Pros
+ You work with very talented, passionate and very smart people + The campus is lovely. Lots of in house amenities: a convenience store, dry cleaning, gym, cafeteria, coffee shop. + You work on some of the most recognized brands in market + Benefits and pay for marketers is good + Tons of focus on personal and professional investment. People development is a high priority to the organization + Focus on collaboration +Minneapolis is a great place to live. Just buy a good coat and car starter. + Highly ethical company
Cons
- If you are like me and love trends and being on the forefront of innovation; then General Mills is not the place for you. Too slow to innovate. Too much focus on mass market consumer vs. up and coming niche opportunities. Example: GMI totally missed the ball on Greek yogurt. They are currently "missing the ball" on many other nutrition opportunity areas. - Way to much focus on managing up, self promotion, "who you know", rather than on focusing on high quality work. To move up and be in good standing you have to set coffee time with the movers and shakers within the organization. That means that the real work needs to get done after hours. In the same light, too much focus on extracurriculars that do not add value to the business but add time and stress to employees day to day. - Work Life balance can go both ways. Depends on what function you are in and who your manager is . Marketers work late into evenings and on weekends. Some bosses send Friday evening requests for Monday am deliverables. I did have other managers who would respect time after 5:00pm and during weekend. But there are more managers of the former than later style. - Diversity is a myth. Though the company does focus and cater to hiring minorities, these are expected to fit a personality mold that is very Minnesotan. Communication styles of other cultures, which tends to be passionate and verbose get "corrected" with main point style that may seem un-natural to the culture. If you don't master the style and culture you are out. General Mills then, is not a diverse company. It seems like everybody is a cookie cutter image of one another. I would often refer to is as Stepford Wives Syndrome. - Minnesota Nice - conversations between managers and employees are often sugar coated. The language that General Mills uses to communicate with employees when it comes to performance is very political. Managers communicating low performance can state it in a very positive light. You need to know how to translate the language or better yet, the company needs to be more honest and direct with employees.