Do you find it to be true that experienced hires were targeted in the involuntarily layoffs, PIL or PIP compared to legacy employees? Why or why not? Which XOM department has been hot the hardest?
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I'm an experienced hire that was fortunate to survive the summer PIPs and December layoffs. I find that most people at ExxonMobil are indifferent to experienced hires. Sometimes it doesn't help when it should, but I don't perceive that it hurts me either.
The biggest lesson I learned early on is to leave my experienced hire ego at the door and try to learn the ExxonMobil way. I tried to integrate with the ExxonMobil mindset. After people saw that I was open to the ExxonMobil culture and way of working they were generally pretty open to small doses of my experienced perspective. I would even say they value the experienced perspective.
An experienced hire that walks into the room with a "I'm experienced, I'm right, and XOM is wrong" attitude (even when they're correct) is likely to have a hard time.
Just my experiences... I feel like with some humility ExxonMobil has given me good opportunities and fair feedback. Can't say that's true for everyone experienced but it has been in my bubble.
I was an experienced hire who was PIPed in July. I was told that if rankings were only based on technical work, I would be in the top third, but since this year, behaviors were more important, a snarky attitude put me in the bottom 8%. To his credit, my manager did indicate that if the problem was my attitude, I should be able to pass a PIP. One reason I took the PIL is because I thought that it would be too hard to work at XOM and deal with XOM processes, procedures, safety meeting sharings, etc. and NOT be snarky.
Looking back, I can say it was a pretty good time at XOM. Pay and benefits were good compared to technology functions in other chemical companies. I found the work rather easy, (and never really had to work that hard), probably because compared to colleagues who rotated jobs and business lines every few years, I had spent almost my entire career in technology and one business so I just knew lots of stuff already.
If you were any part of XTO Energy you’re a target.
I was an experienced hire who was PIP'd. Came as a complete surprise with no red flags ahead of the conversation. Excellent KO feedback and a manager who had put me in for several spot bonuses and other recognitions. Even with what I thought was a great year for me professionally I did not play the politics correctly and advocate for myself enough. I let the chips fall where they may and I got passed up by those who hustled more behind the scenes and could play the game better having been part of the company longer.
What I realized later was that I probably only needed to put about 50% effort into my day job and spend the other 50% of my time networking across the organization and pushing half-baked ideas to leadership. I'm really not even mad or resentful that I was PIP'd. The initial conversation stung a bit, but I found work quickly within a month and make more money now anyway.
XOM in it's current state is not place for anyone past 3-5 years of experience to transfer to. I had 8 YOE coming in and my skills and expertise were not fully trusted and I had to be de-programmed and re-deployed with a new XOM way of thinking/working. The young "high potentials" I met really only held a true engineering or business role for 2-3 years before they were placed in planning or coordinator positions. That was the stepping stone into supervision and up the management tract as far as I could tell. That seemed crazy to me. I'm at a smaller petrochem company now and there are 60 year old VPs and plant managers who still get down in the trenches and talk shop and troubleshoot compressor failures with young engineers and operators.
On the flip side, I think a person with 3-5 years of XOM experience right out of school could do well at other companies due to the typical traits they may possess as being intelligent and conscientious. XOM is not a bad place to spend a career if you've got the right traits they're looking for and can work the room at an executive happy hour. Otherwise, grab some experience and use the name on your resume to land a better job somewhere else.
Why do you think experienced hires were targeted?
This is true. There have been many posts that have said that in their groups, a large % PIPed were experienced hires.
In EMIT over the past year they’ve done a big about face on getting rid of the overpriced experienced hires they made for their glut of “digital” initiatives. Most if not all of the ones left are long term contractor conversions.
Unconventional target was 30% reduction. Some entire groups are gone with work being sent to BTC in India now.
Being let-go because you don’t fit with company culture may be a round-about compliment and testament to your employability. When you start interviewing, be sure to mention that you didn’t fit the ExxonMobil culture. It’s a ‘secret code’ all the other O&G majors will understand.
Projects group hit the hardest.
Go away troll
@OP *hot or hit? If hit, Houston.