World class manufacturing company.

Career Development is fair.

Benefits are really nice.

Safety culture is strong.

In the last few years (2012-2017), Caterpillar has been suffering as a company as a whole. Company Execs are short-sighted and super conservative. As a result, there have been mass layoffs and in 2016 no employees received any raises while executives and shareholders still earned millions per person.

I have not met anyone my age group that "loves" working here.

Caterpillar no longer has the prestige it used to hold. Also, you are a disposable nobody to the company, and for a good chunk of your career, you will remain a disposable nobody.

Otherwise, it is great. They pay fairly well for a first job. They are heavily into developing you into a Caterpillar employee, so there is a lot of training available for free or reimbursable if you take a private class or something. You will get along with the people you start with (if you start in a rotational program) and they will become some of your best friends. The benefits are quite good (health, 401K, discounts, etc).