Caterpillar reviews

4.0

78% would recommend to a friend

(7,296 total reviews)

Joe Creed

69% approve of CEO

74% positive business outlook

Caterpillar has an employee rating of 4.0 out of 5 stars, based on 7,296 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Caterpillar employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Manufactura industry (3.5 stars).

Reviews by job title

7K reviews
2.0
May 25, 2016

GIS SR IT Analyst

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Full time employees at the Supervisor level and lower are great. Caterpillar has a great time recruiting very smart people. For the most part the employees are very passionate about making a difference and working for an iconic company. Compensation is okay for the area.

Cons

Terrible upper leadership. Retention for great employees is nearly non-existant. Good employees don't want to stay and grow their careers. Only employees who are tied to the area and can't find a job elsewhere want to stay. The company is rotting, and upper leadership CEO down to VP and Directors are terrible. They will not be able to hire and retain millennials because of the bad culture. Global Information Services is a joke. The VP and Directors constantly talk about how quality, responsiveness and cost are enormous when business units want to work with them, but they are constantly cutting full time employees, and hiring overpaid consultants who don't have basic skills to do any job let alone highly specialized positions. The company has a "Digital Strategy" which is a joke. You can't have a core competency when you outsource, co source, or buy a product. The amount of money spent on technology that doesn't fit the need of their "vision" is a tremendous. If they focused their investment towards hiring and retaining the correct people they wouldn't have sunk so much money into black holes. Most the supervisors have no clue what's going on because they need to manage anywhere between 10-25 people. Morale is terrible. Even people who have been there 25+ years are quitting. The number of people voluntarily leaving, is nuts. Even people who started 25 years ago straight from college have left to go to competitors, because the working environment is so terrible. There is no transparency. There are a lot of meetings that happen behind closed doors. Outsourcing a lot of jobs to india in the IT, Engineering and Logistics field. Our Dealers are supposed to be one of our core competencies and now people who deal directly with Dealers are fired, and given a severance, only if they train their replacement who is flown in from India (This is one of the saddest things I have seen at any company).

1.0
Oct 15, 2025

Don't buy it!

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

*** Notice many of the positive reviews are in broken English. Pay attention to the Location, and that many are summer interns. *** The only pro of working here is a paycheck, as long as you can stomach it

Cons

This company is seriously twisted. Layers of disgustingly overpaid, worthless upper and middle management. Poorly managed, bureaucratic dumpster fire. Constant layoffs and offshoring. They don't care about people. No training. Pay is below industry standards. CAT is where careers go to die. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED

1.0
Apr 27, 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Good Pay, Friendly People, Lot's of Career Choices, Free Week off in Dec between Christmas and New Years

Cons

Let me say I'm writing this from what would be a middle management perspective. I started entry level and have worked my way into a global team level. So, when I started with CAT about a decade ago, one of the draws was the hybrid schedule. Two days from home, three in the office. CAT is doing away completely with that model as of June 2025 via the executive office. Additionally, leadership has clearly demonstrated through actions that they don't care about the employees anymore, only the bottom dollar. Employees are regularly screwed on job performance reviews because they can only give out so many "above expectations," per group. I exceeded ever only of my goals by more than double this year, and got a "met expectations," because our group didn't have enough to give out. The company has also been screwing employees on STIP bonuses (yearly bonus) by cutting STIP factors dramatically when time comes to pay out. Jobs are outsourcing rapidly to Brazil, Mexico, and India, while US based employees are expected to pick up the slack those moves create, AND to fix all the problems created by inexperienced offshore resources. You constantly live in fear of "Will I have a job next week," since leadership regularly have program directives like "Project Dolphin," (real thing) that aims at reducing headcount, regardless of how many people might actually be needed. I watched them a month ago, just out of nowhere, cut a guy on his 20th service anniversary. What a reward for 20 years of service. More evidence that the company doesn't care is seen in the day-to-day, They can't be bothered to provide free food, coffee, or any small amenities in the office. In fact, they go so far as to way over-charge for these things. The offices are lifeless and dull with an extremely corporate feeling. Huddle rooms and conference rooms are a joke with "calling from a bathroom stall," vibe and only offering 1/2 the tech you need, forcing many to have meetings from their noisy desks. The expectations are to give your life to them, be at their call at all hours, and they return that by trying to find ways to get rid of you for a cheaper option. Caterpillar used to have a good culture and you felt valued. I strongly encourage folks to stay clear of this one. I hope the new CEO changes that direction, but from what I've seen from him so far, I'm not holding my breath.

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