Great but not perfect company. Fascinating place to work at.
Pros
* Normally good work/life balance (see reservation on this below) * Fabulous benefits and matching funds 401K/ defined benefits, severence etc * Exiting overseas locations *Top notch scientists and engineers to be your mentors and help you develop a fine career toolkit. Really recruits cream of the crop from Stanford, Berkely, Rice, UH, UT, A&M, LSU, Texas Tech, even Harvard and MIT somehow. * Career development process that allows for retraining and change throughout your career both as the industry changes and your desires change; company seems less likely to jettison you if you have a good work ethic but will retrain you instead of lay you off like most energy companies in cyclic downturns * Very results-driven, vs good-ole-boy-network-driven in rewarding and promoting women, minorities, even foreign nationals. Lots of the good ole boys like me complain because we're used to the special priveleges but it's the right thing to do.
Cons
* Maddening mandatory project-processes that , while they may prevent rushing into fiascos, can really slow down decision making or kill potentially $-making projects *Normally good work/life balance, but if you really want to be a "hi-pot" and be easily promotable as far as you go, with all the processes and hi-expectations in this top-notch company, you most likely will have to work very long hours - evenings and weekends - and be tethered to you iphone or blackberry. * For young folk, too much recruiting at only the top public ivy's and ivy's and failure to find the diamonds in the rough at the less distinguished or well-known schools.
