The growth opportunities are not many and sadly, those that exist get assigned for the most part to familiar faces and employees who network best, not necessarily those that have more experience or knowledge and are more qualified. However, HR is working on a competency matrix to resolve some of these issues and make the process easier and more fair.
There is a lot of politics happening between the company walls, it reminded me of Survivor. It comes to that sometimes - play the game or be voted off, literally. Upper management is not always easy to approach and talk to. They seem to want to follow the 10-year plan w/o considering the fact that the employees (within their own organization) must come first else no plan will be accomplished.
I had no 2-3-5 year plan, just a yearly review from my direct manager. If one has all the patience in the world and is not very driven to achieve great career goals, then that would be a good place for them. If you are looking for a clear career path into upper management, then you might have to pick another company. Like many have already mentioned, there are lots of 'baby boomers' and 'old timers' which is in one way good (low turnover rate) but also not so good because it doesn't allow for 'fresh blood' to come in to the company from outside or even from the entry level positions within the company.
Boys club 101 is offered daily there, again - sadly!!! There are so many highly educated, qualified women stuck in either entry-level or Sr. (w/o direct reports) positions while the 'boys' around get a helping hand to move up surprisingly fast.
HR - well, I think no reason to comment much, just that the company is as good with them as it would be w/o them. It appears they deal only with the hiring process and firing process, nothing else.