Pros
The people are top notch The company really cares about employee satisfaction We have an important mission that most employees are very passionate about Great parties and events I've been with Innova for over 10 years and really enjoy my job here. We have an important mission to prepare them (our military) to protect us (our country). Although the company has grown from a small family-owned business to a medium size with over 300 employees, there are still many people passionate about the mission and developing great software applications. I find this to be the best culture based on working at several local competitors like SAIC, and others. I've worked in most of the Innova locations in San Diego and each one has it's pro's and con's. I've seen a few reviews here on GlassDoor about 252 and must say that it's really not that bad of an environment. It's on Coronado Island which is a great location in a great city and we work side-by-side with our customers there. Most other competing contractors don't get to enjoy the close proximity to the users and customers so we really have an advantage. We also get to use the fitness facilities which is nice and the company promotes health with group events all the time. Most employees are not too proud to work in the same environment as our customers but it's not for everyone., especially if you are used to a high-rise office space. Most of the buildings are pretty old and with recent DoD budget cuts, the cleaning services are not as frequent but most of the employees in the office pitch-in to keep it clean. The company has invested in painting, replacing carpets and fixing it up over the years and says they plan to do another upgrade soon. The people at Innova are top notch and represent a wide variety of roles from developers to project managers to subject matter experts from the military. The company holds several big parties per year and many employees attend with their families. The owners even have a pretty good band that plays at many of the parties and always provide the food and drinks, while also hosting tail-gate parties at local sports events and fun pot-lucks like Chili cook-offs and salsa contests. Innova spends a lot of time and energy trying to help employees with training, leadership development and productivity and provides employees with an iPad with apps they've developed to help people improve for those who want it. I've personally benefitted from their recent Inspire! iPad app by focusing more time on family, health and fitness and have also used it to get better at work goals and communication with managers. The company is very flexible with scheduling which is a big plus. Since they mostly support DoD, the technologies aren't always bleeding edge but many developers do spend time researching and developing modern POCs that eventually make it into production. The company recently won an award for Best Places to Work in San Diego and I couldn't agree more.
Kontras
The technology is usually a few years behind the bleeding edge