[JimboOmega]

Having spent the first 5 or so years at defense companies, I agree. There was no career progression,especially without switching companies.

They want you to have a degree so they can charge more, but that's about it. You can easily work on the same project doing the same things for 20 years; I worked with people who did.

[linkregister]

Which ones?

[JimboOmega]

I'd rather not denigrate a specific employer.

The reality is that they bill your time to the government a certain way based on your qualifications, and the contract specifies what qualifications you're expected to have. If you grow or change in some way the contract doesn't capture, they can't give you a raise without losing money (since the contract pays them the same).

So classically you have to switch to another job - within the same company, or at another, to advance.

Compounding this is the nature of classified work (which most DoD contracts are). You're in a windowless lab, and you can't really say what you do, or even, often, who you do it for. You get 0 visibility outside your immediate team.

There are exceptions and some ways to get around these realities, but you're really fighting against a system that strongly prefers things remain static.

[linkregister]

So were you employed by one of the companies on the list I gave or were you just sharing your experience with defense contracting in general?

[JimboOmega]

Actually, not on the list, even though I worked in two (of the bigger) companies, and one of the ones on your list was across the street on solutions drive in McLean, VA, from where I worked :).

Also, that company would compensate you to get a master's degree.