Pros
In the corporate trainee role, you have exceptional access to leadership. The entire time I worked here, I was in regular contact with leaders across departments; there was a concentrated effort to encourage networking both top-down and bottom-up. I also made quite a few friends and developed close working relationships across the company. Overall, the company is in-tune with the region and understands what its customers need and how they think. This is a relatively uncommon trait, compared to other companies that operate on a larger, national scale.
Cons
I spent the vast majority of my time doing absolutely nothing. That's not an exaggeration. I literally had nothing to do all day for weeks at a time. In the coprorate trainee role, the department you're thrown into for any given rotation has no clue what to do with you, so you end up not doing anything. There isn't even pointless busywork to do. You will just sit at your desk from 8 am until 5 pm and not have done anything. Nothing. You will be bored out of your mind, begging anyone to give you anything to do. Or you will end up being the department's assumed tech support since most of the people you'll be working with have been there since the day they graduated college 25+ years ago and haven't kept up with basic Microsoft Office skills. I remember one month while I was doing a rotation in Strategy, the only thing I was given as work was completing 3 powerpoint slides for someone's deck. That's all I had to do for the entire month - about 2 hours of actual work. At every turn, I tried developing my own work to keep myself busy, but since the organization moves so slowly, I couldn't even pursue that because everything took ages to be approved. I talked to my manager and every other manager around me about needing something to do or wanting to become more involved in something to keep me busy. About 3-6 months into the job, I just gave up and just decided to look for work elsewhere after the program ended. Somehow, I still ended up with 3 job offers in different departments before leaving - I have no idea how. While sitting around doing nothing and still getting paid may be ideal for some, it wasn't a great fit for me. Considering the amount of education and experience was required just to apply for the job and the overly intense interview process, this job is an absolute joke. It's ridiculous to go through an 8-hour interview day over the weekend and be prepared to take on intense work as soon as you begin just to realize that your actual job will consist of maybe having the opportunity to update someone's spreadsheet once a week - if you're lucky. While I can't speak to the experience of other positions in the company, Associated's Corporate Trainee program is an over-hyped internship with even fewer responsibilities than an unpaid intern would assume. If you'd like to spend a couple of years after you graduate doing absolutely nothing day in and day out and still getting paid for it, then this is the gig for you. If you'd like to actually use your education and brain to do something, then look elsewhere. If you're a woman, I wish you even more luck. You will be talked over in meetings, your ideas will be repeated verbatim by your male colleagues as if they hadn't just come out of your mouth, and the older women in the office will try to keep you down however they can (I'm looking at you, Marketing Department!)