Brand Name, HUGE company !!! - Engineer - Test/Validation Caterpillar Employee Review

4.0
Nov 30, 2013
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Brand Name (Fortune 500) - Peoria is the hub (can find a nice job within the company as you wish and move every 3 - 5 yr) - Work/Life Balance is good - Mid-Level Managers are pretty awesome and knowledgeable. - You can learn a lot. - Most Engineers are technically strong - You can learn a lot. - Big Time on Safety - THIS IS A MUST for all company - We need to be ALIVE to enjoy life. - Big Time on Diversity - Trying hard to be Greener/Sustainability - caring for environment. - Gives back to community - Peoria is what it is just because of Caterpillar. - Great Benefits - Base Salary (comparable to competitors) - Short-term Incentive plan(annual bonus) - (% of your base salary based on Company goals) - approx 10% of base - 401k (100% match for 6% of your baseand 6% of bonus) - Pension plan (approx 3% of your base added to 401k account annually) - Great Health Insurance - Great Life Insurance - If Permanent Residency process doesn't get approved or if Immigration department (within CAT) screwed your process by delaying, they have a round about option to send you outside the country for 365 days and get you back in different visa. - Essentially, they don't leave you stranded.

Cons

- Being the largest company in its field, fortune 500, the company offices and facilities SUCK big time. Management - Please visit other company office premises and check out yourself and make some improvements. - Immigration department/Legal is a JOKE. If you need Visa sponsorship or Permanent Residency sponsorship, better look else where. - No company sponsored events/socials. - There are chances that you might get stuck in a job for few yrs before you could move within company. - Depends on your BOSS. - Upper Management want to please share holders, so they want to maintain dividends, but the mining business is not doing great, so you have to reduce cost to increase profit, so just lay-off people and drain knowledge. - Long run ???

Explore other reviews about Caterpillar

5.0
Jun 7, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great benefits Great WLB Great pay

Cons

Low mobility to move up within company

2.0
Jun 10, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Good health insurance and benefits, good yearly bonuses. The pay is good.

Cons

They are enforcing returning to office by any means necessary. They have lost many high-quality producers who have refused to relocate or refuse to come in. Here's the kicker - they are requiring in-person attendance at the Chicago office and there aren't even enough desks for everyone. It would be a literal fire hazard if we all came into the Chicago office at the same time, M-F, during business hours. No one knows how or if they are going to actually enforce this. Cost of gas is insane, Joe doesn't care about the workers. Or the work for that matter. It's obvious this is a soft layoff, they have made a bunch of people quit. Their internal design agency is falling apart, lots of people have quit, not only because of return to office but because of the toxic politics, favoritism, and lack of direction and accountability. Mediocre workers are allowed to keep their jobs ONLY because of their ability to put their bodies in a chair and work in-person. The other relocation option HR gave besides Chicago was Peoria. No one wants to live in Peoria for any reason whatsoever, be for real.

3
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