Great career combined with genuine work life balance (provided you're in upstream) - Engineer Chevron Employee Review

5.0
Mar 6, 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Good solid company to work for with a lot of opportunity to grow. Pleasant work environment and I get to work with many bright and motivated people. The management style is also very good in their way of engaging employees and always having an open door policy where you can walk in anytime to let them know what's going - and when the news is bad they don't shoot the messenger. Genuine work-life balance. They respect employees right to a personal life and there's seldom a need to have to work on weekends or late at night. The nine day fortnight system is a fantastic benefit. Pay & benefits are good, probably are some higher paying employers around but when you look at the whole deal (esp working hours etc) I think you'd battle to beat Chevron

Cons

All of what I wrote for the pros are about my time working for Upstream. Previously I worked in Downstream at a refinery and it's like working for a different company. Effectively zero career progression and some unpleasant office politics. Probably the worst was the policy of never promoting top level managers from within - always had to be expats or someone recruited from outside of Chevron. Understandably this upset a lot of people who realised there was no chance of ever moving up. Compensation sub par (especially for some technical skills that local management was not aware that they had or even need!) compared to competitors - although in fairness the work life balance was good.

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5.0
Mar 13, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Friendly and helpful. Good people

Cons

People are very competitive and nervous about their job

1.0
Feb 24, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The paycheck still clears (for now, until your role is moved to Bangalore or Manila). ​The 9/80 schedule used to be a perk, but it’s hard to enjoy a Friday off when you spent the previous four days hunting for a desk like a game of musical chairs.

Cons

The RTO Charade: Leadership loves to talk about "collaboration," but the 4-day Return to Office (RTO) is clearly a quiet layoff tactic. They want people to quit so they don’t have to pay severance. The "Invisible" Office: It’s impressive how Mike Wirth can demand everyone be in the building while simultaneously removing the basic infrastructure of a workplace. No assigned desks, no storage, and literally no trash cans. Apparently, "Human Energy" includes carrying your own garbage home and spending 30 minutes every morning wandering the floor looking for a monitor that actually works. Leadership Vacuum: Les Copland is the definition of a CIO "yes man." Instead of standing up for the integrity of the tech stack or the US workforce, he’s overseen the systematic gutting of IT. It’s a race to the bottom to find the cheapest labor possible outside of the US, leaving the remaining domestic staff to clean up the inevitable mess. The War on American Workers: There is a blatant, aggressive push to minimize the American footprint. We are being phased out in favor of massive outsourcing hubs. You aren't a valued engineer here; you’re an overhead cost that Mike Wirth is looking to delete.

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