Pros
Over the years I became great friends with other like-minded associates. The best day of my 12 plus years there was the day I resigned.
Cons
Too many to detail here but the highlights include: Marriott legacy associates who have never worked at another company who have no idea how unprofessional they are. There are Directors and Senior Directors who would not even meet the basic skill requirements for an Associate at other companies. Departments spend vast amounts of money on outside vendors. Internal requirements are that all vendor expenses be approved however the associates who have worked there for years will purposely write a vendor agreement (for an IT consultant for example) under the dollar amount that senior leadership would need to approve. They do this to bypass the internal rules, which shows how little respect the long-time legacy associates have for each other. Since the Starwood merger, we have seen people completely unqualified be hired despite lack of skill set of references. The HR department is friends of management and will do nothing to support the average associate. Associates are asked to complete unethical tasks and to keep information from their executive leadership. I have witnessed brilliant, hard-working associates leave because they are treated so poorly by the old-timers. They like to tout inaccurate superlatives like "largest hospitality company in the world" and any reports of having a reasonable work-life balance are lies. The company is corrupt. If the earnings statements were truly audited then the truth would come out. Executive leaders take personal business clients to the Golden Globe's, Emmy's, etc on Marriott's dime. It's honestly a very slimy company.