous vehicles."

Do you have any tips for others interviewing with this company?

"If you love the Midwest this is your company. Best to interview when company is expanding."

What don't you like about working at Rockwell Collins?

"There is a local Iowa mentality that pervades over engineers not from Iowa."

What suggestions do you have for management?

"Read the performance rebuttals and learn from them to better appreciate individual effort."

"Terrible company culture and work environment, terrible management."

What do you like about working at Rockwell Collins?

"Cedar Rapids good for family life. Great business growth since mid decade, although doubtful future prospects.Technical work is interesting if you find the right projects to work on (but terrible management and culture is a huge drain)."

Do you have any tips for others interviewing with this company?

"I would recommend you do your own research to find out if the project you are working has a good work environment. If you do not get information, just opt out for better companies."

What don't you like about working at Rockwell Collins?

"Company propaganda: Rockwell Collins is about integrity and goes by the book on principles. Fact: I discovered that for people that are connected inside the old boys/gals circle, integrity and ethics are mere convenience. They can juggle and flip it any way they want to suit their own agendas. Key people including people in Management, HR and Ombudsman are involved in behaviors that Rockwell should not be proud of. In addition, what I see in Glassdoor from other bloggers and what I heard and saw inside the company is not encouraging. Employee made to believe: Rockwell middle managers in Engineering are focused on providing customer value and will put themselves on the line to achieve it. Fact: In my experience and observation (and getting information from several quarters), the middle managers and long-time engineers are coasting along and need scapegoats to pass the buck. New hires with experience in other companies are particularly vulnerable. HR mentioned during new hire orientation that it is not what you know and are capable of doing that matters in this company but rather who you know. Employee is made to believe: Engineering managers and long-time engineer old boys/gals have good intent but it is just difficult personalities leading to difficult team dynamics. Fact: There is persistent and deliberate bullying and displacement of talent at Rockwell Collins perpetrated by people who are confident they have the support to get away with it. The support may go all the way up to Executives who seem callous when it comes to real issues inside teams, lest many problems would not exist. New employees especially with experience from other companies are easy target. Myth: Rockwell Collins has an inclusive work environment. Rockwell Collins has very high technical talent that is above and beyond. Fact: There is competition inside Rockwell on who excludes whom and people going to great lengths to edge people out. The rat race is encouraged by Management itself as some others in this blog have alluded to. Fact: Average talent base at Rockwell. Lot of people coasting along with no incentive to do real and great technical work, and many are doing work without trying to change the status quo. If anyone new comes along that have differing views, then just squash them. Paper pushers thrive. Crony behavior is rampant. Outsourcing to Asia, steep growth and density of foreign workers in Cedar Rapids as a proxy for competent leadership. Rockwell does not have it in its DNA to create a strong global culture either. Foreign workers have complaints about Rockwell as well. Myth: Foreign workers are needed because we are not able to find US citizens that have suitable qualifications. Fact: Employment of U.S based engineers and employee satisfaction inside the U.S are now closely linked to supply-demand characteristics of the global labor workforce. Management inevitably uses the path of least resistance to satisfy urgent psychological (ego and arrogance), sometimes for business needs by bringing in foreign workers at the expense of building a strong work-force domestically. If they have any disagreements with anyone, an easy step is to dislocate that worker and get a foreign worker that will obey all commands and orders without disagreements even if it is wrong for projects and products or better still just outsource the work to Asia to improve cost competitiveness. On the other hand, respect for foreign born workers is very low in this company. The company lacks diversity when it comes to synthesizing different viewpoints. Company leadership is unable to create teams where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Myth: In Rockwell Collins teams work by sharing, inclusion and collaboration and keep things transparent to all employees. All employees have free and fair opportunity. Fact: Engineering Leaders buy into rumors or maybe even create them. Rumors are rampant and generated particularly about employees that have innate curiosity and desire to do better and grow, but also bring expertise from elsewhere in the industry. Intellectual dishonesty is rampant among the old boys/gals Rockwell network. Verbal slurs are used if necessary to bully people. Innovation, product quality, product development cost, culture and professionalism are victims along with the bullied target."

What suggestions do you have for management?

"This is the lousiest set of management competencies assembled in one place that I have seen.Bring in decisive leadership and promote people who can execute with the right mindset and reasons. Do not expect positive business impact when you use fear, intimidation, rumors, coercion and other shenanigans on employees Command and Control works only in a predictable world. It is contrary to what is necessary for today's dynamic workforce with global competition.Embrace change. Bring leaders in that are reactive and not reactionary. Treating people who do real work like cattle is not the way of the future for society."

What do you like about working at Rockwell Collins?

"The people that I work with care about the things they are doing."

Do you have any tips for others interviewing with this company?

"Just be open and honest. Don't embellish your skill to get a job that you aren't qualified for!"

What don't you like about working at Rockwell Collins?

"There is a lack of communication from project leadership to the engineering leadership."

What suggestions do you have for management?

"I'm not sure. The company is in a difficult spot with Government spending and bankruptcies in the aviation industry."

"It started with oh no, I think I made a mistake, and it ended that way."

