I’d interned at a military contractor, where I was writing tests for a project that was supposed to be delivered in 18 months. The project was already 3 years l

I’d interned at a military contractor, where I was writing tests for a project that was supposed to be delivered in 18 months. The project was already 3 years late, and expected to be another 18 months. Asking the senior engineer on my team, why the government doesn’t just cancel our contract, he responded, “If they awarded it to another company, it would just take longer”. At a college job fair, I went up to an engineer for another military contractor, and retold him about my experience above, and asked if his company had a similar culture. He pulled me aside and said “You should never repeat that story again”. Which, I interpreted as “Yes”. I knew I didn’t want to start my career with a company that wasn’t world class competitive. Glad I bombed it, as I learned exactly what I wanted. I’d been naively idealistic, thinking that I’d been working for a tier-2 or tier-3 contractor, and the largest military contractors would have processes in place to deliver on commitments. Makes me wonder if this mentality has changed.