For Shell employees that are 49 and younger, how optimistic are you about your career at Shell in regards to job security, promotional opportunities, and working on interesting assignments?
27 replies (most recent on top)
30s, JG4, Europe.
Joined as an engineer but was always treated as a secretary in favour of the older folks. The last project in my department that got built was 10 years ago. Promotion is nowhere in sight for anyone. Everyone keeps their head down milking the salary. I'd probably stay longer myself if not for being constantly bullied and put down by the powers that be during my sick leave.
For me, there are more benefits to waiting to be laid off than finding a different job while still being employed. I have mostly interesting work, an ok work life balance, and enjoy networking with most of my colleagues. I am going to wait it out until another reorg and make them pay me to leave, which shouldn’t be long.
A couple of recommendations:
- Save your money and live frugally
- Publish or collaborate to build an external reputation
- get certifications
- Try to stay in Shell, they actually pay pretty well
- Know your discipline lead
- Know both your immediate supervisor and their boss too
- Seek ways to share your work and build a good reputation
- Treat people well but avoid je-ks
- Socialize with your coworkers
- Keep your temper
- Keep all jokes PG and avoid race, religion, and s-x/orientation as part of the joke
- Don't sleep with your coworkers or their wives, husbands, siblings, children, parents, or close friends. (especially not all at once)
- Don't get drunk or high in front of your coworkers or bosses
- Don't cheat or steal
- Avoid unethical situations... when it hits the fan the innocent get covered too
- Stay classy
- dress well
... there are other things too but just stay ethical.
If you do all that chances are you'll be fine
Working for shell was always bad for your long term carrier. Shell has way too much process and makes things inefficient and after a while shell people know no better. That’s why people used to stay with shell for their whole carrier. They paid well and no other company was really interested in them.
Now Shell is laying people off and they are realising there’s no company interested in anyone long term shell and getting kicked out.
it’s definitely worth mentioning that having an @shell.com email used to open lots of doors and now nobody cares
it seems like people get fired and take lower paying jobs or early retirement now instead of being actively recruited. it’s been a huge shift versus 7-10 years ago.
really sad to see. i feel that college and community networks are also gone.
they truely got rid off so much with all of the cuts. what a waste.
@mk
There is or was this event caused by low oil prices and hiring freezes in the 1986-1992 and 1995-2003 range with layoffs and mergers. It created a bimodal population distribution. Gen-X had to wait for the boomers and silent generation to retire... they stayed in half a$$ed an milked the company for all they could on the way out and were sparce to teach the next generation.
When they left in droves the Gen-X crew and old Millennials that had to wait and wait and wait some more for a promotion were finally flying up the promotion ladder. Now you have only a few boomers and Gen-X, and a few Millenials in charge. But a lot of the Gen-x were stuck in low job grades longer... they still need to save $$ for retirement and age 5 -6 years to be retirement eligible. So this is an echo of the same impact the generation before felt. It is a bit lessened in the bi-modal nature of the populations age. But it is WAY WORSE with the after pandemic inflation, the rise in cost of living and the wage raises that were less than inflation. ( No Gretchen, the lack of raises didn't fight inflation they just hurt Shell Employees. And no Wael, slashing the dividend and doing share buy back to mask that Shell is ~30% smaller hurts employees and shareholders.) Houses have raised in price, progressions are fewer, raises have been less than inflation, health care is skyrocketing, Shell is still promising to shrink oil production by 40% and mask it with share buy backs, a lot of the previous benefits are cut for folks starting after 2013. Shell training has been lacking and other oil companies and headhunters aren't actively trying to hire Shell trained staff away like they did 10 years ago.
To paraphrase Kansas lyrics, Carry on my wayward son, there'll be peace when you are done. Lay your weary head to rest.
JG4 Mid 40's, DS. Almost 20yrs in. I can still smell the benzene and see the flare when I walk outside. Someone told me years ago to stay as close to the "work" as possible. None of this is promised from day to day. If you've been with the company long enough you know that the only thing certain is uncertainty. Save your money and keep showing up until they tell you to stop.
for many roles, especially functional, we have a global operating model. So then for roles that don't have to be sit at an asset/business etc, its fairly obvious business sense to look for the best location to deliver that capability. Woodcreek etc is half empty (meaning beyond timezone proximity - clearly being physically co-located doesn't seem to be of importance...). From a $ perspect, US staff are like 6-7x more expensive than SBO, and 2x vs EU. Thats not to say we don't have some great talent in the US and some roles that should be there, but there does need to be a clear reason to merit - beyond well historically we always had lots of people here and hub. So if you are 49 and younger and want to stay, worth thinking about what you can do that has unique location advantage hard to replicate by not being there
yep. there are lots of managers who don’t even know how to do the daily work of people under them.
@mk agree, and now we have some (not all) managers who moved up too quickly and are incompetent. Makes it tough to manage when you have people underneath you who have done more real work. I’d say about half those managers that moved up quick are decent and the other half are trash. Problem is leadership seems to like the trash ones more.
@m5 agree. What is frustrating is the bar to climb was much lower not too long ago. When the big crew change happened, the oldest (folks late 30s / early 40s now) had a huge explosion in progression. Younger people are progressing through their careers wayyyy slower now. This has been a coordinated effort by HR. Agree with another comment that this will just lead to complacency and a slow death for Shell.
