Hello All, Recently hired for an entry level Systems Engineering Position at LM(Assc Systems Engineer); I am early in my career. What is/are some of the routes I can take down the road? (Software Engineer, Hardware Engineer, etc) Should I plan on staying at Lockheed? (I’ve heard pay scale is not great compared to others) And what is the general guidelines for YOE and moving to level 2, 3, +….? Salary is my top priority for the next 10 years. Current TC 77k
It can sometimes be a meaningless tittle it depends on the program and area. Sometimes it’s a catch all sometimes it’s an architect role, sometimes it’s just generalist or pm role. My advice is if you don’t like it and want to do something else then do that, immediately. You can basically move laterally within the company at E1 to any other specialty so long as you understand the basics of the other discipline you’re looking at. E1->E2 2 YOE E2-> E3 5 YOE E3->E4 9 YOE (once you get E3 most people leave the company) A related master’s degree basically can count as 2 YOE in those numbers.
Is it possible if I may get a referral from ya for LM? :)
As a Systems Engineering manager and over a decade in the defense industry, I can’t stress to you the importance of switching your profession to software engineering early in your career. The opportunities as a SW engineer far outweigh anything you will do as a systems engineer. Not to mention, the skillsets most tech companies are looking for you will not gain as a systems engineer in defense. As previous posts have made it pretty clear, other industries don’t value systems engineering and often mistake us for IT specialists. Advice from somebody actively trying to leave the defense industry.
Have heard this before. Do you think the opportunities are there for mechanical engineers? Initially thinking of a 1 year as a systems engineer then moving to mechanical engineer position.
OP are you a mechanical engineer by degree? Post is ambiguous, not sure if your a software systems engineer or hardware
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Most defense contractors don’t pay that well. In the defense industry the title “systems engineer” is meaningless. It seems to be what they call IT generalists doing sysadmin type work. So unfortunately, that title won’t really help beef up your resume since it means so many different things. I would stay at max two years. Use that time to figure out what you like doing. Maybe you’ll really like sysadmin work. Or maybe you really get into development. Then I would look externally for something else outside of defense—FAANG, banks, etc.
Systems engineers in the defense industry don’t do sysadmin work
Why would this get 4 likes? This person has literally 0 idea what they are talking about