Pros
Opportunities to move between functions and learn new things Opportunities to move abroad In theory lots of job opportunities, although in practice moving internally can be extremely difficult even if you are good at the job. Salaries in some functions / some countries are very good, especially the longer one stays in Akzo (in others, that's not the case) Most colleagues are great people, the overall atmosphere is friendly and relaxed
Cons
People picked for management positions are often not the best qualified for the job, meaning you're constantly fighting upstream against people who don't have a clear view of what they're trying to achieve or how. Large, complex organization where getting anything signed-off, let alone done, takes months, sometimes years. Everything depends on which team you're in. If you're lucky, you'll get training, have decent workload, appropriate salary and a great team... If you're unlucky, you'll end up covering 2-4 people's workload on 10k less than your market value with no management support and more unpaid overtime than an average person can handle. Middle management is not good at taking responsibility. Culture, values, employee surveys, etc. are more a tick-box than a genuine effort to change the organization and they definitely are not reflected in the business' policies.