There’s no choice into which age we’re born. You just deal with it. The golden age of secure corporate jobs, a stable work and economic climate, defined benefits pensions, etc. are long gone. Even when it existed, it wasn’t fat, lazy and complacency that built Shell.
Welcome to the Jungle.
I think to a degree maybe Oil major employees got too comfortable with high benefits and pay for little efforts
There was a time at Shell when, if you successfully ran the gauntlet and were hired, you could look forward to a solid career with a variety of postings, dependable raises and if warranted, in-job or rotational promotions. And, job security.
Seems a stable and committed workforce, which is created by these conditions, is something that has little to no value to current leadership.
if climbing seems even possible in your team and country then you’re very blessed
Hardly coasting. Consistently outperform and doing quite well advancing, honestly work harder than 80% of my peers. My point is it’s only a job, we get paid really well, don’t take it all to seriously. If you want to coast and bank the pay check just do that, if you want to climb you absolutely still can but it comes at cost. You only live once and this job doesn’t care about you …
all that’s changed in your take is that you’re fine with coasting and others want to be able to grow
you are exactly who shell will attract from now on
there’s nothing wrong with meeting the bar, or having work not be that important to you, it’s just that if a whole company only meets the bar it won’t be competitive on a global stage. they should not want to optimize for too much of that in the workforce - it’s longer term death
It feels like right now there is a pause to discuss anything of more substance like extra training budget or International assignments as everyone seems to be in survival mode.
I'm in my 30s and relatively new to Shell (+4 years) and based in Europe. Having been mostly in logistics and automotive industries prior to this I do feel ok despite all the mess and reorgs.
The benefits and pay is competitive but I don't think most of us will survive the continuous wave of reorgs and I do wonder how a company can be sustainable by never properly implementing a reorg and see the results when it feels like when the first reorg hits they already pre plan the next one
In my opinion Shell is still a great place to be. Yes the leadership is making a mess of it, the funnel is not great … but people here for the most part are nice and know what they are doing, projects are still interesting and if you want and can network there are still lots of options (less than before but still).. At the end just Remeber it’s just a job, it’s not your company, what’s the worst that can happen, you get laid of, just be ready. Milk the company for all $$$ you can and stick around as long as possible. Even with all the layoffs most people are still there, it’s not that bleak.
@eq job suppression is very real. Feel bad for those younger folks. The ladder has been pulled up.
There is no place for Americans in Wael’s Shell. Americans have 5 years until they are replaced by Indians. It doesn’t matter if they can’t do the work, they’re so cheap that the LT will let them keep trying forever and cost is the only metric remaining in the entire company from top to bottom.
Not optimistic at all but I’ve been saving and investing for a long time now so I’m just here until ive been cut
Mid 40s, US, almost 20 years with company, JG3. Half in Upstream, half in RES.
Having seen T-2009 and ReShape (company-wide re-orgs that were announced), and a number of smaller, limited scope re-orgs over the years, I have been particularly surprised at the handling of the current on-going re-org. It has been company wide, but not publicized, and cuts are far deeper than make sense in almost every organization. I dodged layoff by less than 2 weeks (with 6 months notice). My networks in either part of the company didn't help much in landing a spot.
So, not optimistic about making it to 80 points. Possible to make it to 70 points, but will likely require another change in department.
I am not looking for promotion. Things are REAL thin for JG2 and above, in part due to job grade suppression (more work for lower job grade than historically) and most roles being management. That mid-level management is up or out, and usually out.
Interesting projects/work now have about 2 years of runway to demonstrate business value or they are canned.
Read the posts on the XOM board. We are the same with better marketing.
30s, JG4, US, Project Eng DW, 9 years in Shell.
I'll tell you again at the end of August / Speed 2026. I've been through a number of reorgs (i think this is 5) without fear. This one feels different.
But, this endless reorg cr-p is crazy. Not stressful since I'm a saver/investor but I feel bad for anyone loving paycheck to paycheck.
Im naive to believe since I have an engineering degree and contribute directly to projects that I can make it to 50 in Shell, but not past JG3.
US upstream, 30s, JG3
Job security: shook but stable. Glad I’m not higher on the totem pole, but very aware of remote hubs and trying to lower cost of workforce
Promotional opportunities: bleak, don’t see it getting better anytime soon
Interesting projects: lots of interesting stuff to work on at Shell, it’s just all the BS processes and managers who get in the way that make it no fun
nobody in IT with a brain feels secure
the leadership team likes to “reassure” everyone by talking about how much it invests in US region. but when you look at the breakdown of that, none of the spend involves investing in the people. it is clear that the future of shell and all other oil majors is set to take place in india.
anybody in US IT not polishing their resume, upskilling, and saving money is a fool
it’s also clear that no matter where you are in the company, this is no longer a place where set roots and have a career. there is no reward to doing more. they literally cut stock comp while claiming “we reward performance”. the community connections and collegiate crossovers are dead. victims of covid and cost cuts. it’s not your grandpa’s shell and the leadership team seems fine with that
Well the ones in US IT (which most seem to be on this forum), things are really bleak. I give it 3 more years till US is no longer an IT hub.