Exxon Mobil Reviews in Houston, TX Area

Pros

Excellent benefits; varied and interesting people from all over the world. Our current chairman is one of the best moves we've made, and it seems we have good management working forward for the future.

Cons

Ranking system is one of the worst methods I've seen; concern that it is manipulated and very dependent on whether or not you work for the right manager. Not certain the the best are being culled from the younger folks for advacement.

Advice to Senior Management

Wsh management would recognize that administrative professionals do take their positions seriously and find it offensive that management seems to think "anyone" can do the job. This has led to moving some employees into the position where they perform poorly and make it difficult for others, both us and other employees.

Pros

Decent pay, 401k match, Opportunities are there but you need to know where to find them, Benefits are decent - insurance etc.

Cons

NO bonuses
Pigeonholed quickly - fast riser or slow mover
Bureaucracy
No input into personnel moves, company decides what is best for you
Be prepared to live in Houston

Advice to Senior Management

Please listen to people. Stale midlevel management (my manager had the same job for 20 years). And why no bonuses?

Pros

- Stable company; not about to go bankrupt
- Slightly-above-average initial base salary
- Some employers value the name on the resume / CV

Cons

CULTURE
- Oppressive culture and heartless senior managers have turned the employees into unhappy robots
- Institutional arrogance, i.e. "ExxonMobil is #1 at everything; our competitors are pathetic"
  -- Morphs into personal arrogance common among the employees, e.g., senior managers think that they are gods
  -- Displaying emotional intelligence is taken as a sign of weakness; thoughtful employees are stuck in middle management
- Extremely conformist
- Office politics unduly thick
- In the energy industry, known as adopters, but not inventors
- Backstabbing common among team members (collaboration is not consciously encouraged), i.e., peer will try to embarras one another during meetings

FINANCIALLY
- No bonuses (almost all the other majors do) while the base salaries are very close one another
- Significant, early raises following by (inflation-based) plateuing salaries

WORK-LIFE BALANCE
- No 9/80s, i.e., employees do not get every other friday off

MECHANICS
- Heavy nepotism; national origin, marital relationships, region of the country, etc.
- Agism
- National originism; culturalism; Texan culture and the good-ole-boys network
- Most parts of the globe; tolerated racism
(All of the above at unduly extreme level)
- Personnel decisions are made without direct employee input (unlike at most ther majors), e.g., no internal job postings
- (Low) quality of supervisors make employees worse future supervisors

MORALE
- Psychologically demeaning; low emplyee morale
  -- Employees (incl. supervisors) scared of doing anything
  -- Usual management style is to bully your employees; no 360s, i.e., supervisors do not get graded on how their direct reports think that the supervisors are doing
- Humor or aving fun is looked down upon
  -- If you want to die at an early age ("right after retirement" is quite common), ExxonMobil should be your top choice
- "High pay and the name attract people; rigidity and low morale drive them away."
- Most older employees feel trapped; very few happy employees

Advice to Senior Management

- Hire open-minded people
- Value your employees not because a cost-benefit analysis tells you to do so, but because they are human beings
- Your stock price has been doing horribly for two years now. Admit that there is something wrong, and be open to new ideas on how to ameliorate the situation

Pros

Focus on safety. Very process driven. Many controls. Training is encouraged and supported. Small work groups. Many opportunities to work on global teams and make many overseas friendships. Upper management has a very high level of integrity and permeates this attitude throughout all the business processes. Most people that I interacted with were some of the most honest people I've ever met.

Cons

The technology is there, we just can't use all of it. The technology in use today is what other companies were using 8-10 years ago. Lots of very smart people, but very few SMEs (subject matter experts) due to frequent change of assignments. I originally viewed this to be very appealing, however, many employees typically have the attitude of "let's just do it this way...because in 3 years from now, we won't be in this group anymore, and it'll be someone else's problem". This results in only the very motivated people to become SMEs. There is almost zero automation....almost all processes must be done manually. Recurring meetings continually just talk about things, and changes take forever to implement.
And....why won't upper management hurry up and own up to the consolidated campus in Spring TX, rather than let employees hear about it in the Houston Chronicle.

Advice to Senior Management

Be more open to change. Don't be afraid to use the technology already available in house. Listen/research more to industry best practices.

Pros

nice people
nice work environment and work schedule

Cons

too much politics and suck ups get promoted

Advice to Senior Management

no

Pros

Largest Oil company in the world, so there is job security. Great Pay but no Profit Sharing or Bonuses, Good Benefits, 401k,etc.

Cons

Little space for advancement, once you're in a position it is really hard to move out depending on your work area. Management isn't that great, expect a job, not a career.

Advice to Senior Management

Great company to work for, more POSITIVE interaction between employees and management is needed. General environment regarding safety is outstanding, and it is a great pace to work for once you get past the politics.

Pros

i def. like the culture. people.

Cons

it is the work life balance

Pros

Great place to work for upstream research, good lifestyle, nice people

Cons

Not much business exposure, so if you want to transfer to business related career, it will be harder

Advice to Senior Management

More business exposure

Pros

Salary and benefits are great. They have flexible hours plus plenty of flex time for personal things. Lots of smart people.

Cons

Ridiculous processes for everything. It can take many months to get requests pushed through (unless it's regarding safety of course). The process and red tape can be extremely frustrating.

Advice to Senior Management

Relax on all the procedures. I know it's the ExxonMobil way, but it's a frustrating to have to deal with that for every little thing.

Pros

In general, senior technical colleagues are very competent. Benefits are good. Funding for research projects are generally available and not too difficult to get if management sees values.

Cons

Military like management and ranking style kills innovation and collaboration between colleagues. Not a place to conduct fundamental research. Very short time thinking. IT support is horrible at best.

Advice to Senior Management

Need to develop a true parallel career track for technical and management staff. Need to define whether the research company is a service company for business units or a true research institution. The current goals ambiguity leads to miscommunication and poor innovation environment.