What do you like about working at Rockwell Collins?

"The people I worked with were nice to your face, but would tell the resource manager that you haven't given them instructions/actions to protect themselves even though you just got done giving them the action list. In the end I liked nothing."

Do you have any tips for others interviewing with this company?

"Prove to the interviewer that you're a top notch Electrical/Mechanical Engineer and that you have no soul. Stay away from this place."

What don't you like about working at Rockwell Collins?

"The facilities were old and worn out. The carpet was dirty, the cubicles were dirty, and the HVAC systems were constantly going down. The office spaces and labs were in major need of a face lift. I found that fault finding and blame shifting were used frequently by Program Managers and Resource Managers. If you didn't cover your tail with an email it was a guarantee it would be taken advantage of. Performance reviews were unfair and good reviews were given to the Resource Manager's favorites. The Select could have company policy and rules bent for them by HR and management, but those rules and policies are strictly enforced when it benefits Uncle Rocky."

What suggestions do you have for management?

"Become trustworthy, supportive, and honest, oh that's right, you wouldn't be managers at Rockwell Collins if you had those three character qualities."

"Most of my positions were good or great! The last one was horrible."

What do you like about working at Rockwell Collins?

"I loved the challenge of the engineering projects and most of the people I worked with."

Do you have any tips for others interviewing with this company?

"Verify that the interviewing manager is the manger you will be working for. This company has a mandatory 10%-will-be-low-performers policy and then they wonder why their attrition is so high."

What don't you like about working at Rockwell Collins?

"I believe one of RC's flaws is they allow too much empire building. Job satisfaction depended heavily on which department and group you were in."

What suggestions do you have for management?

"Don't shoot the messenger. Do something about the problem personalities and USE the data from the after-action reviews, don't just sugar coat to make things look better than they are."

What do you like about working at Rockwell Collins?

"The work met my skill set. Most co-workers were supportive."

Do you have any tips for others interviewing with this company?

"Learn more on management style of manager for whom you will be working before committing."

What don't you like about working at Rockwell Collins?

"My job security was dependent on discretion of current manager. It was not easy to move to new position within company."

What suggestions do you have for management?

"HR needs to provide independent advocates for the employees and the employer."

"Pretty good company. Great place to work if you want to be a Systems Engineer."

What do you like about working at Rockwell Collins?

"Great engineers. Most of the people I work with are very competent engineers. The managers give the engineers a lot of freedom."

Do you have any tips for others interviewing with this company?

"Work in CS not GS. CS gets free soda and popcorn."

What don't you like about working at Rockwell Collins?

"Rockwell Collins is a massive company so you feel like a number sometimes. There is a lot of red tape and the bureaucracy moves really slow."

What suggestions do you have for management?

"Rockwell level 5 management needs to become better at planning out staffing for projects."

"My experience at Rockwell made me want to be a Mechanical Engineer."

What do you like about working at Rockwell Collins?

"I enjoyed working with many different divisions with Rockwell and the challenging tasks."

Do you have any tips for others interviewing with this company?

"I would stay strong and confident, truly sell yourself for both the job and personally."

What don't you like about working at Rockwell Collins?

"I didn't like being one of thousands where I didn't feel like my voice counted."

What suggestions do you have for management?

"I would suggest managers have a professional and personal work relationship with their employees."

What do you like about working at Rockwell Collins?

"Great overall working environment. Fellow workers are great. Flexibility in job roles."

Do you have any tips for others interviewing with this company?

"My interview was not very technical due to it being a starting position. Just be yourself."

What don't you like about working at Rockwell Collins?

"I did not have any issues with the company, but rather just not the right location for me."

What suggestions do you have for management?

"I do not have any suggestions. I think that they are doing a great job."

What do you like about working at Rockwell Collins?

"Rockwell has groups that are involved with state of the art designs. Very dedicated selection of hard working engineers with highly disciplined skills."

Do you have any tips for others interviewing with this company?

"The company hires top notch engineers and they do pay for performance. The work is challenging and young engineers will learn much from the various programs they have ongoing in both military and commercial sectors."

What don't you like about working at Rockwell Collins?

"Current mood is not good with several RIF's in the planning. The word from corporate is many jobs are going to be outsourced."

What suggestions do you have for management?

"Corporate management is divided into the commercial and military sectors. Currently the military sector is downsizing while the commercial sector is holding its own. The corporate vision is to expand the business corporate enterprise goal is to gain more market share in the international business."

What do you like about working at Rockwell Collins?

"Different opportunities to grow within. It's a good company to work for."

What don't you like about working at Rockwell Collins?

"Nothing much I can think of right now. It's a good company to work for."

What do you like about working at Rockwell Collins?

"Rockwell Collins is a great company to meet many interesting and dedicated people as well as being given many challenging and varied tasks."

Do you have any tips for others interviewing with this company?

"Do adequate preparation but do not expect them to ask about any specific items you prepared."

What don't you like about working at Rockwell Collins?

"Leadership can occasionally lack vision and get into reactive mode rather than being proactive."

What suggestions do you have for management?

"Have a clear vision of where your products need to be in 5 years and communicate that vision."