Pros

Good work life balance, provided that you have a progressive and flexible boss.

Cons

There is no real career path within my discipline (health, safety, environmental). Ambitious people in this discipline are either forced to change discipline, leave the company, or settle for an individual contributor or low level team leader role.

Advice to Senior Management

There are too many "flavor of the month" management initiatives, which are not usually followed through to a logical point of completion. By the time you've learned the intent or at least the buzz words from the last initiative, a new one is here. More consistency would be nice. Senior leaders staying in one job for longer than 12 months would also help this.

Pros

Opportunities to expand your career are definitely out there. BP is too large for me to speak for all locations, but where I work is full of skilled, congenial, cultured people. There is a sense of pride which helps drive people to perform well, and also a healthy measure of focus on safety, including a goal of not harming the environment.

Cons

The corporation is positively massive. There is a mountain of red tape and levels of management, and sometimes ineffective or outdated policies. In recent times there have been a multitude of reorganizations, which can make the complexity (and thus frustration) absolutely overwhelming sometimes. People respond differently to challenges, but I have had many a day fighting against lack of motivation due to the inefficiency in some areas, particularly Information Technology management.

Advice to Senior Management

Policies need to be put in place, having considered and consulted with *everyone* they affect. You need to be in the faces of the people on every rung of the hierarchy and make sure all needs are being met, all concerns addressed, and all parties involved in the change process. There are a lot of policies, surrounding information technology (IT&S) particularly in my job/experience, which have been hastily mandated in recent times that unnecessarily add complexity to the business.

Pros

It's big! It is a massive business, there are many different places to go, and the opportunities are very diverse. If you can stay there a long time, the pension is excellent..

Cons

Poor rewards for performance, huge pressure to cut costs is removing promotion prospects, and lower-than-average pay compared to industry peers.

Advice to Senior Management

Promote talent, not those who are most adept at playing the system of senior managment patronage. Set some strategic goals that are not exclusively concerned with cost-cutting, and think about customers instead of organisation!

Pros

It is a large company with good working environment. I am working here since last 2 years and i am very satisfied with what they offered me in these years. You can work with your own way, you dont necessary have to follow the way of your supervisor. Working here helps a lot to improve your personality. I enjoyed a lot and am enjoying what BP offered to me and my family. I am working as corrosion engineer. i really like my job.

Cons

You would stuck in this company for your whole life, as they offer best than any one else could. No other disadvantage.

Advice to Senior Management

Upper managemnet should listen to there employees.

Pros

Good growth overall. Corporate structure and innovation is nice too. Management does take time to listen to ideas but it can be a lengthy process to get anything changed due to the large nature of the company.

Cons

Very demanding organization. You get out of it what you put in. BP demands a lot from their employees overall and is not a family oriented type of atmosphere if you're into that sort of thing. Sometimes they seem to hire a lot of young and less experienced individuals and I have had to spent countless amounts of time training them. Not enough experience in the workplace.

Advice to Senior Management

Overall I think the right people are in place and have no major gripes. I do think they could have more programs in place to help employees fit in at the workplace.

Pros

They let people pursue their outside passions. Individuals can participate in professional organizations if they choose, However, this is not necessary and more often tahn not managament simply pays no attention to those employees that have managed to find their way into relationships that can be influential in state and federal government. There are a number of very competent personnel as individual contributors. These professionals are very willing to share their knowledge and provide mentoring. Mostly though, these folks do their job and go home never pausing to look back as they await a buy-out package or retirement.

Cons

One must stay inside the context of one's job, follow orders and let the Brit's run the outfit. You'll survive and collect a paycheck. Upward feedback is an exercise as the overall culture and morale never seems to change much from year to year. Creativity is not necessary; it is expected that one will stick to their knitting and get their work done.

Advice to Senior Management

Diversify; send the british ex-pats home and promote US citizens for management ranks.

Pros

BP is a global company. If you are moble, you many opportunities around the world.

BP has a good compensation program.

Cons

A lot of red tape to get anything done.
The company is very risk adverse after Texas City disaster.
They do not do a good job at developing there people.
Advancement is very tied to networking and who you know.

Advice to Senior Management

Make employee developement a priority, not just a slogan.
Too many levels of management.
Nobody wants to make a decision. You need to reward more risk taking.

Pros

Work Life Balance, they care about their employees, good not great compensation. Good 1st level leadership,. Overall good company, great company to start career and great company to finish career, not very good to spend your prime.

Cons

Horrible and worthless HR, extremely political and Bureaucratic, horrible upper level management, no direction or strategy. , emphasizes commercial roles instead of technology / engineering roles. You have a commercial person running an energy company that does not understand how oil and gas are produced. Wont pay their employees the market. Does not focus on technology, engineering, or innovation.

Advice to Senior Management

Pay more and provide more opportunity for advancement or more people will leave than they have

Pros

They are very understanding when employees need to take time to address personal issues.

Cons

The management seems to be working in a fantasy world no one else can find. They set unobtainable goals and if a goal is close to being reached, they change it to one that can't be reached. Morale is not doing well. This company is full of compulsive starters, but it's hard to find someone that will do the follow-up work.

Advice to Senior Management

Use common sense when brainstorming and setting targets. Invest more in standard maintenance on existing equipment and wells, rather than spending money on the latest technology that probably won't work. I have no problem with trying something new, but it would be better in moderation.

Pros

opportnuity to work and visits places across the globe and to do jobs in different disciplines; also we take care of our own peolple when in need (like after Hurricane Rita and Ike); you can find a lifetime of work in Houston or London

Cons

reorganizations and org charts with lots of duel reporting (typically local and then to London) cause alot of lost productivity and frustration; networking is essential to suceeding at BP

Advice to Senior Management

HR is far too complicated........simplify