Good pay, very smart people in the chemical industry, good benefits, nice international feel to the organization.
Cons
Standard big company politics, performance is rewarded to a degree, but politics can also trump performance. The yearly review system is antiquated, used more as a stick than a carrot.
Arkema Response
10y
Thanks for providing a constructive feedback. At Arkema, we do our best to reward individual performance and our employees' commitment. If you think (at your level) that it was not the case, we do hope that you took time to discuss it with your supervisor and your HR so they could make some adjustments. Again, it is very important for us to accelerate the skills/career growth of all our employees in a good working environment. We wish you the best for the future.
I really loved working for Arkema. They are a very fair company (sometimes a but too liberal with work/life balance, i.e. taken advantage of) and treat employees very well. The work, although repetitive, was interesting.
Cons
The manager that hired me was great. Then he moved up and I got a manager that "knew everything" and shot down almost any idea I had. His boss was pretty unfriendly and expected miracles in order to promote/give out raises. This is pretty typical of any company, you just wait for bad mangers to move on, or you move on if you can't take it. I moved on.
Great people
Great opportunities
Willing to give more responsibility/grow
Good work life balance while also still having good drive at work
Cons
Not a lot of cons, everyone is very understanding and the small office could be a downside for resources, but personally did not find that to be an issue