So if anyone’s checking this site to see what it’s like before joining, let me warn you: 3M is where careers go to die. If you’re looking for a quick stepping stone to something better, by all means, join 3M. But if you’re hoping to grow your career, run as far and fast as you can from this place. Just a friendly warning.
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Varys imposter below
“Mr. Brown's tenure at L3Harris was controversial within the company, and he developed a deeply unfavorable reputation as someone who achieved stock price gains at the expense of his employees.”
New hire ^^
I don't think either of those statements is true.
There are a lot of STEM programs and a lot of very bright students in them. The anti-intellectuals are having a moment -- they are proudly declaring their ignorance. But the bright kids who love math and science are still studying because they love the subject matter.
Show me a top student at a Chinese or Indian engineering school and I'll show you a guy who can be replaced by a TI-83 calculator.
Their engineering programs are about memorization and applying formulas by rote, and anyone who has had to work with a PhD engineer from there knows this.
But you are right that the US is in the middle of an anti-intellectualism wave, so we're producing fewer engineers and top tech folks than we used to be have in our pipeline.
Modern day Americans simply aren’t focused enough to create the world’s best engineers.
The world's best engineers can be found in China and India.
Those cultures celebrate mathathlete winners, not sports heroes and prom queens.
As current employee of many years, originally recruited from industry as a subject matter expert, never have I witnessed the McKnight principles at 3M. Never. This is the same fallacy as "15% time" and the "most ethical company" nonsense. Good people may be hired, but their expertise is soon wasted on reporting to micromanaging bosses, endless powerpont justifications (even for the most basic decisions), and way too many meetings to keep the disfunctuonal global groups updated. After the first reorg, expect your new bosses to be oblivious why your expertise was once valued or needed. If you're considering 3M as an employer, do more diligence than just speaking to your hiring team and reading the company hype. Read the investor 10k (then be frightened) and contact former employees. Do some digging and decide if 3M is worth your valueable time. Hopefully a new hire candidate reads this.
Agree. Jimmy Mac was the start of the downslide. It just took quite a while to have an impact.....the shift from technology and innovation to cut management really took effect under him. Buckley helped for as long as he was here.
Shows you what managing for Wall Street does to American business.
I, too, wish people told me about 3M. The culture is very toxic and unhealthy. I know of one manager who is on leave and it appears the leave is related to the toxicity of 3M.
3M still has a glowing reputation out in the marketplace because the 1st 100 years (1902 to 2002) were truly remarkable. The McKnight principles were so ingrained in the company, even when I started work in the mid 1980s.
Alas, James McNerney from GE came along, embracing the passive aggressive GE culture and imposing it on 3Ms collaborative and collegial culture. The wound proved fatal, even if it took Inge and Roman time to seal the deal.
Bill Browns sparky criticism of 3M and Minnesota Nice shows he could care less to learn the culture and the people and would rather not be bothered with that stuff while he breaks 3M into a bunch of 0.5 and 0.75 Ms.