Pros

-Brand recognition. The company produces several unique and top notch products.
-CEO recognition (Jim Owens is intelligent and generally a good leader). Management workforce is largely comprised of quality people.
-The management focused career track seems to offer a lot. There are many options for employees who are willing to vary their experiences every few years (requires moving).
-Traditionally, Cat has been a reliable employer (job security).
-For the Peoria area, the cost of living relative to Cat's level of compensation is a good deal. Peoria commutes are easy.

Cons

-Top-heavy and excessively hierarchical. Far too many managers. Lots of fat there and in the worker bee ranks also.
-Process heavy, which strictly speaking, is fine with me but the red tape is too much. Cat seems unable(unwilling?) to effectively address this.
-Technical career track seems to offer very little, leading to migration of tech employees to management roles. Promotion progression is near zero.
-Though the stated work/life balance aims are good, the reality is sometimes inconsistent: depends a lot on position/project
-Internal organizational structures are very siloed. Metrics prone management often lacks a holistic evaluation approach.
-Performance rating process is weak: strong tendency towards bell curve distribution, performance measures often arbitrary/amorphous for those in IT support roles.
-Difficult individuals are often not dealt with (well or at all), but are allowed to stay and continue their poor performance or mistreatment of coworkers.
-Cat fails at seizing opportunities to leverage IT effectively.
-Old style management. Too traditional, conservative and slow. Want to develop patience? Work here.
-Your career experience here is too directly tied to your direct manager's interest in you. A few are great, others are pathetic, many are just blah.
-Of late, the lack of raises, promotions and bonuses has taken a serious bite out of morale.

Advice to Senior Management

-As a worker bee, I feel too far removed from you. I believe there would be many positive effects if managers could be thinned out and the hierarchy flattened.
-Invest in *progressive* IT. Farm out commodity functionality (systems), but invest in and grow IT expertise internally.

Pros

Employee friendly, good environment for building future leaders, employee loyalty strong, opportunity to work across the globe in various roles encouraged as part of professional growth

Cons

Change hard to manage due to size and stakeholders working in silos with short term focus of meeting metrics by managing them.

Advice to Senior Management

aggressive cost cutting at the expense of employee pay freeze and bonus elimination may negatively impact long term employee loyalty

Pros

Very large, recognizable company with lots of money to invest in projects
The CAT name looks great on a resume
If the economy is good, things at CAT are great
Overall, the employees are very nice and friendly
Lots of experience in knowledge in the mechanical domain
Lots of recreational sports leagues to participate in

Cons

Location, small city in central IL, weather can be rough too
Can be expected to say in a job for several years, even if you want to move elsewhere
Performance ratings are a distribution more than a representation of your actual performance
When the economy is bad, well, working there is very demanding
Lots of red tape in the process you need to work around
Need several years experience before you are taken seriously

Advice to Senior Management

In such a huge company, it is important to remember the people who are not at the top, working in the trenches day in and day out. Processes are good, but sometimes can get in the way.

Pros

Best in the industry of diesel engines. NPI cycles are about 3 to 4 years. Lots of smart people. Come early - leave early. Good balance of work and health. Jim Owens has done a phenomenal job. One of the best CEO's.

Cons

Take a long time to file for Permanent Residency for non-immigrants. Promotions are not provided during that time.

Lots of fat. Old style management. Lots of loyal management has been kept in the company at high salary grades but there is not much output from them.

Only few divisions are profitable - engineering indeed is one of them.

Very traditional in nature. Do not have the luxuries when compared to some California companies.

Peoria as a place is boring for young adults. Not much to do.

Advice to Senior Management

Cut the fat.

Is less than 10% of the divisions are profitable - then something is wrong internally.

Pros

Great place to work but the people and politics really detract from the job at hand. I am amazed that the company stays profitable. Wait it layed of 22,000 people in 1 month... What a company!

Cons

Terrible upper management with no communication to employees. Some people really on word of mouth to get news concerning their job position. It shouldnt be that way!

Advice to Senior Management

Leadership needs to hold on to the experience that they have and not throw it out the door or allow it to find jobs outside the company like they are now... Cat has lost a lot of valuable talent they will never be able to get back!

Pros

Good healthcare plan, decent compensation especially when living in Peoria. Opportunity to move around the company both in North America and overseas

Cons

As an electrical engineer and software engineer, Caterpillar as a company lacks the understanding that their products have increasing complexity in electronics. The upper management treats their machine differentiation in mechanical terms. They lack understanding of SDLC, lack flexibility and take unwarranted risk with late changes due to their perception that changing software/firmware does not introduce as much risk versus changing mechanical parts.

Advice to Senior Management

Know your technology!!!

Pros

Good work/life balance in most divisions.
Best jobs in Peoria area

Cons

Cyclical business hurts employees in down years
Pretty conservative company. Slow to get into new markets or take advantage of opportunity.
Workforce age distribution is very bi-modal -- lots of folks 50+ and lots <35. Not much in the middle.

Advice to Senior Management

New CEO should be interesting. Don't expect much from him. It's been a long time since Cat has had an engineer or manufacturing leader and it shows. Investment in technology and product lines is sub par.

Pros

-ease of commute
-down to earth, collegial atmosphere
-good work life balance
-average to above average benefits
-allowed to do my job with freedom and empowerment
-opinions are valued

Cons

-Peoria Illinois sucks
-Does anyone anywhere think they're paid enough?
-Down economy has limited opportunities for international assignments

Advice to Senior Management

Communicate more, communicate earlier.

Pros

Large company structured into business units that are able to work with some autonomy. Outstanding analysts in the Logistics division. CAT did

Cons

IT in the corporate group has a very old mentality - working in silos and suffering from too much red tape. The promotion progression within IT has slowed down considerably.

Advice to Senior Management

Don't slow down the top performers, especially during the trough. Otherwise, you will be forced to try to restart your big projects without them. Top performers in IT won't want to stay in a company where their career ceiling is lower than leaders in other disciplines.

Pros

International compagny that provides opportunity to young graduates. Correct package reward. Great opportunity to go Global. I good company to start in.

Cons

Midle management is not strong enough to carry top management vision. Tendency to forget values in economic crises. Poor career management of mid-career hires. Not a good company to start if you have already experience.

Advice to Senior Management

Better manage mid-career hires. Top management should select more carefully midle management. Better salary package. Walk the talk and stick to your values of actions.