Ford Motor Reviews

Pros

Multi National Company with lots of various opportunities to cross train in different areas of the company. It is very well respected in the Finance Community.

Cons

It has its own culture and sometime that is detremential to outside views or change intiatives. Our way or the highway,

Advice to Senior Management

Don't repeat the mistakes of past management--Don't let profits lead to over spending on non-essential non-auto related business. Stick to the core business.

Pros

Ford provides excellent benefits and reasonable compensation. It also provides a structured training and rotation program that can be good for recent college graduates.

Cons

Ford management operates in functional silos. If you are hired into the finance staff, you will be limited to working on finance tasks - don't expect anyone to welcome your ideas on strategy, information systems, marketing, etc. For an MBA with more than a decade of management consulting experience, I found this very limiting.

Ford is also extremely political. Personnel decisions are made by committee, and can be be based on politics more than accomplishments. You may have contributed outstanding accomplishments to the firm, but if your boss is not willing to actively support you in front of his personnel committee then you will go nowhere!

The backbiting finally go to me. With ongoing staff reductions, managers were short on staff and I actually had my new employee stolen from me (personnel committee head usurped her, and I did not find out until she failed to show on her planned first day of work!). After working egregious overtime hours and cancelling my planned vacation days because of the workload, when things slowed down I requested some of my backlogged vacation time. I was astonished when instead of thanking me for delaying my vacation my boss tried to cancel it completely.

Advice to Senior Management

If you are going to hire experienced managers, please make use of their experience.

You should also rethink your policy of hiring almost all new hires from top MBA programs. You end up with a lot of disenchanted MBA's who are not being given the opportunity to use their skills. Instead you should hire a mix of BA/BS's and MBA's, so that the talent pool better matches the opportunities available for them.

Many of your long-time executives seem stuck in a time warp where Ford can do no wrong. You need to work on fostering a more entrepreneurial environment with management open to change and new ideas.

Pros

Good boss, GREAT products, Awesome CEO

Cons

No training budget, constant spending freezes (except for upper management travel)

Pros

work life balance, relaxed work culture

Cons

no career growth because Ford doesn't grow in USA

Advice to Senior Management

Care about employee's growth

Pros

Was a great first job into the world of business. Learned to work with a diverse group of people on many different projects. Had a good work life balance and it was good place to start my career

Cons

Too much red tape as well as it is a niche industry if you don't want to stay in the automotive business. Hard to move up and very political

Pros

the money was good compared to other comparable jobs at other composites.

Cons

They gave gotten rid of all the experts through layoffs and sometimes there was no one with an answer.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop laying off the people that actually know what is going on.

Pros

Salary range
Working environment
Equally treatment for all employess

Cons

No incentives
More working hours
Very conjusted work place
No onsite requirements
More Vendor & support engineers

Pros

The ability to change careers without having to change companies is probably the best benefit of working for Ford Motor.

Cons

Too focused on giving promotions to people who give good powerpoint presentations. There is very little focus on actual decision making or emphasis on making the right decision.

Pros

Benefits. Great compared to other companies.

Cons

Long hours. Need more people that can do the job.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to the employees

Pros

There has been a real sense of community built by Alan Mulally with the ONE Ford initiative. Upper management seems to be really open with the salaried workforce on what the goals are of the company and how their involvement plays a role. Pay is decent compared to peers in the industry and overall the benefits are comparable.

Cons

A lot of chiefs and a lot of indians waiting to take their spots if they ever decide to leave the company. Not a lot of room for advancement in the short-term.

Advice to Senior Management

Continue to follow the path that Alan Mulally has set in place based on ONE Ford. Find a better way to engage employees and promote their career development better.