Pros
This is a rugged business that not only involves rail cars, tractor trailers, big machines, and shredders, but it also has office opportunities at each of its 40-something branches. For someone who likes working in heavy industry, it's a cool profession. You can learn about new steel coming straight from steel mills, fabricators, etc., and there's also the recycling of metals to learn. This is not to mention the white-collar portions of the company.
Something I personally love about the company is that with the right attitude and willingness to learn, a person has a lot of options to move around and experience difference parts of the business, the company and the country.
Secondly, the retirement plan is much better than many companies out there. The majority of companies just have a 401K option where they match a certain percentage of the contribution. This company does the 401K with a match, but it also has an "ESOP" plan. This means that each year, employees 21 and older (hopefully that changes some day) are awarded a certain number of shares. After 6 or so years, those shares are considered 100% owned by the employee. If the worker either quits or retires after 6 years, the company will buy back those shares (give the employee money for them). So this can mean that employees who retire after many years with the company will give their shares back to the company in exchange for several hundreds of thousands of dollars, or even a million or more.
Lastly, the company supports people going back to school to get a degree, and it will help with the funding of that.
Cons
People less than 21 years of age do not get shares.
