Something to do between age 35 and 50 if you have a family...
Pros
- company tries very hard to ensure quality of life in a small town (Midland), location can be quite nice for people with young families - company will be undergoing a massive leadership and middle-management overhaul in the next 18-36 months, so lots of opportunity for newcomers between the age of 35 and 40 since young talent is impossible for the company to attract to Midland - if you can tolerate the focus on process over efficiency the quality of life can be fantastic, the HQ clears out every day by 6pm, every Friday by 2pm between July 4 and Labor Day and is completely empty on the weekends - lots of time available for training and development - bonus will be good once every 4 years or so, in between you can clean up on LTI's and stock purchase plan - pay at Dow will be lockstep but the Dow brand on your resume attracts HR recruiters and you can make a killing when you leave
Cons
- you need to be in Midland to have any real shot at advancement - Midland is in a very poor part of Michigan, so you will be surrounded by rednecks and meth labs if you venture outside of town - local community is split between Dow and non-Dow, so all of your "friends" will work for Dow - the public high schools are horrible (ignore the rankings) and private education is non-existent unless you are an evangelical Christian, so education for children becomes much more of a challenge for older families - housing market is a disaster, you will buy cheap and sell cheap so don't plan on making money on real estate and your home will be a hurdle to relocation after you leave Dow - you will leave Dow, every employee after their 50th birthday becomes a target for layoff and you will want to leave the minute your children finish high school before your trailing spouse leaves you - job market for trailing spouses is non-existent, unless your spouse also wants to work for Dow - office politics are among the worst around, probably as a result of such a large company residing in such a tiny town; there is no escape from the politics since your boss will probably attend the same church and shop at the same grocery store