There are three types of jobs at Bemis and your experience with the company will be different based on your job and if you are invited to join the Golden Circle:
1. Customer facing - Sales, Marketing, Design, Customer Service. This type of job is where all of the energy for this company is going. If you take a job in this arena you will be promoted annually at the very minimum and if you are in "The Golden Circle" (more on this below) you will be promoted 2 or 3 times a year! The finances and drive of the company are focused here. The CEO is a sales person so his passion for sales has trickled down into every aspect of the business. The other Upper Management folks see that supporting sales and marketing and his passion in this arena will have them keep their job so they don’t try to get any resources into any of the other departments. They hire young pseudo athletes that will help encourage an atmosphere of young sporty people as the company image.
2. If you are taking a union job - there are set rules around how you get different union jobs. You will never be part of The Golden Circle. You will most likely make great friends. Starting out you will most likely have to work third shift. You will be overlooked as Bemis does not really support the manufacturing environment. The union has some challenges with politics going on internally but they are working to fix this. You should make sure you understand how the union positions work. It will be almost impossible for you to leave the Union to take a non Union job at Bemis - it just isn't supported.
3. Non Union supporting Manufacturing - Jobs in Facilities or Engineering. You will have a VERY slim chance at getting in the "Golden Circle" but if you are related to upper management or somehow get noticed (example join Crossfit classes) then you have a chance. Otherwise you will work really really hard and never get recognized and never get a promotion. Instead you will be rewarded with more work.
The Golden Circle at Bemis. At Bemis there is extreme favoritism and nepotism. Upper Management have spouses, significant others, or perhaps their children working for them or for the company and these people get promoted very often. The Golden Circle members may get promoted into a position at which they have no prior experience or relevant experience and it is a high level role. Folks that either befriend the Golden Circle or are related to the folks in this circle will get promoted and get to hang out and do fun activities both as work and outside work. (Bonding trips, excursions, etc). You may get a culture shock when you first start at how many people are married/related/dating each other. People that are a part of the Golden Circle will always put Golden Circle membership first instead of their job or what is right and fair. You see this most clearly in Human Resources. They know that they need to keep their boss happy so they will always put that first even if that is ignoring that someone in their Circle is not acting fairly or appropriately.
If you are someone where you expect everyone to be treated fairly and to be treated fairly in return, after about a year at Bemis you will start seeing how unfair things are and start to get disgruntled. You will see someone that started at the same time as you that has been promoted three times while you work about 5x harder and no one has given you a second thought other than your immediate boss who unfortunately is not part of the Golden Circle. At Bemis there was a promotion announcement that went out for about 10 people. Every single one of them was related or somehow connected to one of the Upper Management folks. This is what you will see on a regular basis. It is very discouraging and de-moralizing.
Also – if you do not embrace exercise and looking young and trim you may feel pressured to do so.
