Archer Daniels Midland Employee Reviews for Product Engineer

"Don't work for ADM."

What do you like about working at Archer Daniels Midland?

"I learned how best to run a production staff without proper support from maintenance, process engineering, or project engineering, with inadequate control systems on a shoe-string budget. It is possible to do so but it takes a lot of work."

Do you have any tips for others interviewing with this company?

"Stress your experience with projects. They like to have production engineers who can do projects simultaneously."

What don't you like about working at Archer Daniels Midland?

"80+ weeks, a good-ol boy management system. They used to say that smart people left after a few years; turnover among product managers was over 20% in my first 6 months. If they like you, you might get a chance to stay; if not, they'll make your days a nightmare. They used to have a saying that ADM stood for another dead man because of their poor safety record. They claim to have improved but from what I saw, they filled a lot of file cabinets with safety inspections and recommendations. A contractor later told me that they dump the files when filled. I turned them into OSHA on several violations shortly after leaving. I was not being vindicative, though it brought some satisfaction, it was because of the serious dangers there, including the risk of dust explosions. I learned a few things while there but it was not worth the pain and suffering. Oh, by the way, the typical work hours there are 6:30 am to 7 pm. Mostly, they only hire fresh engineers. They wake up and quit a few years later."

What suggestions do you have for management?

"It would not do any good. They are the survivors. You either fit in at ADM or they flush you out rather quickly. Young engineers adapt the best. Besides, they know what is wrong at ADM and have accepted it."