American Electric Power reviews

Growth can sometimes be limited in the shared services part of the company. Having worked in SS & now in one of the Operating companies I believe that the management style (in the Opco) is more geared towards developing you as a benefit to the company rather than just what you can do for your current department.

A negative to working at a large company such as AEP is the disconnect between divisions and operating companies. Besides AEP's regional utilities across several states, there are also river barge operations, special environmental projects, and energy market trading activity. While corporate management tries to unify the company through e-mails, a good intranet site and company newsletters, it's still sometimes difficult to see the big picture of the company and truly understand what's happening. Another frustrating aspect of working at AEP is the time it takes to work through layers of IT security for new employees. It takes several days to get security badges to work, e-mail accounts to be set up, access for computer applications to be granted, and passwords to function. These problems make it difficult for new employees to acclimate to the climate and to jump right into their new jobs.