Prós
The pay and benefits are excellent. Good opportunity for growth but you have to be a go getter, meaning you must have a good work track record, sell yourself and use your people network skills. Under the right manager you can excel with no limits provided there are still jobs available in the U.S., or you are prepared to move about globally to achieve advancement.
Contras
Work life balance is preached but sometimes not adhered to by management. Many jobs require long hours, more than 40 per week and in some positions working till we hours of the morning of next day, with no extra compensation for salaried exempt employees, not even time off. They take advantage of salaried exempt. Manager not always honest and forth coming with changes that affect your job. Lots of politics and playing favorites by managers in many areas of the company. If a manager doesn't like you (and it usually has nothing to do with performance) your opportunity for growth and advancement can be seriously hindered. Big issue currently, lots of job lay-offs and downsizing. Since Shell U.S. has been taken over by Shell Netherlands, the Europeans have been set on a mission to squash all opportunities here in the U.S. and have been moving multitudes of operations and jobs to other global facilities, jobs that do not create efficiencies in processes or in cutting costs. Many new employees just hired found themselves looking for a new job/position withing 6 months of being hired due to job downsizing in the U.S.