Planning to join Exxon as an experience hire in mid 40s. Any watch out? Opportunities for career growth exists? Heard Exxon uses performance review as tool to reduce headcount. Any advice.
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OP, I joined as an Experienced Hire about 15 years ago. XOM has a very specific culture, and it can be difficult for some to adapt. If you can, the upside can be truly interesting work and clever colleagues (although as you can see from these replies, the relative performance ranking system leaves many unhappy).
When I joined, I didn’t think I would ever have to update my external resume again - the company advertised a career, not just a job. That changed in 2020. You will be hired for a job. If you can navigate the culture, work hard, and demonstrate your value (despite being hired for your specific experience, you will have to prove yourself), then you’ll at minimum have a stepping stone in your career and best case hit the jackpot and get a retirement. Just don’t ever confuse your self worth with how the company ranks you - it’s a subjective forced ranking and the numbers have to work. As long as you are ok with your pay, like your work, and feel like you aren’t limited, stay. Otherwise, find a new opportunity.
please join other company...experience hire is such a burden to the new hire...they don't do any job at all...
@qf - I definitely understand what you are saying. In my experience I saw that behavior only when I was based in Spring between expat assignments. Being on expat assignments where an affiliate is paying the bills,we were treated with much respect and highly valued by all. It was a total farce in Spring, esp after 2015. During the Greenpoint days everything was realistic and management was fully aware of the points in making, we were even allowed to rest and told to stay home if we needed to until we were put on another assignment, which came up fast. No need to pretend to be busy. The senior management was highly realistic, personable and MPT staff had good access. At the affiliate locations we were rock stars. It always really su-ked to be back in Spring, even for a short time seeing all the d bag games and pretense. 10 people jumping on calls to hear what real engineers were doing in the field and then reporting it as if they did something. What a joke, but the Emperor always wore nice clothes and you found your place in the pecking order. Thankfully, I rarely had to go through a performance cycle in Spring. What a pack of d bags . Besides that I really enjoyed it, retiring straight from an affiliate
Good luck to you
@pp What you are missing is the realization that management doesn’t understand the points you are making and places absolutely ZERO value on people with technical skills and knowledge.
Experienced hires are 1-year contractors just like new hires graduating from college.
In ExxonMobil, everyone is a one-year contractor subject to NSI/PIP every year.
@mc. I do understand where you are coming from, however I do know there are huge knowledge gaps Gen Z wannabes and the Indians aren't ready to cover yet. Many are good at playing the "who gets the credit?" game, but someone who really knows what they're doing at a high level has always been necessary. There aren't enough hat contractors to go around right now, so it does make sense to bring in experienced hires with deep, specific skill sets. Then the wannabes and Indians can get the training and pretend they were born with the knowledge.
@mb do you really think ExxonMobil today is the same as it was when you were hired and working here? Wake up and smell the offshoring. They still need to fit 1/3 of the Americans and replace us with Indians. What you say may have been true 20 years ago but it is not true today. How can you not understand this?
Simple - if you are being hired for an identifiable discipline skill as an individual contributor, can hit the ground running and knowledgeable enough to know more than an Indian, I e. be in a position to train them in your discipline, you'll be fine. Anything at all associated with a supervisory role, management or a general role, RUN. DO NOT PASS GO. You will be fodder for a PIP. Make sure you completely understand what you're getting yourself in to. I know, I joined at 46 as an MPT individual contributor and retired at 61. Worked great for me.
@h0 wake up and smell the offshoring old timer. When you were working we still recruited from American universities. Have you seen how many universities were cut and no longer have recruiting teams? It is a whole new world.
@h0 it was just a different time 20 years ago. Say, you are 49 today with the same skills and experience stepping out of BP. I bet my last dollar xom will not hire you. Work hard and have skills? Lots of other people work very hard and have good skills today too. But today, xom will use the money to hire 10 in India. Your CV will be trashed.
That’s why I roll my eyes when I see career tango charts now, or when I hear old 50+ year olds tell fresh hires they can have a 30-year career “just like I did!” Get real and get on with the times.
At the age of 49 yo, I hired on as a EM employee after 20 with BP. (engineer). Then worked until I was 64. When I told my manager I was retiring he asked me to stay another year to finish my project. A great career success story possible by hard work , in demand skills, mixed with some luck. It is possible. Thanks EM.
Just remember one thing. You will not be ranked on how well you are doing the job they hired you for. That is just a licence to work. What matters is how you did extra things. Also. Don’t do 10 extra things. Do 1 maybe 2. No more and do an amazing job at it. They only care about 1 or 2 things and how people say you did. Good luck
EM is hiring mechanical techs that cannot even drive a car with a manual transmission.
Scraping bottom.
Do not do it! Are you insane!
@dt Gen Z are worthless. Never in 48 years have I seen a generation as lazy as your group. Keep drinking the XOM kool-aid. Your time will come, don’t get too comfortable.
