Caterpillar Reviews

Pros

As an engineer, have opportunities for global travel.

Cons

Staff experience middle management changes on a regular basis.

Pros

Salary is great, bonus most years is fantastic.

Cons

Slow to make design changes, testing is slow, everything goes in slow motion.

Advice to Senior Management

Find ways to increase velocity so designs can be validated quicker and Caterpillar can provide a better product to the customer (before our competitors do).

Pros

Great, growing company with lots of opportunity for professional growth. Gave interns meaningful work and the people were great to work with.

Cons

Interns at most companies seem to have better luck in getting hired from within. Not necessarily true here.

Pros

Stability and safety are good, benefits are ok.

Cons

Too many managers to make any quick decisions, environment too friendly to the point no one can make changes.

Pros

Other than the pay that union has gotten for us before caterpillar took over I can't think of one!!!

Cons

To big of a company, there is no family feeling! Company is only out for profits dose not care about it's people at all!!!

Advice to Senior Management

Get a clue of why your guys do on the floor and resecpt that we r skilled workers!

Pros

Large organization
Fair pay
Fair benefits
Opportunities if willing to relocate

Cons

Limited local opportunities
No structure on employee coaching/criticism
Few training opportunities
Weak middle management

Pros

-Well known name for resume
-Good benefits

Cons

-Needs major feedback on how to handle acquisitions and the joining of new cultures
-Former Bucyrus employees were told we are "one team" but many HR decisions have created two unequal teams in terms of both time off and bonuses.
-Many finance leaders from Caterpillar unimpressive given their salary grade
-Peoria is not the center of the world....sorry.

Pros

Recognized Brand Name. Good comeback after the drought in 2008/2009/2010

Cons

This place can kill your career growth esp for new international employees. They take clear advantage and force most employees to stay in same job with no promotion for as long as possible (sometimes 10 years) on the pretext of GC. They will keep delaying it as much as possible. Once application goes through (after 5 years or so) they will restrict you from moving as Govt says not to move until GC is complete. The paralegal department is a joke ... they have absolutely no clue of what they are doing most of the time.

Advice to Senior Management

Pay some attention to employee needs ..don't just concentrate on profits.

Pros

This is a huge company and offers comparable benefits to its competitors. Strong integrity and mid-western values. Growth even during recession. Senior leaders are always homegrown, but that is part of Cat's problem...there's no new blood.

Cons

This is a huge ship and it takes a LONG time to turn it around. VERY mid-western in its values and culture -- good 'ole white boys at the top. Human resources policy , including compensation and benefit philosophy, is not leading edge...not even really 21st century. There's a great deal on innovation at the product level, but don't expect Cat to take any risks when it comes to people or HR policy. Strictly "market competitive"

Advice to Senior Management

Apply the same risk taking you promote for product development to people policy and HR budgets. Be a leader in people development/compensation, too.

Pros

Stability, pinnacle of the areas where it is the dominant employer, growing company with a strong future, sales strong overseas.

Cons

Things have changed markedly since downturn. Varies from business unit to business unit, some business units still look at employees as people, others see them as resources to be shuffled and cut as needed.

Advice to Senior Management

The employee experience varies widely based on the business unit you work in. In my business unit the middle and upper management are largely viewed as an elite group that does not care much for the common worker.