I thought I would do much better here, but no. I am absolutely unsatisfied with my career growth and I think that in most other companies I would have progressed much more than I did here. In the meantime, I'm constantly thinking about whether I'll lose my job, and I don't want that anymore. Is there anyone at all here who is satisfied with their career growth at Ford?
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There are still many people doing very well at Ford Motor Company. Ford is targeting young and upcoming individualy with highly saught after degrees - often times graduate level degrees. And a big push is underway to bring in the beat qualified diversity candidates.
My team is now half minority - including LLs.
Moving up into the LL ranks is big money.... When you chief buys pizza and cake for profit sharing day it's crumbs to them. We are all happy to drink the drink.
A wise supervisor once told me they (Ford Management) don't want to make money, they want to make a lot of money.
For the most part I never considered our direct supervisors troublesome if they were in the trenches with us engineers prior to their rise. I saw many get promoted, some more deserving than others.
The supervisors that were an issue were the ones that came out of nowhere...Like who the heck is this guy or gal? We saw a lot of this when the rats from Visteon were jumping ship. I don't blame any of them as you gotta do what you gotta do...
Overall I was very fortunate to have fun for 33 yrs working on various programs. I was always in demand and never had too much down time. Covid, WFH , Interest Rates and Aug22 were a perfect storm to retirement.
Wanna get promoted / recognized at Ford? Torch a purse or two, sm--k people upside the head with you laptop, head butt your coworkers, sh-g an intern or two, drink your lunch, snort your snacks, spew nonsense at high volume, sharpen your knives and use them often. Look around it is the Ford formula for success
No lies detected here. I came to the company with 10+ years of functional engineering experience. I’ve been here for 8 years - no promotion, but all the brown nose FCGs that started around the same time as me have all been promoted past me. At this point they can keep the promotion. I’m just here for a check and the exit door.
When I started over a decade ago, the chief engineer (I think that was an LL4 at the time) leading our department used to frequently joke that Ford was a company built on nepotism.
Obviously, that's true with the Ford family involvement. But he would specifically encourage us to bring friends onboard and to support friends Upward through the ranks.
I think that he thought he was being a good leader. But he was so engrained in Old Ford mentality (he had been there 30 years) that he either didn't understand - or more like didn't think it was a problem - that he was actively teaching his team that it was 'who' you know and not 'what' you know that was most important.
To any newer employees who may be reading this thread... That mentality is very much alive and well today at Ford. I am sure every company has some of that - Ford is truly leaps and bounds worse in this regard.
I spent nearly two decades there working hard and trying to get noticed. If you don’t have a “godfather” or “godmother” there you’ll never move up. Bide your time and look for something else with a different company. Then get out of there.
A coworker had applied twice for the same SV position within a few years. The first time the acted like his rejection was based on factual reasons and listed the fields where he was still lacking some experience. Supported by our manager the guy moved from engineering to an integration position and received also training in order to fill the blank spots that cost him the job. Then a few years later the position became vacant again. He applied and really everyone thought that he now was the perfect candidate. My coworker failed again and the SV position was given to someone whose profile matched not even half as good. The difference between both was that the picked candidate had a manager who had given him the promise to make him SV (allegedly to prevent his departure) and who pulled him up. That is the way things are going here. Most people I know who were promoted were asked before they applied.
Not sure what your context is. But majority of folks will never get past GSR 8. Any management level needs a sponsor to help you get an interview. LL6 can be achieved based on performance if you are given the chance to interview, but LL5 and above needs someone looking out for you. So if your aim is be an LL5+ you need higher management in your corner, most people don't get that. DEI, F&F and other forms of nepotism take away any chance at a performance based assessment. I saved you a 10+ years of trying to figure out why you may not get promoted or why someone else is.
You're in the race or you're not, most people aren't. Management will give you all sorts of BS assignments i.e. launch, another function etc with the promise of a promotion. You eventually find out that you jumped through hoops for nothing if you are not on their list.
Why do you think they pay well?
You are selling out your career growth potential (your career soul) for a false sense of security and a few dollars more.
Get out while you can before you have a mortgage, child care, college tuition to save for and all those other expenses that lock you in to your paycheck and Ford.
As that Ford corporate guru Jacques Nassar put it "move up or move out"...on your terms while you can.