British American Tobacco Reviews

Former Employee – worked at British American Tobacco full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – Training. Growth Opportunities. Financial Performance.

Cons – Politics. Low delegation level. Lack of empowerment. Extremely centralized.

Advice to Senior Management – Delegate. Empower.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at British American Tobacco full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Super good bonus, benefits. Learnt a lot, open minded colleagues. Good culture.

Cons – no work-life balanced, low basic pay. Focus only management staff.

Advice to Senior Management – All staffs (be it management or non management) should be a valuable great asset. Do appreciate, the co growth will be better.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at British American Tobacco as a contractor for less than a year

Pros – Good salary comparing with other companies

Cons – No Career Opportunities if you do not gow out of country

Advice to Senior Management – Hire from local markets

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at British American Tobacco full-time for more than a year

Pros – Dynamic work environment, Good Corporate Culture, People over Work, Job Security, Career is well managed

Cons – No work-life balance, overload of work

Advice to Senior Management – Ensure balance of work-life to enhance performance and ensure refreshment of mind to work and contribute

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at British American Tobacco full-time for less than a year

Pros – Great teams
Fun, but professional atmosphere
Good work/life balance
Corporate bonuses

Cons – Need to plan projects more thoroughly and use up-to-date techniques

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at British American Tobacco full-time

Pros – Flexible working hours
Good working conditions
Highly liquid company (financially)
Cool team spirit
Professionals
Competitive Salary

Cons – Harmful products
Tight deadlines
No mercy
Regulated market

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at British American Tobacco full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – FUN! Great people, good career opportunities, challenging working environment.

Cons – controversial industry and product, but good to work for

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at British American Tobacco as a contractor for more than 7 years

Pros – it's the perfect place to get experience in sales, and the colectiv it's the reasen why you go to work every day

Cons – competition is high in this environment

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at British American Tobacco full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Company stands out in the crowd if you join as a Management Trainee: offers good development possibilities, foreign assignments, inspirational trainings, etc. Support and career opportunities given to MTs are outstanding.

BAT promotes fairness, equality of race, sex etc. Employees have lots of freedom and work/life balance is acceptable.

Generally well-defined processes are in place and most employees would work against clear KPIs, at least in the factories.

Cons – The most irritating part of life at BAT - and everyone admits it - is the state of constant change. Project scopes, timelines, structures, decisions are different from day to day. There is no point for managers to plan ahead for more than one month. The absurd pace of change seriously disrupts work if you're an organized and strategically-thinking person.

Second of all, complex matrix structures at regional & global levels do not function well. Amount of bodies, centres, global processes, stakeholders is overwhelming. In such a spaghetti structure there is always at least one stakeholder reluctant to make good business decision and "needing to consult another stakeholder". This is sad, because back in 2007 BAT was much more flexible and adapted easily to market needs.

Lastly, there are limited development opportunities for non-management - money is invested in Management Trainees (this is me speaking - one of them in the past). This leads to paradoxes when people with little expierience take over departments instead of good internal talents.

Advice to Senior Management – Simplify structures (=get rid of all "regional centres for..."); promote talent inside the company (=recruit fewer MTs) and promote a culture of working where plans do not change every day.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at British American Tobacco full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Good compensation
Excellent friendly corporate culture
Invest in people (education programs, rotation)

Cons – Politics sometimes get to the highest levels
Controversial industry

Advice to Senior Management – Keep delivering! Good job!