New external hire CL level 29 here, haven’t got my first assessment yet will be for next year - How important is the PDS? Some say it’s more the story than PDS that your manager knows and wants to promote about you that matters. Others say it will stay with you for years so be careful what you put in there. Possible the reality is somewhere in between but wonder what y’all think. Also, does your manager or skip manager advise you how to write this, or are you pretty much on your own?
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Your supervisor will help you write it.
I agree with someone else, this looks like something in Global Trading. I know they've hired a few guys in their early 50s who worked for real trading houses and are using EM as a soft retirement and getting paid huge amounts for their knowledge. Likely that these people don't give AF about the EM retirement.
One guy I know was brought in last year, has already presented to the MC, meets with DW, he basically has his supervisor write his PDS for him. He;s very protected.
Global trading is hiring at CL 29-31 since they have carved out certain traders into a pay-for-performance schedule. Also, that pds process happens at the end of the year as opposed to the rest of XOM PDS timing.
The highest starting CL for external hire (with 5 to 15 years of experience and PHD) I've seen was 26.A few where bumped to 27 in first ranking cycle so I guess 29 would be something like preparing you for executive or chief or more likely PIP
We would be much better off offering voluntary enhanced retirement packages to shrink the workforce.
When Mobil Oil decided to reduce global headcount by 30% in the mid-1990's, Mobil Oil offered two weeks of pay per year of service with a cap at total compensation of 18 months (24 months for executives). Also, in Mobil Oil, you could retire at the age of 50 with 100% of your pension and matching 401K.
100% of the volunteers that elected for the enhanced severance package were accepted.
As a CL29 external hire you’re going to be set up as a scapegoat in your rank group unless the person that hired you is also going to sponsor/support you here.
You can have the perfect PDS and be the highest achiever but the best you can hope for is to be the top normal employee just under the HiPos at the top.
I had a Department Manager tell me that I was the top performer in my rank group but I could not get the top ranking because there were so many people in my group that were “chosen” as future leaders. He said there was no way any person could be placed above even one of those HiPos and that I would fall in ranking the next year if more HiPos were in my rank group even if I was the top performer.
PDS is not important. BEFORE THE ASSESSMENT MEETING YOUR SUPERVISOR ENTERS YOUR STARTING ASSESSMENT INTO CAREERCONNECT. People rarely live more than one up or down from where their supervisor starts them. The two minute speech they give won’t change much. Also the supervisor will have you write the two minute speech or will write it themself.
CL29 external hire. Good luck bud. The odds are stacked against you.
What you write in the PDS is not going to follow you from year to year. The document itself is gonna be trashed the minute the assessment session is over. But it is a very important document for the assessment process.
Good bosses will give you guidance on how to write it such that you set them up for success in lobbying for you in the assessment session. With that they have to want to lobby for you, if they don’t, you’re going down no matter what your actual accomplishments were, so always make nice with your boss and your bosses boss, and do t make their jobs harder. The PDS needs to be brief, you need to be able to recite it verbally within three minutes tops. Multiple supervisors have told me that they are literally cut off at one second past that time limit so if you write a novel and they can’t get through it, your pitch stops dead and you look foolish, not your supervisor … too bad for you! The only numbers that matter have a $ sign in front of them so this year as you’re working through your step out assignments, be able to quantify how much money you made the company or save the company… That’s gonna be the metric that you are measured against your peers on. It doesn’t matter how great a project you’ve done if you can’t put it to a $, it’s just gonna be thrown out as background noise.
There are also a lot of sour pusses on here, sometimes myself included… But if you have been brought in at CL 29 and you are still an individual contributor, you really do have to prepare yourself to be NSI and pipped. You cannot compete against managers, senior principals individuals, and high potential employees as an individual contributor at that CL level. Maybe you came into the company as a manager or maybe a specialty employee like a member of council or a true world expert (although at this point, I wouldn’t even count on that ) and that is now an appropriate CL level for you and you can compete there, but if that’s not the case and you’re an individual contributor, man you need to look out.
At 29, you will be piped very soon unless you already have a sponsor. Keep interviewing!
It's really the only thing that matters in terms of your career longevity and opportunities, and it's also something you can't control at all. In most cases it is dictated by how much your manager likes you, politics within your organization, and the PIP target that year. These reasons are why so many people hate that process.
It's whatever "they" want it to be. Seriously. None of this matters. Your PA result is already known (yes, even for you--you were brought in to balance the load).
If you start out high give it a few years you'll end up in VG and give it a few more years and you'll be out. The company isn't interested in external hires only individual individuals that they can "teach" without any kick back or knowledge to dispute.