This was my second engineering job out of college. We produced a different product than most of the other Tate and Lyle corn plants so I had heard that the culture and atmosphere was quite a bit different than the corn plants. The team at this plant was hard working and always looking out for the good of everyone. The operators and salaried management staff here have no barriers and the safety culture is excellent. Everyone is always willing to help and pitch in when there are process issues and it truly feels like a family atmosphere. The pay is above average for engineers and the benefits are pretty good. I would rate this job much higher in every category as opposed to my first engineering job.
Cons
There has been high turnover for engineers at this plant due to it's location being so far away from a big metropolitan area. It is a super complicated chemical process with every unit operation imaginable so it can be very tough to learn. With so much turnover there were very few technical people to learn from and pretty much everything had to be learned from self study training materials. They are very "lean" at this plant so most people are overworked and things can get stressful at times. It is also about an hour commute unless you want to live in the middle of no where.
Tate and Lyle is a solid company and there are opportunities to advance IF you happen to be selected into their group. I sometimes wondered how the people that got advanced caught the eye of Senior Managers.
Cons
Hard work, expect long hours in tuff conditions. New engineering grads usually start in front line supervision. Not what we went to school for, and there is a chance you can work the process, but much of your time is spent on people and people problems.