Pros
"So, do you churn the butter?" This is one of the most frequently asked questions I get of people when the discover that I work at Land O'Lakes. If you like butter and/or you like to bake you are probably aware of the Land O'Lakes Brand. What you may not know is that the multi-billion dollar co-op is also a major player in agribusiness - everything from a seed and crop protection (e.g., herbicides, fungicides) retailer, butter and cheese manufacturer, and feed producer for everything from cows and pigs to just about anything you'd find in a zoo; increasingly the co-op is becoming a major player in the information science related to maximizing crop yields for the worlds growing population. In addition to these "for profit" ventures, the company has long been a player in humanitarian and agricultural development projects in developing economies around the world that are designed to teach small farmers and farmer groups how to improve their practices.
Ok so that's the commercial. I work in the IT organization so keep that in mind when you read this review.
At any given time there could be 20-30 IT projects in flight and a few more are added every two weeks. This means that IT is never boring. From a technology perspective we have moved from a technological dinosaur when I joined the company in 2008 to a company that has a good mix of cutting edge technologies, tried and true tech, and (of course) old stuff. The old stuff group keeps shrinking.
From a work-life perspective, the balance depends upon where you sit. Some groups continually have good balance while others operate in frequent peaks and valleys. Given the number of projects, the schedule will depend on where in the lifecycle your project is. What I can say is that invariably the parking lot is mostly empty by 5:30/6pm and so long as you plan appropriately you're not expected to keep an eye on your email when you're at home or on vacation. The first four years I worked here my computer rarely made it out of the backpack in the evenings or over the weekends. A recent job change put an end to that, but that's ok because I'm learning tons and having a good time.
From a people perspective, every organization has "characters" that are less fun to work with but on the whole I enjoy my colleagues.
Opportunities for career advancement vary. The finance organization is better at intentionally moving people around to increase their exposure to the business and grow skill sets. IT is moving in this direction, but there are opportunities to move - my last two positions are ones that I asked for before the opportunities existed. It also depends upon whether you plan on specializing or want to get a broad base of experience.
From a company roadmap perspective, food is a growth business - we've had record years throughout the recession; of course, some business units have done well and others not so well. Profits are heavily influenced by commodity prices but, given our results, we appear to have a reasonable handle on that. Profits are also impacted by the weather so global warming and general weather extremes can also have an impact - both short and long term.
Cons
There are two main gripes that I have: 1) given the number of projects there are never enough people to get all the work done. 2) Salaries could be higher. Another lesser gripe would be that aside from the corporate HQ in the Twin Cities, there really aren't any other major company locations where I'd want to live; luckily, 90% of IT is centralized.
