Shell reviews

4.0

74% would recommend to a friend

(13,593 total reviews)
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Wael Sawan

62% approve of CEO

62% positive business outlook

Shell has an employee rating of 4.0 out of 5 stars, based on 13,593 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Shell employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Energy, mining, utilities industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

14K reviews
2.0
Nov 1, 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great benefits. Salaries are good (they used to be better). Flexible working available. If you are someone who is looking for a safe, average salary this is your place. If you want to stick with a very small piece of something big and nevery become an expert on anything, do apply. For new joiners: Graduate Scheme used to be top class. Now it is a collection of 2nd class millenials with low salaries and an extremely bad structured scheme. I have not met a single happy graduate in the last 6 years. Save yourself sometime and start working in a field you field passionate about.

Cons

Mediocre HR. The vast majority of the people do not really know what is it that they are doing. I have been working for the company for the last 16 years and I have seen how a great company goes down as one of the less exciting places to be on earth. Innovators, entrepeneurs, knowledge seekers are going to be swallowed by a very conservative corporate culture where guys that do not even know how to turn off an iphone are managing IT departmens or innovation innitiatives. For new joiners: They will tell you there are overseas opportunities, there are none. I am a senior manager in the company and even at that level, expat positions (or short term international assignments "STIA" are almost non-existent). For experienced hires: You will join with lots of promises being made, but reality is that you will be stuck in the same "job group" for 4 - 5 years when the average Shell employee is moving up the ladder every 2- 3 years. Once you are due for a promotion, they will trigger a "re-organization" and you will recieve a redundancy letter that will (mentally) force you to say yes to any internal offer they will throw at you. Be aware of HR. Really.

2.0
Oct 6, 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Good pension benefits and there are some good professional people.

Cons

1) Shell have a disappointing habit of hiring serious and successful professionals from the sector and then dis-empowering them. It is very hard to succeed with the combination of clunky IT, overly heavy process that crushes innovation, and deep layers of politics to navigate. 2) Toxic environment created in electricity trading department. One red flag was when a very senior person said “people without mortgages are of no interest to me”. The implication was worrying and intimidating, with the behaviors displayed in the months to follow confirming the fears. 3) I was threatened and indirectly accused of intending to steal IP on the phone the day I resigned, by the same senior leader. It was a very upsetting way to finish my role and justified my decision to resign before securing a new role to move to yet. 4) The toxic management style lead to high stress, not conducive to innovation, happiness, or success. Not how forward thinking organisations should think about leadership.

4.0
Aug 14, 2016

IT Graduate

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- The company possess a very structured graduate program for all discipline types (engineering, HR, IT, Finance, etc). In my opinion, you wont experience a better IT graduate program. - The company really values work life balance, they don't want you sticking around till late in the evening to prove you are a good worker. Sometimes if I worked late my line manager would ask why and then insist that I pack up and go home. - Everyone is there to support one another - you will rarely run into an individual that isn't a team player. I've never worked with such great people, and that statement applies to individuals from all different departments spanning from trading to retail and from project managers, business analyst all the way up to VPs and senior managers. - The benefits are great and the pay is industry standard. For London graduates are on a pretty sweet pay package, although not as much as the banks. But then again, the work life balance at Shell is SO MUCH BETTER than if you were at a bank or consulting firm.

Cons

- Depending on the price of oil and gas the company will restructure certain departments like HR and IT. By restructure I mean offer voluntary severance packages in an attempt to reduce the workforce and save money. But if you are good and have a good Individual Performance Rating then you will be fine. But for the "average joes" or those that were rated poorly by a rubbish manager, goodluck! - Sometimes HR will push a graduate within a team that is clearly not mean't to host graduates. HR really needs to make sure that graduate are getting the right level of support and management and that they are in a role that isn't going to crush their soul.

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