Are there any 30 year olds that see a long term career with Exxon as a possibility much less an enjoyable one? If so, what am I missing? Not exaggerating that I don’t know a single 5 year employee in my EMRE/GP circle that likes Exxon or wants to be here long term.
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Former EM millennial employee here, I exited the company prior to the pandemic hitting. If I could give advice to anyone struggling with either to stay or go, I would say go if you find a better opportunity aligned with your career passions.
I had a good career at EM, I was consistently ranked as a high performer and granted opportunities my colleagues were not. But as I climbed through the ranks, the facade of a everything being a “well oiled machine” started to fall apart. Management here is the most toxic I’ve seen in my career. The politics just made everything worse. Ultimately I saw so many people who were once passionate, brilliant and technical become jaded and stagnant, only sticking around for the fat pay check. I did not want to become this type of person so I left.
The one thing I hated most was that the company emphasized on bringing in new talent (many millennials entered the company through the experienced hire surge) but then the company spent all their time beating the new people into submission and turning them into the stagnant folks who already work there! It’s all about fitting the “mold” but that model doesn’t work.... Makes zero sense to me to waste the talent they thought they wanted.
There are better opportunities out there, and EM is not the be-all, end-all. Life does go on after EM
I am glad to hear I am not alone. Best of luck on your #fire journey.
Is there a feedback menu or something? Magic feedback 8 ball they use lol.
I believe you because I received the same feedback 😂
My feedback one year was you’re too smart and need to dumb things down. I kid you not. Can’t make this up. I had no words to respond.
I gave up on this company challenging me too. The work is a joke. Also, I scaled back on work and my ranking improved. So hard work really doesn’t pay. I was punished for giving 100% because it made some people look bad. I now give about 60% and management loves it. Ridiculous. No wonder this company is in trouble.
Now, I focus on growing my passive income so I can retire at 40.
I wish I could tell you all but anonymity is what gives this site so much value.
What I will say is every role I have been in started with a lot of "work" on my plate to start. What I have found is there are always ways to make tasks easier or faster. Also, becoming an excel expert will make your life so much easier in literally any role.
Find ways to shave 2-10 minutes off of each task, each month and you will find in 3-4 months your days are much easier.
@1uxq haha love it and I have been troubled with that as well over the past few years. I would say my passion/challenge comes from finding larger investments that generate income. Work is great but I would rather get paid for my brain than my time.
Agreed with what you’ve said, and am in relatively the same position, EXCEPT for the workload. Although I don’t find most of the work intellectually difficult/challenging, I’m constantly struggling to keep my head above water, the work is continually piled on, and I feel like I can never ever take a true vacation or weekend without getting so swamped that the time off wasn’t worth it.
I’m curious about what your academic background is and what your current function is. If I make it through these coming layoffs, I’d love to know where in the company I could go to eventually that had actual work-life balance.
@1jug+17ZNlpAn - Not to dismiss your plans tho. I’m on fire too, if you can last long enough here to reach your goal then it doesn’t matter if you find employment again or take a pay cut since that’s just icing on the cake.
I’m just someone that needs a challenge and purpose at work or I get all depressed haha.
@1pcf 100% agree and that is honestly my only concern with staying because I don't see anything I have done here as valuable outside of XOM.
My approach has been to learn additional skills in my free time (coding) and constantly apply to jobs has helped me see what companies want. I think everyone (regardless of their ranking) should have at least 6 months of expenses in savings and have a gameplan for securing a source of income should you be let go.
As I am not in the middle-aged group I couldn't possibly understand what y'all are going through but I think preparing for the worst and hoping for the best is the only universal truth at this point. If you're already on the chopping block, don't underestimate the power of your professional network.
I whole-heartedly wish you the best of luck.
@1kxe+17ZNlpAn - Easy work isn’t necessarily a good thing. If the time comes and you get laid off from here, can you secure employment elsewhere with a background in easy assignments? This is the problem many middle aged PIP’d people are facing.
Only a couple of years with the company, joined after grad school, in my 30s.
I have found the salary to be higher than my grad school colleagues, generous PTO/vacation, and the work extremely easy. Before anyone hates I have mentioned this to my superiors from my second week here. But I have been told to "believe in the system" and that "XOM has my best, long-term interests in mind" so after several years of mentioning this I have given up and put my focus on my family, where it belongs.
So I too do not like the company but at the end of the day, I am just looking to sell my time at the highest rate I can find for the shortest amount of time.
Why will I (probably) stay? Overpaid (IMO compared to the value my roles provide) and easy work allows me to invest in passive income assets. However, I regularly apply to jobs to see my current market value.
