Pros
-Excellent Pay. They pay you a national salary that is actually what you are worth and since most of their facilities are in locations where the cost of living is low you are actually quite wealthy. Also pays an excellent bonus which can be up to 16% of your pay for a grade 7. -Benefits. Great 401K match and pension (a rarity in today's world). Excellent vacation package. -Good work/life balance. I always felt like I could take off for something whenever I wanted and not have to worry about getting in trouble. -Opportunity to work in a wide variety of technical areas, but not is all as it seems here. -In general a benevolent company, no layoffs in the last economic downturn. -Great coworkers. For the most part the fellow engineers you work with are very smart and you form a very tight friendship with them. The same can not be said for many of the other functional areas such as supply management and quality etc.
Cons
-Poor geographic locations. Most Deere facilities are in the rural midwest where you are very far from any big city. Not much to do in any of these locations. This may or may not bother you, but at least be aware of it. -Good old boy culture. They will promote their friends and you will do what they tell you at work. -Not much control over your career direction. This relates to the good old boy culture. They will tell you what position you are going to take. This is fine if you don't care about your career or what you do, but if you do care this could be a problem. -Nepotism. Small town locations mean small town games. People get promoted because of who they are related to or know. This happens far more often than you think. -Performance reviews are joke. No matter what you did you during the year it has nothing to do with the rating you receive. -Poor performers are not dealt with at all. This burdens everyone else who is forced to pick up their work.