Pros
The location of the office, right in the heart of downtown Pittsburgh, was great. The city of Pittsburgh itself, underrated by most who have never been there, is terrific. There are lots of things to do and see and being right next to the city was a great benefit to working at Alcoa. The benefits are pretty good outside of the vacation time. The good thing about a large company like Alcoa is you know you don't have to worry about having decent health care packages available. In addition, there were many good people at Alcoa that I still remain in contact with. A number of managers I worked for were easy to get along with, helpful when asked for advice, and good at what they did. Alcoa also had a number of programs set up to help young professionals advance in their careers. A CPA program allowed employees to take CPA classes and exams while being reimbursed for any cost. Additionally, management support helped those looking to get their CPA fulfill all the requriements Pennsylvania had outside of simply passing the tests, such as obtaining audit hours and a referral. Other classes, at local colleges, could be requested if necessary for the job. Finally, working in the corporate offices for a Fortune 100 company was a great exposure into the inner workings of such a large company. I really got a feel for how the company functioned and what was fueling the overall corportate strategy more than other new hires might have in different jobs.
Cons
Let's start with the most important cons, the salary is not good. In fact, I would go as far as to say they are terrible compared to other employers. The difference between my salary from Alcoa to my current job, both of which were entry-level hires, are like night and day. The vacation time is also not great, though it is probably standard for the industry. I won't go into specfics, but they are not very competitive compared to other companies that hire often off the campus. The work itself was fairly simple and easy. Which was not a good thing. Having to stay in an office for eight hours a day with little challenging work to do is as boring as it gets. This means you don't learn or pick up any new skills unless you participate in the above training programs, which makes you less attractive for future career opportunities. I literally felt as if I was wasting months of my life at times. The headquarters is filled with managers, many of whom manage regions of the business. What this means for a fresh hire is that they can be reporting to anywhere from five to ten different people at once. So even though there are quite a few good managers, as mentioned above, at the company who are fun to work for, there are just as many who make the workday unbearable. And finally there was the corporate environment. Where, because of the failing economy, everyone was afraid to say anything wrong in front of the wrong people. When a question was asked to the CEO about why the company's top fifty executives maintain an expensive New York office, private planes with a hanger, and other seemingly unnecessary assets at a quarterly conference call (note, this question was from an outside analyst) while the company planned to lay off thirteen-thousand employees, he snapped and said he wouldn't answer questions on the subject. You got the feeling working there that you would be in trouble if you brought it up to the controllers or management. And who wants to work in an environment like that, where they are basically forced to sip the company Kool-Aid? And who is going to trust a CEO who refuses to answer simple questions while publicly facing lawsuits from the previous company he was CEO at (Siemens)? In summation, the job sounded great in concept when presented by recruiters, and as an entry-level you may think, as I did, that it is OK to sacrifice a little in salary and benefits for a better learning opportunity. But based on my experience, I would not recommend following through on that thought process. Look elsewhere or stay unemployed for a while, it will be better for you in the long run then starting a career with this company in my opinion.