Pros
Job security, Consistent growth based on regional economic growth, stock price has increased consistently above market average, lots of advancement opportunities although most of these are within the Stores Group (think retail positions)
Cons
The more I write, the more I remember... let this be a seasoned warning to anyone considering working for S-W. There are FAR better companies to work for in the paint/coatings industry (Behr, Benjamin Moore, PPG, and regional competitors). Retail, poor compensation (especially when compared to expectations on managers weekly hours), no work-life balance, inability to consider how larger picture/upper management decisions impact local financial performance, stores are understaffed to a point of imminent critical failure at all times, ever expanding service hours, no backup for standing up to invalid complaints based on misguided customer expectations, Want to take a vacation? It better not be during management visits, holidays, biweekly sales, Mondays, Fridays, or random "busy seasons" (i.e. always). This is a good place to learn an industry with a very shallow talent pool before jumping to a competitor with a much greater work-life balance. You'll likely come up with a lot of creative ideas to improve the business on a day-to-day basis, but make sure not to share these with anyone above you as Sherwin "knows what it's doing after 150 years of business." Oh, and beware of Sherwin's internal PR and incredibly shady P&L Practices like "Pot of Gold." The company has done an amazing job of conditioning employees to celebrate bonuses based on profit and loss statements drafted on incomplete metrics resulting in under-reported earnings on a local level. Only at S-W do employees celebrate getting 50% of their Gross Margins added back to the P&L instead of screaming at a corporate culture that removes and hides the initial 100% in order to minimize employee performance payouts. Meanwhile, middle management is going to make your life extremely taxing (cutting/blocking critical staffing, denying critical resource requests, etc.) in order to maximize their own financial performance and bonuses. Most store management resorts to having repeat customers call and complain to leadership in order to get needed hiring to proceed. Think long and hard before accepting a job with S-W. As one of the few S-W employees with experience outside the company and industry, I can tell you there are so many better options. If you're a new college grad and S-W your first "real job" you're thinking of falling into, flap your arms rapidly and try to land somewhere else.