@dt Not true! The young generation does not have a clue in performing their job. I have seen so many that watch movies, baseball, football, etc. on their company issued computers at work. Going to the office, booting up your computer then leave the campus. Yes, I personally know of those that do this. You don’t have enough experience to know what you don’t know.
Em has toxic environment where everybody want to stab each other back instead of helping each other...more on personel glory culture instead of teamwork...they will say we should work in a team but in reality working in silo...
Experienced hire here. Don't do it! EM is unbelievably toxic. As soon as I've got my 15 years in, I'm outta here!
Ironically, technical role requires you to prove technical skills, achieved some success over the years whereas folks chosen for management path in Exxon is not based on merit or proven leadership skills, basically they are not leaders, who can inspire young engineers, they tend to avoid many interactions at lower CLs since they lack credible story to inspire employees. They were moved every two years without proving leadership abilities. It's a Titanic with no iceberg in sight yet.
Technical path is tough and pressure cooker, not as valued, while management role maybe good for some but you lose independence, it involves hierarchical pleasing and no actual skill development. Also you need to have connection and sponsor who pushes you up
Post ID: @dt+1k5khc9q3. payaso (payasa 🤡
Another useless lazy old people join xom...just to fill up the box without doing anything....at the end of the day we are the young generation need to do your work and clean your sh-t...lucky gen z is very brilliant generation and know how to do a lot of works...
They need you to train young people, and then let you go using the cr-p PIP program.Relate to the imbecile that made the comment about everything is in the internet, young does not mean to be grow as an id--t.
@ch LOL. Sorry man but a "relatively good career" does not equal Chief, divisional manager, or lower executive. A "relatively good career" means you get to retire at 55 with CL27-29 before being PIPed.
ignorant question from another experience hire - what's the average age one leaves/retires if they have a relatively good career at Exxon, but not a stellar one in Downstream (non-site)?
Think of a chief, divisional manager, lower executives but nowhere near VP. Seems there are a few factors at play, like how you get along well with your managers, strategic importance of your segment etc but wonder in general.
In Exxon, as an experienced new hire, for the next 5 years, you are essentially on a “probationary” period meaning, every year, you are ranked more harshly than your peers that have been working at Exxon for more than 5 years. Which essentially means the chance of an experienced new hire surviving Exxon for more than 5 years is next to nothing. Unless you’re jobless or are currently working for a service company, I don’t think there’s literally any company worse for an experienced hire than Exxon. I left a well known company after 15 years for Exxon and I regret it every single day. Don’t make the same mistake I made.
There are a few I know of that have done pretty well, I’ve done ok, but the successful ones I know of all started well before 2020. Seems since Covid and the way the company has changed overall that experienced hires are now placed in a revolving door back out of the company. Some in a couple years some 3-5. Don’t bother joining is my honest advice unless you plan to be out looking for another job in 1-3 years.
If this is real I’m assuming you have a contact. If so you’re good.
Run. Or keep on applying. Everyone hates their job. Stress is through the roof. Morale is non existent. Everyone walking on egg shells.
25 years ago, give it a try. Now, you are just cannon fodder.
@an They don’t learn or retain much of anything guy.
They just prompt an LLM and take the first answer they get as a solution to the problem. I spend a lot of time unpacking and fixing mistakes made by young engineers because they took whatever Copilot/ChatGPT said to them at face value.
Be smart and do not join ExxonMobil
This not young versus old at all.
It is about the ability to ‘groom’ aka brainwash you to believe that senior leaders are reincarnation of the lord himself. Every word they say is true, every number they make up must become true..ahem ahem light weight propoant uplift..ahem permian priuection to double ahem..made up comoany plan numbers every year..that NEVER remain true yet extract the soul of every planner who stays up on saturday nights questioning their existence and morality.
In the end, you become like them.
You can’t do that as an experienced hire because you know better.
@OP my advice... don't, very toxic environment. Leadership are basically dictators
I dont really like experience hire in my department...they come to office, do nothing and go back early...exxon should just layoff the old folks and let the company managed by young people...they are better...
Ignore the loser comments - and realize like all matters - it depends. At the macro scale, all of us don’t recognize the Company we joined. At the micro scale, some Orgs are clown shows while others are extremely busy getting rewarding work done. It is a meritocracy and everyone chooses to participate - if you don’t like the outcome resign and move on.
You will be obsolete...young generation nowadays is better and learn faster that old people nowadays...everything is available in internet...xom is for young people not you...
@a5 all I ever see you young people do is sit outside and talk about non-work things, or sit at the coffee bars and talk about other things not related to work. You dream of being managers, but you will not get there, because you too will be outsourced to KL or Bangalore before you get to be our age....enjoy your coffee while you can
@a5 thanks for your post, dump phyucks like you will not last, start looking for a new job
XOM sees you as technical expert (support), but now we outsourcing to other tech office in India and Malay. First few years should be good, then you will be PIPed in 3~5 yr. XOM is attractive option but just have a backup plan after got PIPed in mid 40s.