A place to gain valuable experience in a multi cultural environment, but...all the decisions are made 5000 miles away.
Pros
Overall the company has tried hard to promote work life balance and be a place where employees from entry to mid-level are treated well overall. High quality image and a competence for product innovation come from headquarters in Friedrichshafen and other division plants in Germany . Benefits have been very good but have come at the expense of much higher co-pays in last 3-5 years like manuy others.
Cons
There is questionable need for the executive level staff in North America. All direction and decisions on buiness develpoment, policy with customers and capex come from overseas. The North American executive staff (including leadership in Vernon Hills) can normally become a barrier between sales /service mid level employees trying to do their job and what the parent factories want. Decisions on how to proceed with customers on new buiness proposals or routine warranty calls are all made overseas and come very slowly.... Running scared with automotive economic downfall.
