John Deere FAQ

Pros

They have a great benefit package

Cons

There is a lot of overtime

Pros

The company is a global leader in farm equipment manufacturing. Therefore, employees may have a chance to work on exciting problems at the forefront of technology.

Cons

Since John May took over as CEO, the company's entire focus has been Wall Street oriented, not employee focused. So, there has been a downward spiral in pay and benefits relative to the market. Of course, this downward spiral did not apply to John May and his cohorts, who continued to smile all the way to the bank. A recent global reorganization, where many people were fired, was very poorly handled. Management held meetings giving rah-rah speeches, while almost everyone received voluntary buy-out termination notices. It appeared that management got together and determined how they would control the narrative as though rah-rah speeches would keep everyone in a positive frame of mind. These psycho-manipulative antics fooled no one. Afterward, HR had the nerve to wonder why employee turnover increased significantly (well, duh!). Later, HR performed a market study, which resulted in an upward shift in payscales, indicating that employees were underpaid relative to their market value. However, they did not adjust employees' pay to keep them at the same percent of paygrade. Therefore, employees continued to be paid less than market value. If this slap in the face were not enough, the company changed the formula for bonuses to be less in years to come. All of the above happened at the same time that John Deere achieved their highest ever profits. Deere states they want to be on the cutting edge of technology and hire top talent. However, they do not intend to "pay" for top talent. They are looking for "top talent" who are willing to accept below-market salaries. As with many companies, HR's primary mission (apart from crossing the legal t's and dotting the legal i's) is to psycho-manipulate employees into high productivity at the least possible cost. So, if you're lucky, they will place motivational ping pong tables in the breakroom and provide you with free coffee. I recommend top-talent type employees look very hard at other higher-tech companies before considering John Deere.

Advice to Management

Advising management at JD is like howling at the moon. Employee surveys at John Deere have changed very little of substance. Management only changes things that are: 1) easy to change and 2) don't cost much money. The only advice I have is to change the Cons listed above. But, based on John Deere's history, I'm not holding my breath.

Pros

Decent benefits (fitness reimbursement, okay medical and dental, good tuition reimbursement program)

Cons

Terrible mentorship, especially for new grads (tripled my salary by going to a different company) No new grad training program (e.g. bootcamp like a lot of tech companies, dedicated mentors) Low pay Very, very, very few women in engineering Lack of diversity; I saw very few (maybe zero?) DEI initiatives

Pros

Pay is good, and the yearly bonus could be ~10-30% of your salary, but is based off company performance so could be $0 if the company does poorly. Always get a paid week off between Christmas and New Years

Cons

Recently pushing to focus on only hiring/ promoting "diverse candidates" so getting hired or promoted if you are white or a man is almost impossible. Benefits are not great: Health insurance, vision, and dental are avg at best. Raise is 0-2% a year based off performance/ what they have available Vacation is not great: start with a week and can only work up to 4 weeks after 20yrs They just ended the pension for any new hires

Pros

Good Benefits, Employee supportive leave policy, Good Medical support,

Cons

None that i think of