Pros
Of all the supermajors, they take safety the most serious. They walk that talk big time, so I always felt I had authority to stop work if something wasn't right. You'll make a lot of money here. A LOT. Easy six figures upon hire, maybe sitting at $200K over ten years in. Benefits aren't bad, and the 401K match is 8% - very, very few companies offer a match that high. The 401k was far better when it was managed by Vanguard. They messed up when they moved it to Fidelity. This said, a relative of mine is a VP of HR for a large company in another industry, and I asked her review of Chevron's benefits. She was very surprisingly how "antiquated" they were, particularly their vacation policy and insurance. She said Chevron seemed to still be doing things like it was the 1980s, while everyone else had moved on to more modern policies. You will find vastly better benefits outside the oil industry, minus the pension and 401k. Office culture is pretty laid back, but . . . well, you know how it feels when you eat something that's waaay too sweet, like sickeningly sweet? That's what it's like to work at Chevron: everyone is Ned Flanders and disgustingly not themselves. Stepford-esque. Workday starts at 6am, which I loved, but some didn't. Many colleagues where at the office by 5am or 5:30am. I'd feel like I was late if I got to my desk after 6:30am. If you don't roll in until 7am, and you don't have the "I have kids" excuse, you're definitely looked at like a slacker. Hours are also long -- so long that a lot of people find their marriage partners at work. It's so pervasive there's a name for it: Chevron Couples.
Cons
I resigned my post because it was a choice between my morals and ethics or money. I couldn't live with myself if I continued to work for a company that rapes and pillages the planet I've dedicated half my life to studying. You don't dedicate so much time to a planet if you care nothing about her. You know when I interviewed they went on and on about investing in renewables? They don't even have that business unit anymore. Instead, this is what Chevron does to put on airs: every few years they buy up some green company or research division to make it look like they are doing good things in renewables, like the recent REG acquisition. But I think they buy these companies to actually drive them in to the ground, eliminating any renewable competition. I hired early this century and everything Chevron said they were doing then they are no longer doing, and it's 2024. Be real: has anyone reading this actually read or heard anything in the public sphere about the successes of Chevron's renewable projects in that time? That's all you need to know about the company's motives. THE BAD: Chevron has a ridiculous petrotech onboarding process that's pretty insulting if you have a graduate degree and are pushing 30. The onboarding program exists because Chevron will hire anyone with a geo degree regardless of research speciality, so they must have this crazy 5-yr onboarding process to teach the geos who studied petrology or volcanoes what they didn't learn about sed basins, structural geology, or seismic interpretation. If you already know these things, it will not matter. You will be expected to waste weeks of your time in these courses multiple times a year anyway. In terms of opportunities for advancement, the company clearly values engineers over geos. 99% of managers are former engineers, and too many of them don't understand much at all about geology. I once had a supervisor ask me to make up P1 reserves, which is when I officially packed up my things and left the company. I was not about to risk my scientific reputation for some dude who was just using our team to vault himself into the next level of management at the expense of the rest of us (and that's how too many engineering managers are . . . you are just a means to their end, and they will obliterate your career and step on your back to advance). Chevron doesn't know how to properly vet engineers for management positions. They lack the technical prowess required to manage geologists, and they truly lack the people skills. During my entire tenure, I only had one former geo for a boss, and he was the only boss who seemed to know how to motivate a team, who took an interest in growing his employees professionally, and who had confidence in his ability to lead. A natural teacher and leader, which are qualities few engineers are able to access. DEI programs are a joke. They exist so the company can check boxes and not risk lawsuits, not because anyone there actually cares. Chevron likes to roll out a story about being a "California company" because their headquarters are there as if that somehow makes them a friend of the gays or something. It's so silly. Inside the walls of that company, though, make no mistake. You're working for a company that feels a whole damn lot like a white good 'ol network based in Texas. While I worked there, they played Fox News in all of the lobbies and elevator banks. If you're not originally from the south, and if you're not a Republican, then you might struggle here. Outside of the technical positions, you'll be working with colleagues who are climate deniers, vocal Trump supporters, christians with no boundaries trying to recruit you for their church, and folks who will openly tell you the earth is only 6000 years old despite knowing you're a geologist (crazy to me, given they work with a literal oil company, meaning their paycheck depends on the earth NOT being that age, but there it is.)