Pros
+ Benefits were great. Make sure to take advantage of being paid to have a yearly physical done, if married your spouse qualifies as well for a paid physical. + Tuition reimbursement elgible after 6 months but must be willing to stay for 5+ years after your degree or expect to repay, books & admin fees are not reimbursed and must have passing grades to be reimbursed. + If you hire on as an intern or later as a campus hire you have better odds of having a good career here. Campus hires are generally promoted every 18 months and are pretty much worshiped by HQ. + Possibility to transfer to other divisions/companies under the PepsiCo umbrella if you qualify. Make sure to network if you want to do this. Also make sure to continuously update your public profile if you want to advance. Must be willing to relocate for most promotions. + Depending on your supervisor, a chance to learn many new skills. Be wary though, what you learn could become a new responsibility permanently. + Online learning center that was free to learn as many skills as you could. Every thing from learning basic excel to IT. Some classes were even Harvard classes. Each class you take your supervisor is notified and it goes into your profile.
Cons
- In my final position I was working 10+ hrs a day and on call 24/7, since the plant ran 24/7. Try to be paid "salary exempt" meaning being paid overtime, otherwise with all the overtime worked the salary equates to around minimum wage (sometimes less). - If you work on manufacturing or warehouse expect to work everyday but Thanksgiving day, Christmas day and New Years day. - Unless you are a campus hire it is very unlikely that you will ever get above an L3, since the campus hires start at an L4 and get priority on open positions. After campus hires the priority goes to outside talent BEFORE promoting within no matter if you have a degree. - Some processes are very archaic and need to be updated but many of the tenured people refuse to update their processes and/or the company has yet to update the process. When commenting on it, the reply was always "it's the Pepsi way" or "welcome to Pepsi." - Like working for the government, only do what is listed in your job description or you will end up being taken advantage of and have MANY more responsibilities (even more than your equals) and still be paid the same. - Not much direction. Many times I was thrown into a position with no instructions and told "it's the Pepsi way" or "welcome to Pepsi" even after 5 years I still continued to hear those quotes, it was very frustrating. - Some people weren't willing to teach as they feared they would then be replaced... yes it happens, this should not be the case. - Sales tends to have better opportunities. Manufacturing & warehouse tend to be dead ends, as well as anything in administration, much harder to promote. - There are only so many positions so if higher levels aren't trying to promote, leaving, or retiring there leaves no room for advancement. Except for Campus Hires, there are constantly new temporary positions being created for them. Must be willing to relocate for most promotions. - The Good Ole Boys Club, need I say more?