Pros
Strong culture, almost family like. Leadership really wants to produce high quality, effective, relevant products. Regular exposure to senior leadership. As a new graduate engineer it's a great place to learn. Plastic/aluminum extrusions, injection molding, die casting, sheet metal (brake presses, stamped, roll formed, punched), laminates, tables, seating (lots of mechanics, machine design principles). Work is fast paced and engaging. Product cycles are 12-24 months so if you don't like your current assignment it won't last long and you'll move onto the next. 401k contribution is nice in that 4.5% guaranteed+deferred profit sharing with no member contribution required; free money! Stock purchase plan at discounted price.
Cons
Benefits are archaic; especially vacation time. Just started offering vision plans in the last couple of years. No real maternity/paternity time; maternity leave is vacation/short term disability combination. Pay raises are small but if you're lucky enough to be singled out as a "high potential" employee you can see significant pay raises in short periods. Definitely not an innovative company. CAD/PDM software when I started was 20 years old. Manufacturing operations program most things from drawings by hand; again at least decades behind. This also leads to problems with career advancement; they will take the "safe" bet/status quo/yes man candidate over someone who wants to improve processes and grow capabilities every time. Positions in senior leadership of operating companies shifts constantly. In almost 7 years I've had 6 different supervisors, 3 company presidents, 2 VPs and 2 directors over my functional area alone. This is consistent in all business function areas. Hard to keep a consistent strategic plan in place with so many high level changes over such short periods of time.
