Pros
The people at the company for most part are nice (there are few exceptions). Working for Volvo is like working for Uncle Sam, i.e you have a job for life. No one gets fired here (you have to be beyond redeemable to get fired). Work pressure is almost non-existent and dead-lines are just as they sound ...."dead". If things don't get done by time, there will be a new deadline with no repercussions. Salary is about average, but company provided health insurance is good. Employer contribution in 401k is $0.75 for every $1 upto 6% (i.e 4.5% Volvo contribution for 6% employee share). Volvo has a cash balance plan where company pays a fixed amount (formula based on age of employee, years of service etc) to a fund that you can cash out when you retire or leave the company (This is around 4-6% in 35-45 year old). Volvo gives exceptional vacation. For white collar employees it is called Earned Time-Off and a bucket for holidays, sick days & vacation (use as you like). New employee starts out at 31 days and gets 36 days at 5 years. From 6th year employee gets 1 additional day every year maxing out at 41days at 10th year. At 20th Anniversary, 5 additional days are added for 46 day ETO. There is some profit sharing occasionally and the max. I saw was $1500 paid into 401k account. Being a huge company, there are lot of job opportunities and within USA one can choose to move to Hagerstown,MD/Dublin, VA/Macungie, PA/Greensboro, NC. If you are into finance, logistics etc there are other places like PA, MS you can move to.
Cons
Hard Work gets name sake recognition. Lot of employees are lethargic and there are some hardworkers (~15%-20%) who carry the load of others. Some Engineers and Buyers spend 6-7 hours per day moving around chatting with various people and browsing internet or on the phone attending personal business. Sometimes employees disappear for hours and can be seen coming back through gates later. Since there is no clock-in and clock-out for white collar employees no one is held accountable. Hard work does not pay here. One cannot expect to be promoted and even when promoted you will max. out after certain level. All the upper level Management positions are reserved for Swedes and French and some leftover positions are reserved for White Males. It is a matter of "who you know" than "what you know". Office politics are galore and promotions are based on advancing someone's ideology. People with Master's and Ph.D's working as Engineers for-ever and some with Associates degrees promoted to Project Managers and Group Managers. Volvo boasts big-time about diversity but most of it comes from hiring few Swedes, French and some Brazilian Chinese and Indians (~5% of work force). In Hagerstown-MD,on the Product Development Engineering side out of 270 Engineers, Designers, Managers, Mechanics & Technicians there are almost no Black employees in the rank and file. There is very little real Engineering done here. Most of the Engine & Transmission development is done in Sweden and Hagerstown is Application Engineering site for US emission compliance. You might have some luck doing some real Engineering with Chassis Engineering in Greensboro, NC but the politics and career progression is very identical over there. Manufacturing is not a place to be and most of the Mfg. Engineers have no clue about Manufacturing as we have mostly become an assembly plant. There are lot of Supplier Quality "Engineers" with high school diplomas or Associate Degrees and have hard time reading or interpreting a drawing.