I hear that XOM has a complicated culture and that it prefers to promote within. I also heard that Experienced Hires have difficult time after joining the company and that many leave very quickly. Do you mind chiming in on the topic as I have been laid off in February (was working for a small competitor) and I think I have a fairly good shot to get a position with XOM that I am interviewing for right now.
Please let me know.
So this post started four years ago. If you're the original poster, please tell us how things are going and how you feel about it? Good data point!
“Once you show skills they try to knock you down and limit your growth.”
A prevalent strategy at ExxonMobil mid management and VP levels.
Most experienced hires are like "kites".
Once ExxonMobil management extracts from an experienced hire their competitive knowledge that the experienced hire acquired from other companies, ExxonMobil Management will cut the string to the "kite" and the "kite" will be left to fly away on the trade winds.
ExxonMobil calls it competitive intelligence. Others call it competitive intelligence espionage or an unethical career development strategy.
It is a rather blinkered eye view all management get lost in real views and want everything converted to a mathematical model, but in reality as management don’t understand they make up concepts to show they have an understanding.
On top of that most behave like sheep and completely woke , however once you show skills they try to knock you down and limit your growth .
Money is only way they can lure people, but if you get a lobotomy you’d be fine. But stay away as it can destroy your health and wellbeing .
If you've been laid off and work is hard to find, of course accept the job. At least now you've read some things that might happen so it won't be such a shock.
Be careful. XOM is hiring people specifically to fill the 8% PIP bucket. So, You are brought on with the intent to be fired in a year. I would stay away from this mess of a company.
I’ve had a good run so far as a mid-career experienced hire. The caveat is that I dont see a way to climb the corporate ladder in this position. Hi-po colleagues have already had years of ex-pat or managerial stints, and had the opportunity to broaden early. I’ve always wanted to stay technical, so this isn’t a dealbreaker for me personally … but if you want to rise to VP as an experienced hire starting on near the bottom wrung, I’d say there’s no way.
Agreed with previous commenters that you should take it if it’s your only option and you need a job. Coming in as an experienced hire is difficult, and your previous work experience will not be valued. You will be assessed on your ability to fit in with everything Exxon, and of course you will be way behind everyone else you will be assessed against as they’ve been around longer. This may also be the worst time to join as they are hiring in parts of the company that are seeing terrible attrition, and there is no other fat to skim, so you may be immediately shafted.
I've seen experienced hires that excelled and ones that failed. I've seen XOM lifers that excelled and failed. Lately many lifers have failed! It isn't black and white. The culture is different and not everyone can adapt, so home grown employees may have an advantage, but if you are savvy you will probably be fine.
After working as an EM consultant for 6 months, I hired on with EM in the year 2000. I retired from EM in 2016. As an engineer, my specialty was deepwater construction. EM was a great way to end a 35 year oil field career.
Now, in the evening, kicking back with my favorite bowl of MJ coupled with a glass fine red wine, I am really floored now lucky I was, and gratefully as well. It was a great run.
As an experienced hire, don’t hire on unless you are bringing a core skill to the team; otherwise you will soon be washed out. You successful integration into an EM team is not assured unless you can carried more than you weight , establish respect among your peers and fit in. Good luck!!!
@OP: you'll be fine if you hire into EMCC. Many experienced hires. Less EM lifer arrogance because of it. My group is majority experienced hires. Been here 10+ yr. Thriving.
@1ggh: I made a dent in the EM universe in spite of the EM negativity. I'd tell you what I was able to change, but that would blow my cover.
The problem is that Exxon Mobil is inward looking and is resistant to new ideas or new folks that can change the dynamics of a ranking group or challenge the status quo.
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In case you haven’t heard, the PIPoff is a new term in the oil industry, coined by EM. In an industry known to be tough EM has reached new depth of meanness and self-defeating hostility to employees.
Also, I have heard they are hiring people as fodder for next years PIP. In non-XOM terms, what that means is they are hiring people with the known intent to fire them in a year so other tenured employees can be protected. That’s the kind of sick culture you would be dealing with.
@1mqd - You mean other companies don't hire PIP fodder? I would have thought most large companies would do this.
Honestly, experienced hires are a pain and resented for the first few years. They come in wanting to change the world with a bunch of bright ideas that have already been recycled several times causing unnecessary extra work on their team members. Ex managers from other companies are the worst. Jut come in and do the job you were hired to do.
I was an experienced hire who was with XOM for 4 years and left recently. It was miserable - experienced hires are treated like second class citizen, toxic culture, back stabbing peers, incompetent managers…. the list goes on. I tried to hang in there because of the lure of pension but couldn’t take it anymore.
