Limited Room for Growth and Rampant Elitism
Pros
Solvay is a big name that will make your resume/CV look better for having worked here. Depending on the group you are hired to, you can have a long career here. Safety culture is excellent.
Cons
Certain groups are dead-ends, and anyone aspiring to better opportunities would need to either have a PhD or a fresh Engineering degree from Georgia Tech or similar. The company was better circa 2013-2015, but significantly degraded after that. There is absolutely a nepotism and elitism at play in Solvay, with lateral and upward moves coming far easier for certain demographics. Workloads consistently burn out personnel, certain labs are perpetually understaffed, and promotions are not merit based by and large. From my personal experience, several opportunities were denied to me, and many others I knew, despite having a stellar reputation and more than meeting qualifications. Management in certain groups is critically incompetent and in serious need of replacing. At the corporate level, the CEO and pals constantly “restructure” and “rebrand” the company culture with seemingly empty lists of buzzwords and no real, unifying vision.
