Pros
HAL Corporate provides a good experience for working for a large, public company. There are opportunities to learn many aspects of whatever your specialization is, and there are opportunities for travel if you are in the right positions (and in an advanced role). Compensation is competitve for mid-senior and senior level roles and benefits are strong. Management is responsible and fair. I appreciated the worldwide connections of the company. At any time, during any day, you could speak to someone anywhere in the world. Training programs for the Corporate office were just beginning when I left but there seemed to be a lot of training opportunities for shipboard positions. CEO Stein Kruse is a nice and very intelligent leader, albeit a little reserved.
Cons
Compensation is really low for entry-level or junior-mid level positions, so most younger professionals use HAL as a stepping stone and there is high turnover because of this. Since the mid and senior level employees seem to be so highly compensated, they never leave and so there are little to no opportunities for advancement. This company prefers to bring employees in from the ships, and there is a certain "military" air to operations. Things get done but in a very cold, reserved way. It's definitely a company that still operates from the boomer generation and most generation Y's get too frustrated by the beauracracy to stick around. Being such a large company, there is a TON of red tape to get anything new, innovative or creative accomplished. That being said, they are operating well and don't need too many new ideas (I guess).