If your mental health is important, don’t touch XOM with a 10 foot pole.
Also, I have heard they are hiring people as fodder for next years PIP. In non-XOM terms, what that means is they are hiring people with the known intent to fire them in a year so other tenured employees can be protected. That’s the kind of sick culture you would be dealing with.
I was hired in as an experienced hire about 4 years ago. I did not last long. I was NSId and PIPd in 2021. Yes, we experienced hires all felt like 2nd class citizens. Depending on location, you may feel ostracized, at least we did in our group. We actually formed an experienced hire clique to support each other. I think you should go for it. It is not that bad really. The pay was good and the training was excellent. I just did not know how to play the game. If I knew what I know now about the company, I would have survived. A powerful sponsor/mentor and some politicking can go a long way.
I've been in several meetings with all exxon lifetime members and thrown some ideas out there that aren't out of the exxon playbook. Overall I would consider myself successful here.
I'm not concerned about a 30 year career.
Remember that Darren woods himself is an experience hire that thought he was going to get fired for thinking outside the box... Not that you will be ceo, but ya know... Don't be afraid.
If you're in an area where your skills are transferable (facilities engineer, broad engineering, broad accounting, and other non specific stuff) I don't think it's bad to working for exxon. Where I would be concerned is if you were in some specific exxon garbage position like oims manager or exxon Mobil bs process owner or tmo or hr or etc. But let's face it, they aren't hiring experienced hires for exxon Mobil specific processes. Plenty of those people within exxon already exist.
Watch out for that trap after a couple years. You want to stay with skills that you can use elsewhere.
Having a job beats not working. Come in for the pay and benefits, don't expect to rise to senior leadership, and you'll be fine.
Most of the people who will tell you that ExxonMobil's culture is terrible don't have experience working outside of ExxonMobil so don't exactly have a good perspective of how other companies work and how bad some other companies are.
That said, ExxonMobil can be very insular, so it's best to come in with the attitude of trying to learn the culture and ExxonMobil way to do things before you start saying that "outside way" is better.
As others have said, you'll need time to build your network, and your network will be very important to your success.
EM just hired an outsider and gave her 80,000 shares before she even showed up for work.
Maybe times are changing for experienced hires!
Based on my experience - pay is good so if your goal is saving a nice nest egg to retire early, then go for it. On the down side, if you are looking to have portable skills for a long career, then look elsewhere.
Do it if it's the only option you have and need to pay the bills but focus on finding a more stable long term option. You will likely be PiPd after the first year or two for no reason except for being an experienced hire, unless you are very committed to sucking up. Expect raises to be less than inflation
Come and try yourself. I’m an experienced hire and doing relatively well. It takes one or two years to get used to the culture but once you establish yourself things go smoothly. Make sure that your supervisor has a plan for you. Some groups don’t know how to assimilate experienced hires and going into those groups may not work as well
my take is that the best benefit (the pension) is based on years of service and age. So if your middle age and don't have many years until you're eventually forced to retire just concern yourself with the base pay. Don't worry about playing ranking games because you really aren't going to go anywhere higher in the company.
It's kind of freeing really, I don't give a cr-p what my XOM robot peers think because I'm not tied to the big carrot at the end of the road. Fire me, I don't care... I've already got enough saved from my previous jobs and I know that with my time left in my career I've got maybe one promotion at XOM before retirement. It sort of puts more rules to the game to know this.
Overall the base pay I got is pretty good because I was hired as experienced at cl27 and not "under raised" by xom year over year. If I quit or get fired I'm not scared to go to another company. I think fear of the unknown is what keeps most xom lifers on this boat.
As long as you understand that you are here to do a job and you don't ever expect to be VP of anything it's ok.
Take it only as a stopgap, but keep searching for a real job with a normal company. EM has become a ma_dhouse where the management is at war with technical people.
Experienced hires are typically hired to fill a specific need, and will be immediately pigeonholed. Not necessarily a bad thing if you’re being hired for what you enjoy doing.
If it’s all you got take it but don’t stop looking for a switch this place is toxic.
Agree with first poster. Just know you will always be a second class citizen and your previous experience won’t be seen as valid by the old guard because it comes from the outside. If you are coming in with specialized skills they won’t be appreciated after your current hiring manager has moved on.
If you are unemployed then definitely take the job. Pay and benefits are good. it takes a lot of time to build your network, understand the work processes and often difficult to come and compete with people who are around since after undergrad. With the new ranking system you could end up at the bottom very quickly.
Not telling to scare you but that's the reality. Do it for the money but not in the hope of a stable, long career.