Agilent: Good for highly experienced workers, not as good for the young and ambitious.
Pros
Agilent provides an excellent benefits package including health, dental and vision insurance, a 401(k) plan with matching, semi-annual bonuses, supports employees taking time off, and genuinely seems to care about keeping employees educated and aware of the latest business decisions and technological advances. If you are an experienced worker who wants a predictable job that pays well and has good benefits including a 401(k) for retirement, and you don't want to move up the chain of responsibility, this would be a good company to work for.
Cons
Being that Agilent is such a large company, it is often difficult to see how my personal contributions help the company as a whole. Agilent recently laid off around 15% of their total workforce and the layoff process was prolonged and really brought down employee morale. We were informed a month before the layoffs that some people would be losing their jobs, and then week by week, we were fed little bits of information. This made it very difficult to concentrate on work and it generated a lot of rumors. Another problem with a company this large is that there are a lot of "lifers" here - people who have worked here for 20 years and will be here until they retire. This makes it difficult for a young person, such as myself, to move up and get more responsibility. I believe this makes Agilent a good company for college interns and highly experienced workers, and a bad company for recent college graduates and other people who want to grow in their career and move up the management chain.