Great program to gain experience, however compensation is lacking
Pros
The Next Generation Program at NOV involves four rotations of 3-months each to make it a total of one year for the program. It's great to get to see different parts of the company and figure out more specifically where you would be happy contributing. I had interesting rotations for the most part, however others weren't so lucky. The company is very laid back and nobody usually comes around pressuring you to perform. Managers I've had tend to take the correct path of motivating by encouragement. I have never been told my performance is sub-par, on the contrary I feel it has been easy to impress people with what I consider normal work. Next Gen's have many opportunities to move up... of course you must be a performer. Whining and/or a sense of entitlement gets you nowhere. Great benefits, 3-weeks vacation even for new employees! This is the only place I interviewed with such a policy.
Cons
The salary is not competitive. Some business units have made poor decisions on important leadership postions and now suffer from under-educated and hence insecure VP's. Cooperation among business units is improving but isn't there yet (this is probably a normal growing pain). Bloated staff in some business units could have fat trimmed from it.