Once you get into your 40s and are not on the management track, you are toast

If you are a technical person (i.e. not in management), do not stay at EM too long. Get your 5-6 years of experience then move on. Once you get into your 40s and are not on the management track, you are toast. Development slows or stops even if you are a top performer in the constantly degrading forced ranking system. Often, the supervisors know nothing about the area they are supervising and have no ability or desire to develop the new hires or the experienced people they have. They are too worried about their own career and there is no accountability for how they develop people. The ExxonMobil of today is nothing like it was 15 years ago. Retention is poor at several sites. That should tell you something.

Think that @RBGq4Jl-5gfhv worded up the sad truth.

Comment! It's anonymous!

5 replies (most recent on top)

I only had one smart and caring team leader at EM
He was treating everyone right and looked after us because he knew our job and how we performed Too bad he didn’t stay long before was moved somewhere else. All the others.......wish they knew how theIr team member performed.
It was disappointing seeing people using fancy terms for work they didn’t do.
Generally speaking the company was good to me but I worked super hard to earn my salary.
Thank you EM!

Why does anyone want to work for this company? It/s not the top paying company. All big oil pays the same, and you will certainly be treated better at Shell or etc. Whenever I hear someone works for EM, their stock instantly goes down with me. My experience is they are either a boot licker or the one wearing the boot.

Nothing has changed since 1990. I was a lubricants sales engineer and saw no potential for advancement after 1 year. I'm glad my gut feeling was right, too many b---s---ters and a-- s---ers.

Now I have a career in medical center engineering management. If I don't like one hospital, there is another close by.

I still have $600K in 401K, hope you guys can make some money before I retire in 3 years.

There are always more Indians than Chiefs. I think what OP was expressing is most Chiefs value their own skill sets (aka not technical) over the Indian skill set so the spoils go to Chief-like behavior not technical excellence. The Chiefs need to bolster their own egos. Yes those are bad Chief behaviors, the preponderance of Chiefs are not good Chiefs. I have empathy for the bad Chiefs as I see them as scared little boys, I do my best to make them look good. Just because they are azzholez doesn’t mean I must be one as well.

I have been on the Chief side as well. I did my best to develop talent and yes I could do every job my Indians did. Let me tell you it is a challenge being a Chief, people are always trying to knife their way over and around you. The lateral stabbing is the worst.

I tend to disagree with the OP’s premise. There are more Indians than Chiefs in any organization. In other words, not everyone can take a managerial career path. More employees need to remain in the technical career path for the business to exist. I don’t subscribe to the “be a manager or supervisor” school of thought. I’m more into “be the best at what you do” side of things.

Thread regarding Exxon Mobil Corp. layoffs

Once you get into your 40s and are not on the management track, you are toast

5 replies (most recent on top)

Post a reply