Pros
Lately Reynolds has made it a policy to hire mostly people who recently graduated from college. It was a good entry level position for me to get experience, and they were willing to take a chance on me despite limited knowledge in my field. The hiring process went fairly smoothly, and I was able to negotiate for the position I wanted. I feel that I have a solid amount of horizontal mobility and could fill a position in a large number of other departments if I expressed the interest. As a person in my mid-20s, I find that Reynolds' hiring practices means that there are many peers in my age group, so socialization is very easy. There are a number of intracompany sports leagues, an onsite gym, credit union, and cafeteria run by Aramark. The Christmas party is top-notch and there's a fun family cookout in the fall . At the Dayton headquarters, the building is brand new and the grounds are beautiful, and located in a spot right next to the Greene. Reynolds has a pretty good benefits package that kicks in after four months and a superb 401k match -- 100% of your first 6%. My personal experience is that mid-level management is spotty. Personally, I receive very little oversight or individual training. On the other hand, I am given a large amount of trust to do my job, so I don't have to worry about management breathing down my neck. I hear it's the opposite in different departments. We have regular staff meetings to communicate. I haven't been at the company long enough to comment decisively on promotion opportunities or raises, but so far I don't feel like any doors have been closed on me. From speaking with other employees, Reynolds sounds like they regularly give competitive raises. They do bi-annual performance reviews.
Cons
In 2006, Reynolds was acquired by a smaller competitor, UCS, and the merger has been rocky. There was a major management shakeup and there is visible animosity between the old-school Reynolds veterans and the new management from Houston. Many of the new policies have yet to be smoothly implemented. For example, the old attitude of the sales team was that Reynolds would bend over backwards to satisfy customers. Bob Brockman, by comparison, is a to-the-letter-of-the-contract type of businessman. Likewise, the UCS accounting team that was installed brought with it many of the accounting practices of a private company that Reynolds, formerly a public company, could never get caught doing. Turnover is very high at the company. I don't feel like I have much job security, but at least I'm not a temp or a freelance contractor. The pay is decent -- pretty good for the first job out of college. But it's probably well short of what someone with the same job description makes at other companies. The starting pay package is very similar to all fresh entry-level hires -- I've asked around. We replaced SAP with UCS's software product, Power. Power was designed for regional car dealerships, not nationwide software companies. As such, it's woefully underpowered (ironic, I know) to handle the tasks of the software it replaced. It may be free, but it's murder to productivity. Not only that, it has given most non-sales people a distinct dislike for our own product.