| Human Resources Field Program Participant |
DuPont is a chemical company (and originally an explosives company).
One result of being in the chemical industry is that the company must
be extremely safety oriented....and DuPont definitely takes it to the
extreme. Safety dominates the DuPont culture and is the #1 core
value. One of the drawbacks of this safety culture is that it spills
over to all aspects of business.
Taking risks is NOT encouraged. I am in a management trainee type
program and it is the SLOWEST fast track ever known to mankind. The
program is supposed to be 3 - 5 years, but in reality nobody really
knows because the program is just reaching its 5th year, so technically
no one has graduated. Half of the original hires in the program have
left because of either interpersonal conflicts with the program manager
or simply expect a greater level of responsibility than what DuPont is
willing to provide.
The Human Resources function is very much run by an old regime. DuPont
decided to bring in experience, external hires into HR leadership
positions a few years ago, however the VP of HR, Dennis Zeleny
(formerly of Frito-Lay, Allied Signal) left and thus all the external
new hires went with him. The commitment to building an world-class
internal HR function is gone as well. The HR Field Program is run by a
woman who is 49 years old and completely out of touch with young
professionals and their desires. She is simply put into the position
to groom the program members to be exactly what DuPont already has, NOT
what DuPont says that it wants in the recruiting process. The VP of HR
is currently being held by a leader taken from a DuPont business with
virtually NO HR experience. ....Basically at DuPont, anyone who can be
successful as an engineer or finance or operations, etc is entitled to
be an HR professional, but an actual person with HR experience does not
have the internal credibility to get the appropriate level of
responsibility they deserve.
I laughed when I read the caption provided because although DuPont is
undergoing major campus recruiting (they have to because the average
age of their current workforce is 49!!), DuPont is not committed to
giving new grads challenging assignments. Couple this with the fact
that there are very few people under 30, and the experience is pretty
miserable. And the reason DuPont is so flexible with their vacation
time is that they have no HRIS to store or tract employee data, so no
managers or HR managers have the time or patience to track vacation for
every single employee. It wasn't until SOX that DuPont actually began
tracking vacation, and of course it is done on spreadsheets. Oh, by
the way, I hope you like Excel spreadsheets because you will be using a
lot of them at DuPont. DuPont is NOT a technology company, despite
their many innovations.
If you are an engineer, come to DuPont. If you are in Finance, its a
maybe. If you are in Sourcing & Logistics, its a maybe. If you are in
HR, I do NOT recommend it. DuPont is heavily recruiting Sales &
Marketing grads from top notch schools. DuPont is NOT a sales &
marketing driven company, this is a completely new endevour for DuPont,
so you would be taking a chance and enduring the frustrations of a
newly developed Marketing Leadership Development Program, but because
the DuPont business actually sees some value in this function (unlike
HR), it may be worth pursuing. This program does involve and
international assignment. International opportunities STOP there for
any other function unless you have a very rare and specific talent (a
friend of mine speaks Spanish and has highly technical computer skills
but has a S&L degree).
DuPont does not hire the most dynamic, best leaders out of colleges.
They hire for the culture- safe, steady, mature, introverted people.
If you are an extrovert, you will not be happy at DuPont. If you
expect to be challenged and have a high level of involvemnt, you will
not find that at DuPont. If you are from the DE-NJ-PA area and just
want to take your average paycheck and go home everyday, you will love
DuPont. If you want to work for the same company for 25, 30 years, you
will love DuPont. Seniority rules at DuPont...if you can make it 5 -
10 years, you will probably be in a good position...but thats assuming
you have the patience to put up with the boredom, ho-hum culture, and
average pay, subjective performance management system, and old school
bureaucratic culture.
I will say that DuPont has products that you feel proud of and high
integrity and ethical standards. The employee experience VARIES
EXTREMELY based on what business you work in and the value that
particular business has for your function. Some businesses are still
run by the good old boy network where managers protect their croonies.
The culture is easy to learn and if you are willing to master it you
will be rewarded. If you choose not to fake it, you will be weeded out
by the old regime leaders.
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DuPont (E.I. Du Pont De Nemours and Company) Interview Surveys
