Pros

bonuses, on-site gym, some really great people, great family atmosphere (no wait - that was Conoco)

Cons

I worked in Ponca City for 7 years until the merger when projects were shut down (even though Conoco's R&D was more efficient than Phillip's). I was transferred to Houston where I moved from downstream to upstream. I later found out I was brought in 2 pay grades lower than a man with the same experience & background but I was just happy to have a job after the layoffs. No room for growth - couldn't change engineering disciplines. Bonuses got smaller after the merger.

Advice to Senior Management

Get rid of the Phillips management!!

Pros

Overall, excellent people in the geosciences community at COP. Not a "shark tank". Real team interactions. This is a place you can make friends.

Cons

Mid-level management seems out to lunch. Weird decisions, changing their minds and taking back things put forward very recently. Some very odd people in high level technical management positions. A sense that relationships will get you a lot further at COP than technical competence.

Advice to Senior Management

Get rid of dead wood. Pay your employees more so the good ones will stay long-term. Give people real work to do or let them go.

Pros

Work with talented (for the most part) people
401K options and bonuses are awesome
Get your own office
On-site gym has the latest and greatest equipment, plus olympic size pool
19/30 schedule (1 day off every month, but work 8.5 hours/day)
Tuition reimbursement (90%)
Free coffee

Cons

Management unwilling to break away from obsolescence and vendor lock-in
Management unwilling to foster an environment for learning and causes skills to stagnate
No straightforward career path for computer science folks
Telecommuting not an option
Tuition reimbursement locks you into 2 years with the company from the last course you took reimbursement for
Free coffee tastes like mud

Advice to Senior Management

Keep ConocoPhillips relevant from a software standpoint, by doing things like sending developers to technology conferences and open the door for taking software courses not directly related to current work being done,

Also provide telecommuting as a work option to help save not only the environment but also increase productivity.

Pros

Positive work environment
Gave interns quality projects and a great idea of how operations are performed
Excellent salary
Great activities for interns with top management.

Cons

No cons. Was not offered position due to economy

Advice to Senior Management

N/A

Pros

The internship program was very organized with networking opportunities, social events, and so forth. You get to work on 1 project. Everyone is quite friendly and helpful.

Cons

Not really any cons..... maybe give interns supervisors that can relate to the project. My supervisor didn't really understand the project assigned to me.

Advice to Senior Management

Overall i really enjoyed my internship experience.

Pros

Knowledge sharing is common, which makes it is a great place to learn from more experienced colleagues. People are friendly and open. There are lots of opportunities within the company because of its size, but it is not overly bureaucratic as some large organizations become. Large company opportunities with small company values.

Cons

Career path options are not always clear (however, the same is true at many companies). Team relationships could be strengthened if management and team members changed jobs less frequently. Some aspects of strategy and people development/discipline seem a bit outmoded.

Advice to Senior Management

Embrace change and look for opportunities to expand on the company's strengths. Bring in outside management experts to see if industry best practices can be applied to ensure ConocoPhillips is able to attract and retain top talent and weed out the underperformers.

Pros

COP has a good work life balance, Great benefits package, and the people are great to work with. With such a large company, there are a lot of diverse opportunities and functions you could work in to build a cross-functional expertise - or an area expertise.

Cons

Work life balance could get out of balance quickly if you move up in the organization. They could pay more competitively in terms of a base salary and especially with salary increases. The career progression tended to be slow, simply because of size.

Advice to Senior Management

Improve career development opportunities, actively search the ranks to speed career progression and keep up with competitive pay.

Pros

Really talked up work/balance to compensate for average remuneration. Early career females lapped this up and some practically begged for us to offer them a job, even when jobs were plentiful.

Cons

Sometime after the merger, it got to where getting results no longer matter Engineering style management control. Little empowerment exists. Poor transparency from supervisory management. Management so wrapped up in execution that they lack of vision to see business landscape. Herd mentality. Low appetite for risk. Over levaged (too much debt). Deal taker, not a deal maker.

Advice to Senior Management

Start with changing the CEO. The new person at the top can implement changes to see if the Street believes.

Pros

I can't think of anything particular. I am happy that I have a job for now and so that is a big plus

Cons

Poor Management. Refinery Mgmt is corrupt and hypocrite. They smile on the outside but they are big beasts on the inside. They will block you especially if you feel that you deserve a promotion. I hate my workplace. I don't necessarily blame COP as a whole but I blame the Mgmt at my work location. As soon as I find the opportunity, I'll be out and will celebrate when that time comes.

Advice to Senior Management

The words are not enough to say how rotten you are.

Pros

Huge opportunity to explore and learn about energy markets and how they are traded
Traders here are true experts and most are willing to help.

Cons

If trading is your goal, it can take a serious time investment to become one at COP (think 5+ years out of school). The company likes to build traders up in their mold and are in no rush to have you do so (the one exception may be with the power traders where you start off as either a scheduler or 24-hour trader).

Advice to Senior Management

Look to develop incorporate new hires/interns into the world of trading as early and often as possible. Interns should sit out on the trade floor, not in cubicles.