Pros
Big company, the company rarely ever fires anyone (One of the biggest issues in my opinion). Decent benefits, medical/dental, 401K compan matching program up to 6%. Respectable pay, would probably rank the pay as about average, compared to other companies in the same industry. There's usually an annual bonus that is given out every year, bonus depends on company performance, your business unit performance, and what your salary grade is. There is also an annual raise (before the economic downturn) between 4-6% of your base salary depending on your performance review. Very respectable work/life balance for the most part, there are definitley some jobs that require a lot more hours to be put in. 2 week paid vacation, plus 3 personal days. You receive 3 weeks paid vacation after your 5 year mark.
Cons
One of my biggest issues with the company after working there for almost 5 years, dealt with their performance review system. Every employee is given a performance review on a yearly basis that ranges from a 1, 2, 3a, 3b, 3c, 4, and 5 with 1 being the best, and 5 as you are most likely going to get fired. The vast majority of employes fall with the 3a-3c range. I had always received 3a ratings on all my jobs, except for one boss that refused to give me anything higher than a 3b. He basically told me that I can't get anything higher than a 3b, because there was 'only so much money in the bucket.' (his favorite phrase) I used to find the performance review system almost comical because they have a series of 4 or 5 training classes on how its supposed to be done, but yet the majority of supervisors just give out what they want to give out depending on their budget or who they like the most (I'll get to that in a minute). I've watched supervisors just give out ratings blindly while having no idea what type of work the employee did or is even working on. The system is horrible, and at times is so unjust for certain employees it definitely lowers morale. This is one of the largest companies that has so many generations of family members working for the same company. Most of the new employees are all from the Midwest. The company previously used to actively recruit from diverse areas of the country, such as the South and various diversity conferences but has pulled away from such activities in recent years (I was also a former recruiter). The company now solely concentrates on Midwestern schools, and just reinforces the SAME LACK OF DIVERSITY within the company. In the end, your promotions and ratings depend on if you "IN THE CLUB" or "NOT IN THE CLUB." I definitely was not in club, and was not going to 'play the game' to get in. Definitely a company with a mainly all male caucasian leadership team in ALL facilities. I personally had a boss when I was working in Griffin, GA that really turned me off to the company. He was THE WORST SUPERVISOR I have ever had in my life, including all jobs that I've had dating back to middle school. He was very sneaky (so he thought), a liar, attempted to blackmail employees, and just a down right horror to work for. He was the main reason why I left the company and as did so many others in his group. If anyone from Caterpillar is reading this, this guy 100% had to have the worst attrition rate regarding management employees in all of DPP (I don't know why I was the only one who noticed it). I was offered a promotion numerous times in another facility and he blocked every single one of them. I know of him attempting to spy on other managers via the video camera system (that also fell within his department), and even attempting to bribe another top-line manager in the facility to promoting an employee, and if he did so, he would also get something out of it. I don't mean to rant, but this is the type of stuff that goes on and these types of people just keep on movin up the ladder to just moved to another job because the company won't get rid of them even though they are destroying the company's culture. The last point that I want to make being an engineer, is that this company has way too many employees in high ranking managment positions that are not very intelligent. I have no problems with someone not being informed or understanding something, but don't make decisions contrary to someone with a specialized expertise in something & you have absolutely no technical experience or knowledge, let alone even being a leader. This is a company that has a lot of employees in mangement that have worked their way up from the shop floor, which I think is great, but a lot of employees are put in positions where they are leading people and don't have any leadership experience or qualities. This company also values educational degrees, ON PAPER. Definitely a lot of degrees obtained from the back of a match-book. Overall I think this company has great potential to go above and beyond their 2020 goals of $100 billion, but they also need to go through and clean house, and get some people who know that they are talking about, that understand people, and how to lead them.
