Pros
Strong performing company that offers profit-sharing (bonuses) and stock purchasing. Good opportunities for advancement at lower levels, but can hit the ceiling after a few years, after which it is difficult to advance without a direct report-to retiring or moving to another company.
Kontras
Can be a great place to work if you have a good manager. Unfortunately, they are few and far between. Most managers tend to be self-serving and do not recognize the more talented people under their supervision, instead following the good-ole-boy philosophy and rewarding the brown-noses. Co-workers can tend to be more concerned with covering their own behinds rather than being successful. HR is non-existent unless they are covering up for management mistakes. Long hours are expected but not rewarded. Very stressful environmemt. Most of the time, when a co-worker leaves their position, their responsibilities are divided up amongst their peers and added to their workload instead of hiring or promoting a replacement. Pay people what they are worth – I was stuck in a go-nowhere position for 10 years with a string of bad managers, so left the company and now make over 50% more than when I worked for BASF and have none of the stress.