Shell reviews

4.0

74% would recommend to a friend

(13,604 total reviews)
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Wael Sawan

62% approve of CEO

62% positive business outlook

Shell has an employee rating of 4.0 out of 5 stars, based on 13,604 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Shell employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Energy, Mining & Utilities industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

14K reviews
4.0
Jul 21, 2014

Some annoyances, but hard to say no

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Good pay, good benefits, good job security, office culture is generally pretty relaxed. They say that work/life balance is important, and they mean it. You can have a lot of flexibility as long as you get your work done. There are opportunities to work almost anywhere in the world. Most managers are easy enough to work with and care about your professional development. The upper-level leaders are really committed and seem to do a good job. The new CEO looks like he'll do a good job.

Cons

The corporate stuff is annoying. It takes forever to move projects along or make decisions because a million people have to review or approve or something. It does matter who you know, even though they claim it doesn't. People who are identified as 'high leadership potential' get promoted at lightning speed, even though the process is supposed to be equal. There are some incompetent managers in middle management that make you wonder how on Earth they got there. If you're unfortunate enough to get one of those, your satisfaction with your job can go in the tank, fast. The feel-good nature of the company means it can be difficult to get honest feedback sometimes. It seems like no one wants to hurt anybody's feelings or say anything negative. People who have been here a long time are almost like robots. You can see it happen as the new hires get indoctrinated into the culture. If you put together any halfway decent piece of work that wasn't directly required, people act like you're a genius.

2.0
Sep 27, 2011
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

If you come in as a "high potential" and are very young, you are golden in this company. Once you have this label you can essentially do no wrong -- even if you perform poorly, it is perceived that you have just been put in a job that does not match your strengths. Also, if you want to come here and just be an OK performer and never be promoted, this is a good place to be. You can park here and be forgotten for 10 years without anyone noticing.

Cons

If you are not a designated "high potential", and there are many reasons that this can happen that have nothing to do with your actual real life potential or performance, then it can be very challenging to be promoted or even move laterally into positions that are seen as glamorous. Even if you perform very well, your raise and bonus will never compete with a high potential who does poorly. If this sort of thing gets under your skin, then do not come to Shell, because it is rampant -- there is a 2% ruling class that gets everything and if you are not in that club very shortly upon joining (again, many reasons this can go the wrong way -- for example if you have the wrong manager who runs the evaluation process the wrong way) then it will never change.

5.0
Jun 20, 2008
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

1. One of the best known brands in the world. One of the very few company logos in the world which does not need the company name to identify itself 2. Great compensation and benefits package 3. A culture built on respect for people 4. International job assignments - a Shell career is a life journey in itself

Cons

1. As with most large corporations, there is an element of bureaucracy 2. Some departments are quite traditional dominated by old veterans 3. Employees are not pushed to grow, Shell is like a maze with so many career tracks - one has to seek out his/her own growth path - really think about it and follow with action

Viewing 28 - 30 of 13,604 Reviews

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