The tech research job was great for gaining experience, but it is a big company with structure and conservatism. - Automation Engineer Caterpillar Employee Review

4.0
18 Jun 2016
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

All my engineering co-workers were competent and gave great effort to follow through on the right decisions. It took some looking, but I was able to find great leaders (usually lower level) and work with them as much as possible because they cared, championed, and enabled the people around them. For an entry level graduate engineer, the compensation and broad experiences were great. Finally due to the nature of the age of the corporation their is ripe opportunity to bring new perspectives and technologies to the production and equipment technology in use. If you can bring a new technique to the corporation, you can easily make a name for yourself and become an expert.

Cons

The more I was exposed to higher leadership (primarily in research and production), the more I was surprised and somewhat disheartened by a lack of cohesive vision for the company. The corporation acts more like a loosely connected coalition of business units and divisions, rather than a singular brand. This seemed to have the effect of: a diluted vision, decoupled responsibilities, a variety of confusing and thick middle management layers, slow responses to change, duplicated efforts, and a lack of focus on internal and external customers. It feels like programs and changes intended to engage and empower employees (like innovation, strategy, and customer advocacy and experience) end up being fads rather than deep cultural investments. Finally, I will say that the corporate culture has the, I believe unintended effect, of making the definition of 'leadership' equal to one who takes great political and career affecting risk to see some goal accomplished. Whereas I believe the best leaders I've experienced have 1) a strong vision that invigorates and invites people with a variety of skills, 2) the courage to enable those motivated workers to execute their talents to the quality they wish to reflect their reputation and integrity, and 3) the strength to defend their teams when budgets get tight or development gets challenging.

Explore other reviews about Caterpillar

5.0
3 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

great wlb and great benefits

Cons

none that i can think of.

2.0
30 Apr 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

You are treated with autonomy, dignity, and respect. It is assumed you know how to do your job and are given the trust and means to do so. Compensation is above market value. Uncapped professional growth if you know how to play your cards right.

Cons

Working at Burger King and living from my car in Northern Michigan during the middle of winter was preferable to working on-site in Peoria. Project work was inherently meaningless and dictated almost entirely by the caste system this company has in Central, IL. My relocation had absolutely nothing to do with the role at hand and was a power play by management to get me to become a bleed-yellow Peorian in the CAT-corporate social club. The company loyalty here is absolutely disgusting and has nothing to do with the viability of the brand or product. Everyone is enamored with the status and wealth they've attained on account of not performing hard, manual, life-threatening labor. You would be hard-pressed to find anyone who actually cares about what goes on in the defense division or addressing the geopolitical anomalies between the former headquarters and the new business direction of the company.

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