Pros
1. Great coworkers. Labatt HR is very good at identifying high achievers and good people that you'll enjoy working with. 2. Good pay. As a general rule, BAs at Labatt get above average for their major/college (most new hires are recent graduates), but less than other BAs with equivalent experience. On the whole, this is a win for the employee. 3. Stability. As long as you don't rub the wrong person the wrong way, your job is very safe. 4. Great experience. With just the slightest bit of effort, you'll get great experience and learn a lot of different skills. Labatt is a great resume builder due to the variety and complexity of the projects you'll be working on.
Cons
The first three points are interrelated. 1. The culture lacks perspective. Labatt is largely populated by people who have never worked anywhere else, and that includes most managers. While some innovative spirit has been retained, there is a lack of vision and awareness due to the narrow range of career experiences. 2. Nepotism and politics. Having the correct last name or making the right friends are the primary determinants of career success. There is little recognition of merit, whether in the form of promotions, monetary incentives, or praise. Firing is based on some criterion other than a pattern of failing to perform in a satisfactory manner. 3. Poor managers. Managers are at best detached and lacking in managerial skills. At worst, they browbeat employees in public without justification, hamper projects with their sporadic, distracting involvement, and fire people without cause. 4. Lack of career advancement. While the IT department was once a place where you could expect advancement, that is no longer the case. There is a chronic paucity of project leadership because there is no effort to groom and promote people into leadership roles. This creates a vicious circle. People don't feel like they are going anywhere at Labatt so the ambitious ones tend to leave after 1-2 years, which means there aren't many people with more than 2 years of experience to promote. 5. Employees feel lost due to the lack of interaction with managers. They know that no one will notice if they essentially stop doing anything, and it is very hard to stay focused in that environment. 6. Benefits are substandard. This is particularly true in the IT department (where all the BAs and programmers are), because they are competing for talent against software companies rather than low-margin distributors.
