Poor advancement. Bottom-£/$ wage increases. Bargain basement pension contributions [better now through Government statutory minimums]. New large focus on "cheap as chips" Apprentices; the place is flooded with them, and looking to long-serving, experienced staff to knowledge transfer. Poor investment in long-serving staff. NIL training or 'cop-out' - on-the-job training; giving you possibly just enough to do your job, but not enough that you'll be able to move on anywhere else with comprehensive marketable skills.
For new-joiner, well trained staff with key skills; they might pay you well to start with - but then your annual increments will be miserly, your skills may degrade from where they might have been had you been in a better environment, with continued professional development: thus making it a big struggle to get back into your main-stream profession elsewhere later. You could be trapped. [ See above: you'll likely be expected to knowledge transfer to cheap apprentice labour - then you can have served your purpose and be coerced out of the door; as it doesn't matter if you leave, provided they have had a "bit of time" out of you, to brain-dump into Apprentices.]
Lots of internal politics and cliques, with some layers of management prepared to massage the truth at times as to what is really happening: especially in relation to your own future. Visibly good communication, but then - you'll only hear what they want you to hear. There is a lot of lip-service to common flag-ship company ideals, but it's all polish and little substance. They market themselves well.
Don't get me wrong. They have outstanding products, and are doing well. Just don't expect hard work and graft to be rewarded (unless you are possibly a sales person, earning good commissions). I think the new methodology of investing in Apprentices (of which they potentially look to keep 50%, dumping the dross and keeping the cream) is potentially not sustainable long term. There are so many Apprentices... you bump into them around every corner. I've seen good young Apprentices let go out the door when they make a minor slip-up, but are otherwise solid workers that might just need a little nudge here and there. For some of them, it's their first job straight out of school, and a little support to help them transition from school to work, would serve everyone well. But it doesn't matter - the company will just replace with another, like there is an endless pool.
If your face fits, you can play the Corporate game, aligning yourself with key Directors that you can make look good, and don't rock the boat, you might excel here.
If you have high ideals, personal ethics and standards, you'll be ground down and made a scapegoat for something - maybe even something "made up" (I've seen it).
No-one ever gets made redundant from this company. That's a big selling point.
Key thing is: there are behind closed doors "deals" done, where key people disappear over night, through 'mutual agreement' (or you just never hear anything). It's all about perception: smoke and mirrors. I imagine they have some very good NDAs (Non-Disclosure Agreements) covering these 'disappearances', so nothing is made public to affect morale. People can happily think they are still aboard the 'Good Ship AES'.
There have been some really stellar Directors and Managers; but most have moved on within 3-9 months. The ones that stay longer play Corporate politics well...
