Here One Year

One year ago today I started out at Raytheon. My mind has gotten some needed challenge, my heart has appreciated the reduced stress, my social life broadened. We'll maybe that one hasn't happened as much as one would suppose working at a site with 10,000 employees. Two root causes are we are in a building removed from most of the action, and I'm just so darned busy.
It's funny, but in 1989 when I got out of the Navy I thought briefly about working for Raytheon, who made the system I'd been working on. I miss working directly for a military customer, but it could be worse; there is a Slimfast plant in town. Of course, our products are exclusively used by the military, I just don't have daily interfacing as I once did.
The company does some things better. Change is embraced at a level slightly more than skin deep. In my previous jobs it was paid lip service or aggressively resisted. Working on projects like the EKV are definitely interesting. The fact that it may one day save millions of Americans is too big to wrap your mind around.
The company does some things worse. It does resist change in a few critical areas, like giving all employees internet access and email. A big problem for trainers. But on the whole, what was at the time a very uncertain decision, feels pretty good. Is it perfect, no, but good enough for government work.