Pros
I worked in the Marketing and Customer Services Department. Company hires a lot and are constantly in need of staff as they lack manpower, so its pretty easy to get a job at Shimano. Quite chill for people who are looking to live by the day and take a paycheck home. Presence of work life balance as employees can leave by 5.30pm.
Cons
Management is very much afraid of growth, especially in areas that they are unfamiliar with. With egos running the department, it's hard to pitch new ideas and concepts to middle management as they believe that their years of experience values them more than what you have learnt, even at the cost of performing your work efficiently. They too advice on matters that they know little about, which often corrupts the overall campaign that is to be implemented. Management does not want to shoulder the responsibility of projects, and is highly sensitive to failure. When things go south, the management tries to absolve themselves of the blame by blaming their team members instead when campaigns fall through or did not meet their expectations when, much earlier, key performance indicators were discussed and agreed upon. Take note that this blaming often falls to the Senior Officers of the department who are the lowest tier in the department. However, when the campaign goes well, management clamours to gain recognition for the project, taking the credit and the possible career opportunity away from the staff who has worked hard on it. Don't expect any form of personal growth in the department. Management believes that all employees are required to be loyal to the company, but the company need not provide anything or loyalty to their staff. This example stems from the management's words: "You need to pay for education. The company pays you to do your job and to provide your expertise. If you want education or any further learning, you pay the company instead" Huge amounts of inter-departmental politics, mainly other departments versus my department, and intra-departmental conflicts as distrust, gossip, and politics revolve around the middle management. Highly competitive nature, but willing to provide and support little for any growth to happen. As a matter of which, staff are constantly overloaded as work not related to their job scopes gets directed at them. In my opinion, management has failed to grasp the concept of Marketing as they have often tried to sell marketing collateral that is meant to be given free to the public, and more often than not, asked about ROIs for projects that are meant to be classified under Corporate Social Responsibility. Highly recommend new hires to not work more than a year here as there is little progression in Shimano. This will affect your resume and future career growth.
