That all sounds pretty par for the course when it comes to large companies, technical or otherwise. The sharp edge of the blade (the technical stuff done for cu

That all sounds pretty par for the course when it comes to large companies, technical or otherwise. The sharp edge of the blade (the technical stuff done for customers) may be far from the daily operations in your department. The rest is just an ordinary BigCo. You've discovered why many people don't like working at big companies. Sometimes, scheduling by hand is just easier that trying to find a system, then test and deploy it to an organization so large etc. I can tell you what will happen in the next few years. They'll bumble along as they always have, getting no better, and maybe a little worse. If you stay you'll adapt by learing to manage disappointment. The hardest thing I ever learned at BigCo was "Yes, there's a better way to do this; No we are not going to do it." Decide if you are prepared to work in this culture for the long haul. I personally decided that I could not, no matter what the risk I faced by choosing not to. Just don't stick it out hoping it will somehow get better. It won't.