Cargill Reviews in Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN Area

Pros

Felt like part of a team, learned something new every day, co-workers felt like friends, great place to gain new skills

Cons

I was a contracted hire at this company, and due to financial and legal reasons, I was limited in what I could do as a worker there, and outside of my immediate group of co-workers, I was treated as "just a number." The only thing on the minds of upper management was "when will that contractor be let go so we can save money." They had the nerve to force me to leave during the holidays with little more than than a "Thanks and good luck."

Pros

Cargill provides a global opportunity, a company that plays in many market spaces, and offers (in good times) fair treatment of their employees.

Before the layoff they supported learning and development, diversity and inclusion, and talent management. Hopefully these functions will be re-built once Cargill's profits and cashflow concerns pass.

The leadership team is ethical and concervative in nature.

Cons

Cargill, before their recent 4,000 layoff in 2012, was a great employer with leadership saying all of the right things. When markets and profits were in good shape this seemed to be a career playground (do good and more opportunities await). When times were tough the leadership went into old-school survival mode....Sr. leader bonuses where primary and mid-level employee engagement was not important.

In bad times, as stated, Cargill leadership reverts into old behaviors and leverages the core business capability of operational slashing. If you are consideration employment at Cargill stay very close to the P&L - it is the only marginally safe place.

Cargill is an overbuilt company that moves very slowly to adjust to markets, competitive pressure, or customer requirements. The only reason Cargill is successful is size...they dominate markets when possible. The challenge is in Asia where size can work against you and agility and customer centricity is critical. These are not Cargill's strengths.

Cargill's process and systems are 20 years behind - from talent management to IT systems, Cargill functions with bad data, a leadership team that shoots from the hip/gut (vs. process honoring), and is only concerned about senior leader positioning and payouts.

Advice to Senior Management

Build organizational systems (people, process and technology) that enable the business. Hold accountable those that control the P&L and build functions (L&D, OE, HR, IT, etc.) that enable your strategy (hold true on those investments and adjust your business unit models to adapt).

Sr. leadership needs to structure themselves (way too top heavy and old school) and hold themselves accountable for managing their "top-of-the-house" business using the org. tools (i.e. Project and Portfolio Management) that they are demanding lower levels to use.

Shift accountability to the sr. leadership and model leadership of publically held companies - if profits are down and sr. leadership made errors in strategy and judgement, let them go. Stop punishing the middle part of the organization for errors made at the top.

Pros

Cargill has big ambitions. It is, or used to be, a great place to work but the current sr. management seems intent on breaking that.

Cons

Cargill is a very asset-focused company that can't decide if it wants a rough trading culture or a more insightful customer-focused one. The recent layoffs destroyed a lot of the culture because they were so random and not attached to performance, and were handled so very poorly. The Tartan program costs the company millions of dollars a day but no one is courageous enough to challenge it.

Advice to Senior Management

Give back your bonuses to help spread the pain of the current financial distress that has destroyed many careers, including many people who joined Cargill just months ago, recruited from across the country and you left them high and dry.

Pros

Great opportunity Respect.. Abide by all laws. Great team work. Family business. Willing to take long term risk. Honest company.

Cons

Still some glass ceilings but getting better. Wondering if we are not now forcing the pendulum, unnaturally the other way, which can have a negative effect

Advice to Senior Management

We are people who are loyal to Cargill. Don't abuse or take advantage of that. Trust is very hard to come by once it is lost

Pros

The food industry is very dynamic, depending on where you are inside the company there are always new challenges: food safety, product development, etc
It is a huge company with 70+ businesses, so there are opportunities to move domestically and internationally

Cons

Very conservative company - things are done in a same way for a very long time and if " they are not broken no need to fix them " - new ideas are not very well received
It is a global company with a very limited view of the world, you can have several peers in different regions of the globe doing the same function, but you won't talk to them.
You're ability to move can be very limited, some businesses don't like when people leave and prevent you from interviewing for different jobs.

Advice to Senior Management

Innovation is not only about products and services, it is about how the company is managed; unfortunately that is a very conservative area of the company

Pros

Down to earth culture. Many internal opportunities. Large company with growth and long term success. Most employees are hard workers and not a lot of egos. Impressive leadership.

Cons

Pay is not great and salary increases are slow but steady. eed upper management to champion you into your next role. Navigating the politics can be tough.

Advice to Senior Management

Need more transparency around advancement opportunities. Senior leadership is strong. Middle management should spend more time developing their employees and less time on running the business.

Pros

Large organization; very longstanding presence. Global operations - so potential opportunity to experience work in various portions of the globe.

Cons

Tenure is valued FAR more than anything else. Many senior leaders have been in their roles for many, many years - a result of their having been promoted well beyond their capabilities. However, the Cargill culture is that "If you've been with the company 20+ years, you MUST be a good guy..." Conversely, if you've come from outside the company, your talents, efforts, actual results (should anyone bother to notice those) are discounted. After all, if you've not been there a couple of decades, you're simply assumed to be clueless.

I've worked for a number of multi-billion-dollar public companies - and Cargill, or at least the portion of it that I experienced, has by far the weakest, most insecure, least professional, and most inbred management team of all.

I cannot, in good conscience, recommend Cargill as an employer. Join at your own risk!

Advice to Senior Management

Learn how to recognize, and to value, actual performance. Sycophants and long-tenured mediocrities are only going to take the organization so far. While recognition of actual capabilities and performance will require some insight, effort, and competence on your part, the organization will benefit.

You've suffered a significant talent flight in recent years.....ever wonder why that is?

Pros

The salary was phenomenal.
The travel was amazing. Was a super generous company, but now due to company's poor performance, they have "hunkered down," where these fringe benefits go away.

Cons

I did the job of 3 people. It is truly impossible to be "caught up," and everything is always urgent and pressing. Too many competing priorities creates a stressful environment. Not only that, but you have too many managers as you report to your business unit manager and then to other managers of business units you support/service on a dotted line basis.

Would definitely never recommend this company to anyone.

Advice to Senior Management

I accepted the position at Cargill because I loved their 4 pillars - with the top one being Employee Engagement and Profit being the last or 4th. I don't understand how in such a short time, this whole pillar concept flipped upside down with no regard to employee engagement. Now, it's just about the profits. What Cargill once stood for - employee engagement - has gone away. Now, Cargill is just another company just like any other. I believe that Cargill was among the top 100 places to work recently b/c of the employee engagement concept. I think that will quickly change.

Pros

Strong Ethics
Reasonable pay for reasonable hours
Good career opportunities (see cons)
Very egalitarian structure

Cons

A bit of an old boys club
Requires significant internal networking for the better jobs
Can get lost in the number of people, takes time to stand out

Pros

Security in down economy. If you have a good 'network' and someone in senior management on your side you will do well. Cargill rewards tenure and not talent so much - especially at senior management levels (with few exceptions).

Cons

Tenure rewarded versus talent and 'market pay'. Raises are every 18 to 24 months and management uses 'market pay bands' which are not always what is reality. Keeps salaries lower than needed. It is a tradeoff for a good, secure job though.

Advice to Senior Management

Examine tenure vs. talent and do what you say.