Pros

The people at Cargill are awesome! They really care about you as a person and about your personal life. People really take an initiative to have a personal relationship with you in addition to a professional. Everyone is so nice and wants to help you succeed. Another good reason to work for Cargill is the promotion from within. You literally can work your way up and go in any direction you want. They will pay to send you to trainings and everyone is willing to share their knowledge. You can learn anything and go in a career path you never thought possible. Once you're in the door, the sky is the limit. Also, entry level pay is much higher than at other companies in the area.

Cons

They don't give good raises. The raises don't even cover the cost of living in most cases. An average raise is about $1000/year and with entry level pay going up almost every year, a chemist with experience who has gotten promotions is still making about the same as a new hire with no knowledge. You are not compensated for your time there or knowledge. In Quality Assurance you are looked at as a dime-a-dozen and you are replaceable. They don't pay what they should. Another downside is that starting out you have to work shift and they run short staffed a lot of the time. So you run your butt off for 12 hours that may or may not be during normal working hours. You have to spend anywhere from 1-5 years working shifts until you are promoted.

Advice to Senior Management

You need to compensate people. The entry pay is awesome, but then you don't move anywhere. I think if I would've started working at a different company for less pay...with raises, I would probably be making more money at that other company than I am at Cargill.