Why do people hang on working for EM? My son got a job offer there but It sounds like an awful place to work based on all these posts.
14 replies (most recent on top)
@dy is spot on
If your son wants to become a PE Professional Engineer, this could be difficult at EM.
Almost nothing we do qualifies as part of your required 4 years of professional experience to sit for the PE exam.
Also without doing real engineering, we forget a lot in our first 4 years at EM such that if we lied about our experience to qualify to take the exam, that exam would be extremely difficult without have done more than calculating a budget for 4 years.
Be cautious about planning to join for a few years and later leave, especially if you want to stay deeply technical. There are virtually no true technical jobs left and your skills will quickly atrophy, making it nearly impossible to go back to true technical work after 3-5 years. Then you’re stuck.
They will pay you enough to put up with all of their BS. That’s my opinion as a 13 year employee. Once you learn to tolerate all of the safety bs and pointless paperwork it’s not too bad of a place to work.
@cd+. The problem is that even if you are grinding extremely well, you could get PIPd and replaced by AI. Another Indian.
@aw agreed, an excellent place to spend your first 5 years. If your trajectory isn't to the stars, then leave with a first class grounding
@cm - It is not about sensitive or insensitive people. It is demotivating when despite very strong performance, your growth is limited due to lack of sponsorship. Now this is not a phenomenon unique to EM, but its over amplified here. EM is a numbers oriented company and if your growth rate is mediocre for a few years, there is no chance for you to win long term. If we want to be truly a great company which i believe everyone wants, even the ones here who many of us brand as disgruntled, we need to also acknowledge what the company's limitations are. Anyway feel free to disagree.
People who tend to do better working here are those with a strong personality who don't get dragged down into cynicism when they experience personal slights and injustices by co-workers and management. It's not an ideal company for sensitive people or those who want to avoid workplace politics and competition.
@aw interesting that it’s such a terrible situation for you that you just “can’t leave” after being vested for 15-20 years with company. Oh the horror.
Your testimony speaks volumes that this company is the best spot for you currently as you view it as having a long term career orientation (it’s a means to the end that you desire).
Are there things that su-k? Yes. Is the grass greener on the other side? Maybe but it’s not that much greener. After being at company ~15-20 years myself, I look forward to grinding now and coming out the other side a millionaire.
Many of us have 15 to 25 years invested into this path and are trying to get to 30 years and 55.
When we originally joined EM, the culture was not so embarrassingly degrading.
Massive ramp up of hiring incompetent 3rd world people willing to work for 15% of American salaries combined with annual “performance” disguised layoffs has destroyed all respect and confidence in our formerly respected company.
Tell your son to either turn down the EM offer, or to accept the offer and have a plan to leave EM on his own terms in 5 years or less. NEVER stay more than 5 years because he might get too settled and get trapped in misery for decades, assuming EM survives the reliance on the cheap error prone ignorant mistake makers.
It su-ks here. That said, folks who haven't seen behind the curtain still regard XOM as prestigious...for some reason. It's not a bad idea for your son to take a job here, stay for a couple years to pad his resume, but it is not a place to have a career anymore. It is full of toxic people and dysfunction at every level, and i dont think it will ever improve.
If you go by all the posts on this website, then you would not want to work for any company. All companies are scary according to this website. Despite all the whining, the posters still don't want to lose the jobs they complain about. Does your son have a better offer than EM? Do you have a business he can learn?
This is thread of disgruntled folks. Most think its a good job at xom.
High salary, relatively speaking.
Yeah, you can make more in finance or tech, but a few years in and it’s about 2-3x that of some tier 2 supplier factory job in the Midwest, for engineers at least.