* Above average employee turnover - despite the higher pay & benefits
* Political decision making even down to new product development (which has created a few poor new products)..
* Things are more political at the Glenview, IL headquarters.
* You'll spend 80% of the time squeezing margin out of old dying products vs. working on new products. And those new products will be superficial updates since the financial hurdles for the capital are higher than other companies.
* Short-term thinking on margin preservation for this year, at the expense of long-term market share decline.
* Poor Managers - I've had some ok managers at ITW and some of the worse in my career. The bell curve is biased to the poor side. Typically the poor managers go through lots of turnover for a few years before HR finally steps in. So during an interview if you see a single red or yellow flag with a manager don't take the job.. Ask lots of questions about why the last two people in the role left the company. Realistically, due to frequent org changes, you'll have a another new boss in a year but getting the 1st year under your belt is a big milestone.