Marathon Petroleum Reviews

Pros

Great work culture, legitimate responsibilities and projects, and questions encouraged.

Cons

-Little formal training makes starting out at the coop somewhat difficult.
-Communications can be difficult, as employees casually use dialogue and terms that coop is regularly unfamiliar with.

Pros

I am challenged almost everyday and have a good relationship with my direct supervisors and managers. Training is encouraged and people are willing to help. The company has a vast network of knowledgeable people that are a phone call away. Overtime is sometimes required but not often. I would recommend Marathon for any young engineer to gain great experience. The work is fast-paced and challenging. If you can not multitask and manage time, this is not the job for you.

Cons

The company does not have a good plan for advancement of their young professionals. It is up to the individual to find positions that keep them challenged. They do a poor job of keeping and attracting quality people. They underutilized their coop program. Highly talented coops have gained wonderful experience at Marathon and go work for a competitor because the company reacts too slow. Marathon is a Midwest company that has operations in the south where salaries are higher. The company loses quality people every year because they refuse to stay competitive with salary in the south.

Advice to Senior Management

Work on the career development plan for professionals. Consider a salary survey and try to stay more competitive with the current market in the southern region. Keep the talented people in the company.

Pros

good people; interesting work. Great work culture, legitimate responsibilities and projects, and questions encouraged; diverse work force. generally good environment.

Cons

abbreviated schedules cause added turmoil. -Little formal training makes starting out somewhat difficult.
-Communications can be difficult, as employees casually use dialogue and terms that are regularly unfamiliar with.

Advice to Senior Management

more frequent feedback is recommended, and less changes to plans that have already been made. also, more access to training.

Pros

Pay is above average overall

Cons

Do not recognize innovation in work

Pros

Professional Training
Competive Salary
Investment in Company

Cons

Work Life Balance is not there at times

Advice to Senior Management

Keep doing what you have been

Pros

Competitive benefits and salary, genuine concern for the well-being of employees

Cons

Too much bureacracy - difficult to get things done because of the required approvals, paperwork, etc.

Advice to Senior Management

Eliminate some of the "Cons".

Pros

friendly co-workers
ability to grow and learn
great benefits/salary
relocation options
company car, credit card, laptop
involved with local community
great company culture
talk with senior management often
a sense of entrepreneurship (for TM's)
support from management

Cons

headquartered in Findlay, OH
conservative company
can be stressful, but what job isn't
ability to grow within company requires relocation, which can be bad for some

Advice to Senior Management

maintaining a conservative outlook may harm your ability to grow and adapt to change
hopefully growth towards the west, marathon is a swell company

Pros

People were awesome, very approachable. The work wasn't too bad, and someone always there to help if you ran into trouble. plenty of other interns so easy to make friends.

Cons

i was in the engineering department as an accountant. so i felt kinda left out, and there was a huge pay differential. however, they worked harder. as the accounting intern i didn't do much real work, basic knowledge of excel put me leaps and bounds beyond the rest of my department which made all work they handed to me pretty easy. however, the engineers seemed pretty busy.

Advice to Senior Management

please give me more work. i feel bad sitting in the office doing nothing or perusing the internet. i don't want to work for a company where i don't do anything all day.

Pros

Marathon is a very good operator of refineries. They will spend money on projects that do not make money in order to have safe and environmental friendly operations.
If you are not a creative person, then Marathon is the place to work. Marathon promotes people who can quickly learn a position, make minimal mistakes, push out the work as quickly as possible and complete their work in less than 8 hours. Marathon managers are trained to keep the status quo and follow the plans from their upper management.

Cons

Marathon is not a nimble company when reacting to market changes. They study and build consensus before they react. For profit oriented capital projects, you should expect at least two years between conception and installation.

Advice to Senior Management

Get rid of UPOD (Under Promise and Over Deliver). Everyone is putting fat into their numbers so they can meet their targets.

Pros

- Benefits and pay are very good when compared to other industries. About par for oil industry.
- I found the work very interesting, always something different happening.
- Company takes safety and regulations very seriously.
- Great work/life balance. Midwest company with solid values.
- Operates some of the nation's premier refineries (Garyville, Robinson)
- Midwest focus should allow the company high profitability well into the future.
- Bottom line is that I feel MPC would be a great company for chemical engineers, less so for other disciplines.

Cons

- No longer an integrated oil company.
- Training for new hires is poor when compared to other oil companies.
- Work locations
- Little advancement opportunity for non-ChemEs. I feel that this will get even worse with the recent split of the company.
- Hiring of new engineers is terribly managed. The best interns that I worked with or attended university with ALL went to work for different oil companies such as BP, Chevron, Shell. Terribly short-sighted to completely lose out on a group of young, talented engineers. Caliber of the schools where MPC recruits has steadily declined over the last several years.

Advice to Senior Management

- Firm believer that once you have talent in the door you don't lose track. I don't understand why recruitment was halted at some of the better schools where MPC had a presence. MPC would be a great place to work, but since they are not hiring the best people I am worried about the company's future.