Challenging is the nice way to put it... - Manufacturing Specialist Caterpillar Employee Review

2.0
Jul 17, 2010
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

If you enjoy daily challenges and the ability to use your skills creatively, its a great place to work. You quite often get to see the results of your labors immediately, rewarding you at least with a "job well done" feeling.

Cons

For labor, pay for effort doesn't even come close to management salaries, let alone averages in the developed world. Prepare to hear the term "globally competitive" when management discusses labor pay. What they really mean is "we want all our workers to accept the Chinese $150/month wage". Prepare for constant back-stabbing as managers scrabble for each level up the career ladder regardless of who they have to step on along the way and to the detriment of the company as a whole. Also be ready to move a lot, as most jobs are moving south to the Republican "Right to Work (for less pay)" states. If you don't need any more friends, don't have a conscience and can kiss up to your betters and brow-beat your subordinates, you should fit right in to Cat's current management structure. Prepare to have to work to get noticed as the bloated, top-heavy structure of management at Cat makes it hard to stand out...unless you don't slavishly follow the status quo. This will only serve to relegate you to an out-of-the-way, dead end job posting. If you have less than a 4 year degree, don't bother unless you strive only to work in shop floor supervision. If you want more, not even 4 years is good enough. Senior management is now predominately filled with Degree toting number crunchers instead of those who worked their way up from the shop floor, meaning they know little to nothing about actual operations and care only about numbers, charts and Power Points.

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5.0
Jun 7, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great benefits Great WLB Great pay

Cons

Low mobility to move up within company

2.0
Jun 9, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Good pay Some people in the company are great

Cons

Poorly thought out placement- I was put on a team across the country from where i lived the entired team was new to caterpillar because their company was bought out by cat. They had never had any form of intern before and didnt have anyone else who was remote other then me. Because of time differences the manager reguarly expected me to work off the clock but wouldnt give me project during work hours. No room for growth within team i was stuck to- i asked on multiple occasions how i could stand out and get a permanent position within cat since i was one semester from grafuating and was told by multiple people to just deal with my current role and leave cat because "the only real way to get in is if you work as temp worker and they just hapoen to decide to bring u on internally from that"

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