Pros
It was a very educational experience learning so many things at this plant, though it was quite stressful at times. I was paid a competent salary, not the most but average for a ChemE starting their career. I learned a lot from the experienced engineers/staff in the plant and had the opportunity to do some engineering calculations, like hydraulic calculations & simulating process equipment, which was my favorite part of the job. The Engineering department has good people and excellent engineers. The ChemE's are some of the smartest people I have ever met and a big reason why AMVAC’s Axis plant is as successful as it is. I had the chance to participate in and lead multiple PHA’s during my time here, something not many young ChemE’s get to do. I liked getting to help operations and build relationships with the operators, who were in general hard-working and pleasant people. It was a pleasant change to the engineering design/process safety work and I could learn how the equipment actually works. Almost all office workers, including engineers, got their own office. Having the space to make your own and be able to close your door to focus on your work or eat lunch was amazing. I got solid experience in process engineering, process safety, & production support in general.
Cons
The culture of the Axis plant is very much centered on “good enough” and almost nobody strives for perfection in order to achieve excellence in their work. I found this depressing, as I strove for perfection to deliver excellent quality work and was frequently asked to just deliver “good enough” work. I knew I could not take forever on my tasks, however I felt the balance was tipped far too much towards “good enough,” which inevitably cost the plant time/money later when mistakes and bad decisions came to the surface. I think very few people at AMVAC wear less than 3 “hats” or large responsibilities; I personally found this very tiring and quite inefficient. I also found that AMVAC did not cross-train employees very well or at all, therefore when one person was not at work or was busy with one of their other responsibilities, no one else could perform their work well or at all. The management is not the best and was pretty inconsistent in their way of managing me and giving advice on how to complete my engineering tasks. I appreciate they didn’t micromanage me, however they were pretty far on the other side of the spectrum, which is also not so helpful. There are almost no young people to work with, in the Engineering department or elsewhere in the plant. Not having another young engineer to learn concepts with made it hard to relate to the experienced engineers, as they had a hard time coming down to my level to explain concepts at times, though they did try their best. I did not have much room to grow other than a pay raise and eventually rise up one level, after 10-20 years of experience. You will keep doing the same work, for the same people for most of your career at AMVAC. I worked on average 45 - 55 hours/week, which is probably to be expected as an engineer in a chemical plant. Some weeks were very stressful and I would easily work closer to 55 hours/week, making the $/hour rate pretty poor when compared to other positions with less hours or higher salary. There are not enough engineers/chemical engineers for all the processes & projects going on. I think a similarly sized company would have more chemical engineers on staff, probably 2-3 more engineers to provide production support especially. AMVAC’s Axis plant had 4 chemical engineers, at the time I worked there, with most focusing on design & process safety, not production support. I asked management if they thought AMVAC would hire more engineers in the future, and they said “We doubt it.” This did not give me hope, as I already felt overloaded in my work and saw the potential for engineers to take on projects that were getting forgotten or done in a rush, due to pressure from management. Human Resources is not very professional or personable, and they do not know the policies/benefits of the company well enough. They relied on their subordinates to answer such questions, which I thought was odd. Overall, work here if you are just starting your career or have few other options. This is not a bad place to work, but there are many other companies and workplaces that I believe are better to work at. Learn what you can, don’t focus on the bad, and leave when you build some experience.