Pros
Agilent has a good work-life balance. Flexible working time is a major plus. Agilent allows each employee to pursue their individual interest; lateral moves are accommodated with little reistance. Benifits at Agilent are great. Agilent offers a hefty bonus every six months based on company profits. Agilent allows paid time for community volunteering each month. Agilent also offers a 4% match on 401k contributions instead of the standard 3%. As a plus for young employees, agilent has an unlimited source of senior engineers to work with and learn from.
Cons
Agilent's ranking system is vastly outdated. Managers force fit a bell curve of performace each year dispite how the individual employees perform. Politics are strong in the ranking process which force managers to rank the senior engineers over the newer ones, even though a lot of senior engineers have gotten comfortable and are no longer contributing at a high level. In general Agilent has too many managers. When layoffs come around engineers are laid-off and the managment expands. Most of Agilents workforce is composed of "senior" engineers that are near retirement, the mix of new employees is not there. This doesn't allow vertical advancement because these postions are already taken and the forced bell curve doesn't allow any additional positions.