I’m 31. I started when I was 22. I started in paulsboro and moved to Clinton. I really enjoyed paulsboro, it wasn’t work. It was a great time snd we did great things. We all got along from management to technical people to us workers. It was Fantastic. Clinton is much different. Not at all a family environment. However as time passes we are settling in and getting in the groove. I would love to stay with this company whole life. I’m proud to say I work for XOM. or I was, still am I guess. 2020 s—s. 2021 is gonna s— too and it’s going to have so healing pains but 2022 will be much better. I hope. If we make it through I think we’ll be on a much better path going forward. This company got comfortable and got FAT. Big time. It’s like being dumped by a girl. You realize how comfortable you really were so you hit the gym snd you get back to fighting weight before you get back out there. Atleast this is what I hope happens
The one looking for a job..
Just think about what kind of Millennial chose to join EM in the first place.
Three years with the company, hired on after grad school. I like my colleagues a lot, not really a fan of the location, and really don’t like the bureaucracy and culture. I’m ranked very high but could care less given how screwed up the ranking system is.
Looking to jump to another industry within the next two years. Life is too short to wake up dreading my inbox.
Not planning on staying here long term. From what I've seen, millenials place high value on location and job satisfaction. There just aren't enough benefits to want to stay here a full career. Sure a pension sounds great; who knows if it'll be here by the time we retire, nevermind the fact that we can get a higher paying job and invest the difference well enough to more than cover the benefit that a pension would provide. I truly hope there are millenials here with high job satisfaction right now, I personally find this to be a toxic work environment that will not end come Feb 1. The culture and ranking systems have reared their ugly heads this year and millenials are happy to take their talents elsewhere. The demographic gap that will come from it is not our problem.
I personally know 20-30 millennials in the US that have left in the last year or two, there will be another 1990s style talent void in a lot of spaces while the consultancies and body shoos eat our lunch in the next up cycle.
@1bcn+17ZNlpAn Many of us are going thinking to. This pandemic has been an eye opener to what exactly EM could do to all of us, for the sake of the stockholders. Employees, supposedly the most valuable asset of any company, have been betrayed. Who could not give a sh-t to this employer.
In my mid 30s, worked for another company and saw extreme frugality so when I hired into EM I was amazed at the culture..fancy dinners, travel to exotic conference, business travels for no good reason and I wondered how you justify it.. well you can't..
We became fat, stupid, lost our discipline. I hope we clean our house. Culture is cut throat and sometimes toxic. Most people are smart though.
My advice - figure out what you don't like about EM- if it's the industry then in today's world trends change quickly ( exxon was fortune 1 in 2012, blackberry was big in 2005), if it's the culture then maybe pick a smaller, family company because all big companies be it Tesla, Amazon, Facebook will be competitive and cut throat. I'd network and build your connections, invest in building your brand.. that stays with you whether the company you work for is there or not
Same thing happened in 2015 downturn. Those who weren’t fired quietly left as they found better opportunities (MBA, Law School, Consulting, etc).
I'm a supervisor with several millennial/Gen Z kids on my team. I worry about this a lot- are they all going to quit? How will I motivate them to stay? And then I think... If they did quit, would XOM even care?
As an experienced hire, I have been at 3 different companies before I landed at XOM. I can tell you that the XOM culture is toxic. Looking to get out of here soon.
For a person like you in the early career years, why would you want to continue at XOM. It’s a failing company in a dying industry. If you stay here for long, you will get branded an O&G guy. I say get out of the industry as soon as the right opportunity comes along.
I left XOM after 20+ years having becoming disgusted with XOM - for an independent. Spent ~5 years with independent. Was offered a position with XOM and I came back. Yes this is rare, but I’m thankful I did as that independent had mass layoffs shortly after I left. XOM did not.
The grass is not necessarily greener, just a different shade.
@1ams wait so are you saying there are people that do love it?
The company is counting on many of you not being at XOM soon. Hurry up and leave. Love it or leave it.
They never had the simplest of things that a lot of companies do - a “job-posting system” that is transparent on the available opportunities within the organization. Aren’t the millennials supposed to be against this kind of rigidity?Those that are hired from college and stay on, have no idea as to how the companies in the outside world operate.
Live below my means and retire early. #fire The money isn’t worth it.
Here's the thing about XOM at the moment. They're just like any other company right now facing hardships. You can stay and carve out a career or you can leave and find equal or better total compensation at a lot of places right now. A lot of it comes down to cultural fit. Do you like your job? Do you like your colleagues? Do you like the environment you're in? Are you satisfied with your pay? It's hard to hit the box on all four of those, but if you're only marking one or two of those boxes then maybe it's time to look around. Your chances of getting laid off at XOM are just as likely as getting laid off at a lot of O&G companies right now, so the stability of XOM is really no better than most places. For me, I left because I didn't like my job and I didn't like the environment. Colleagues were fine and pay was fine (although I make 20% more now). There is not a perfect company out there.
Many don’t plan being here long term. I think many of us don’t want to think of working for a company for 25+ years, but many of us end up being here longer than we intentionally thought.
Hired in in my early 20s thinking I’d be gone by now (late 30s) but with life’s ups and downs, here I am.
Now with the market flooded with other candidates, it’s relatively harder to leave the “rich abusive partner” relationship with xom.