Pros
From the perspective of one in a General Manager position, there are opportunities to grow. You are mostly autonomous, within a certain framework. There are great opportunities for people in nutrition/food service. It is up to you to execute the plan and vision of both Sodexo and the company that you are contracted to. You are able to do allaspects of management - thus if you want management experience, then you have the opportunity. There are a variety of account types. I worked in Helathcare, and that market has many different types of accounts, every one is different, you could be in a suburban, or urabn hospital; a large or small facility, you may manage union or non-union employees. Each of these possibilities can give you a great managerial experience. Sodexo is also very concerned about diversity, and they make strides to accommodate that, and have "affinity groups" to support networking: these groups include SOL which promotes networking for hispanics, PANG, whose focus is Asian/Asian American networking, SOAR is a network for people with disabilities, AALF which is the network for African-Americans, PRIDE supports networking for Gay, Lesbian, Transgender, WiNG is the Women's networking group and HONOR is a networking group for former servicemembers and members of National Guard & Reserve. You can join any of these networks even if you are not personally self identifying as someone who fits that profile, for example, I could join PANG even though I am not Asian. These groups have won high marks from outside organizations as a means of supporting diversity.
Cons
The downside of ANY contract management company, whether it be Aramark, Crothal, HHC, Johnson Controls, Morrison, or Sodexo is that you need to meet the demands of both the client and your company. Sometimes that takes a contortionist's ability. Client's can decide to give the contract management company the boot and then you will be left looking for a job. Most contracts have 60-day or 90-day out clauses. A client can change for example, the person at the hospital to whom you report, or a CEO of a hospital may change. That person may like another contract management company and decide to give you notice... or they may not like contract management companies and decide to take it "in-house" or "Self-Op" and you typically sign a Non-compete clause when you join Sodexo (or any other contract Management Company) especially at the GM level. In that case, you are out of a job - even though you may have been meeting all the performance requirements. One other downside is that there is an internal group whose purpose is QA, called "Brand Management" that is a good thing, really, but some of the members of that group can be petty. They need to justify their jobs, so they come around and point out flaws without consideration of how to fix things for those on the operations side of the business. I have had a great District Manager and Smart Senior Vice President, but that is not always the case, and if you are unlucky, you may endup with someone who just wants you to cut corners to improve the bottom line.... this is true of every contract management company. Sodexo's background is Food/Nutrition Service, often they don't understand the challenges of the GM's in non-food operations/accounts.
