Thales Reviews

Pros

Opportunities, global company, massive opportunities for improvement

Cons

Nothing in particular still new

Pros

-Great colleges -Ok compensation -Close to home

Cons

-Interdepartmental disagreements cause a dysfunctional work environment -Promotion via relationship rather then skills and experience -Lack of resource and outdated equipment

Advice to Management

-Senior Manager overhaul -Departmental managers needs to concentrate on supporting their managers rather then doing political manoeuvre to further their own careers. -Departmental rivalry needs to end

Pros

Stepping into the Thales for the first I could learn a lot about the way the different projects are treated. You get a lot of exposure in various functions such as Engineering, Finance, Project Management, Quality, Commercial and Legal, Sales & Marketing. Since Thales is an engineering company solutions and support revolve around engineering functions. People who lead the business are usually people who have... been here for a very long time and know the ins and outs of the way business is done. They are generally professional at the same time quite accommodating and of great help for a new starter. Training and mentoring for the job is given and professional development is encouraged. Work life balance is given importance and managers are generally flexible.

Cons

Since a lot of information and knowledge is heavily centred on a few people their availability is a bottleneck. The organisation is very invested in home grown and external tools, to the point where one can get bogged down with tools alone for a long time. Salary increments are generally below market rates.

Advice to Management

Keep doing the good work and make work a more fun place.

Pros

Workforce are full of knowledge and majority are great people and easy to work with.

Cons

Too many levels of management, the upper part being old dinosaurs who are stuck in their old way of thinking. Consultation is not a part of their vocabulary.

Advice to Management

Listen to your workers as people have a lot more knowledge than your willing to accept. Loyalty and long tenures are all well and good but times are changing, you’ve got to move with them.

Pros

Good compensation and good working environment

Cons

Need to improve internal processes and rewards for employees

Pros

Colleagues were nice to work with

Cons

Difficult to travel to destination. Management provide no direction, team really disengaged, stab in the back culture

Advice to Management

Look at your senior leadership team and really question whether you want them to continue leading your company.

Pros

The employees are very friendly and nice

Cons

The management (mainly the French) and HR are horrible (understatement), very disconnected, the work atmosphere is bad, looking to put the blame on everyone, old fashion, not willing to improve processes within the organisation, it seams like the company is divided into 2 (employees from France and Australia)

Advice to Management

Get rid of the French management, be open to changes, stop blamming employees over your mistakes, create good environment.

Pros

Interesting and dynamic projects Excellent work culture Focus on employee training and development Opportunities for Advancement Opportunities for flexible work (depending on your job requirements and supervisor)

Cons

High degree of scrutiny in projects can be, at times, stifling Workload can be high at times Some senior leaders can occasionally focus on lists of buzz-words rather than actual, specific and meaningful action. Heavily restrictive IT systems (for security) limit access to current modern software and tools I have known some staff who started at graduates who are significantly under-paid due to being started on... graduate salaries and without sufficient re-adjustment of salaries upon moving out of graduate programs.

Advice to Management

Generally Thales is a good place to work, though I understand this can vary greatly depending on the people you work with and for. I would like to see a shift to a more agile operating method (not 'Agile' with a capital 'A') and shift focus for R&D away from waterfall style management focussed on budgets and milestones and more towards spiral style, flexible projects focussed on the capability.