industrial mechanic

production operator

customer service representative

manufacturing operator

process engineer

Celanese

The former 'Ticona', now known as Celanese Engineered Materials, is in a state of flux.  The Ticona I joined once had eleven (11) distinct polymer product lines (today it's 6); all engineering grade materials and not run-of-the-mill commodity resins. It took pride in it's material technology and expertise in application development; it had developed volumes of data for all of it's products, for use with helping customers innovate and create incredible products. Ticona was at that time was, 'customer-focused'.  

In today's business climate, like many American companies, Celanese' first priority is with it's investors, Wall Street analysts, and the almighty dividend.  Management's business strategy has a narrow focus and is short-term; as a result, cost-cutting initiatives have often taken precedence over maintaining customer relationships and expanding business development. The Technology & Innovation Group is micro-managed by a cadre of ex-GE Plastics throw-offs and seems more focused on hiring PowerPoint performers than technical specialists. In addition, Celanese personnel placed in management positions within the Engineered Materials group come in with no background or understanding of the plastics industry, nor any understanding of how their actions adversely effect Engineered Materials' image within the largest customer segment: the automotive industry. 

The "One Celanese" strategy of centralizing many of Ticona's company functions under a singular corporate structure [in Dallas] has been more detrimental than helpful to the plastics business unit. The company has lost too many good, resourceful, intelligent people from major down-sizing events over recent years (2004, 2008, and 2015).

I enjoyed my time at Celanese and think I learned a good deal of valuable lessons there.  I learned a lot because in my experience there was very little supervision.  This was challenging at this stage of my young career because I had to learn how to be my own boss and be productive using my time effectively.  If I knew then what I know now, I would have stayed at Celanese longer and have been even more productive.

This was my first real SAP conversion, so what I learned most is that people are adverse to change.  I spent a good deal of time at my representative plant in Edmonton, Canada where the workers were pleasant but not necessarily forthcoming with their processes and business activities.  This was a great learning opportunity from an SAP conversion perspective because this was an issue I would face multiple times in the coming years.  

My job at Celanese was to learn the legacy process of recording variable costs monthly and replicate that process in SAP.  Furthermore, create the annual budget for variable costs and report variances to this budget monthly.  What I learned most dying this time was not systems and processes but how to deal with people.

My marriage became stresses with my increased travel requirements, so in the end I felt I needed to leave Celanese.  It was great learning experience where I learned a lot about time management and self-direction as well as some of there inter-personal complexities surrounding a large system implementation.

Over all, my work experience was pretty good. Its actually the best job ive ever had. The work can get hot and dirty but management does something special for the operators at least once a month. They will have a grill out for everyone, sometimes steak and sometimes burgers and dogs. thru the summers they have Kona Ice come and pay for whatever you want from the truck. that happened about 4 or 5 times in a couple months. Insurance is great, 401k match is probably the highest or close to it, that you'll find from an employer. Pay is good and if you like OT and wanna make extra money, you can work as much as you can take. The company really cares about the employee and that shoes in the safety. Outsiders or contractors might think they're too strict or they try to pick on you but its not to get anyone in trouble. Celanese and the management are always looking for ways to keep us safe! If there is anything unsafe on the floor, they want it to be shared! Not to tattle tail or get anyone in trouble, but to let everyone else know what to look for and to get suggestions on making things more safe. take it from me, i was there for 3 years and i left. Its hard to find an employer to have all those great bene's and pay PLUS all the extra stuff they do for their employees. They really do care for their employees. I would come back in a heart beat if there was a position.

Celanese has the potential to be a leader in the chemical production and distribution industry; however the culture in corporate offices (Texas) shows some noticeable deficiencies. I did get to learn many things about SAP and the operation, logistic and inventory side of a global company. Management is very much a reactionary team and changes come often and many times without forward thinking or impact analysis on how one change can change the entire complexion of groups down the process line. Management too, appeared to be inconsistent in other areas, but I will not go into too great of a detail, as not to appear bitter. The co-workers are where the company can shine if the clique system is eradicated. Some of the best people in my business life continue to work there. They are a hard working lot for the most part, but enforcement of rules are sporadic because the line blurs between management and employee sometimes. The hardest part of the job is just the workload and the constant putting out of one fire after another. The best part of working for Celanese was some of the flexibility it allowed me and the benefits are not too bad.

A typical day at work lasted 8-12 hours.  I was responsible for five different contract work groups with different responsibilities.  The most critical aspect of my job was ensuring we had no injuries or safety incidents.   Secondly we had to meet all internal and external customer requirements and deliver shipments which conformed to  DOT HAZMAT regulations.  Each of the five work groups contributed to this effort.  I enjoyed this position because I was able to perform my duties with little to no supervision.

I maintained budgets for my areas of responsibility and was the primary interface between these contract employees and Celanese Management.

I was very fortunate that all the work groups I managed worked as a team.  It is very rewarding to see individuals bond in different situations and providing support to each other. 

During my career at Celanese I was able to build many relationships both within our site and throughout the corporation.  I was also given many opportunities to advance during my career.

• Accountable for a business unit from manufacture through to package load and ship. Comprising of Engineers, Specialists, 4 shift teams and a TPM team. Total head count, operations 56, warehouse, package and ship 40
• Delivered organisational restructure to business unit to increase safety, quality and efficiency focus.
• Accountable for business unit’s full compliance with legislation including OSHA, Environmental protection agency and Celanese standards with regard to safety and environmental issues.
• Accountable for implementation and ownership of the tactical operating plans to support the business strategy
• Owner of business units financial budget control and analysis
• Accountable for business units maintenance plan an forward strategy including capital project developments
• Member of Sites senior leadership team
• Accountable for developing highly capable personnel and continual improvement in both products and work process
• Leading managing and challenging effective work teams, to meet business units goals and objectives through performance management
• Accountable for establishing measurement systems that integrate the overall units performance objectives

Hoechst Celanese taught employees a program titled "Operation Zero" in which explained that all accidents can and should be prevented.
This was a good program, we were made aware of any potential hazards or previous accidents everyday by reading and signing the "Safety Contact" a short item on paper that had to be read before starting work.
All accidents or near misses were investigated thoroughly and ways were devised to prevent any more accidents of that kind by our Safety Action Team in which being in the Safety Department after leaving Production I was a part of.
This was a good company to work for who treated everybody good and with having 2500 employees working around high speed equipment had a very good safety record and went most of the times months without an OSHA recordable accident

Supervised 11 AP accountants in a shared services environment. Helped department convert from SAP 4.6 to SAP 4.7, documented policies and procedures to strengthen internal controls as part of the SOX team, daily batch audits, prepared monthly metrics reports, assisted with research for 1099 reporting, approved time-cards for temporary employees, documented AP issues and resolutions, and presented new policies in town-hall style meetings. The hardest part of the job was finding the right contacts within the company to assist with problem resolutions. This is a very large company and some manager's areas of responsibility overlap each other so there might be 2 or more answers to the same question, or miscommunication as to who would answer and therefore no answer. The best part of the job was the team of AP accountants in the department. They were dedicated to doing good work and knew their jobs well.

Celanese Corporation is a major company that recently acquired  divisions of Exxon and DuPont. Customer Experience salary is upwards to $80k plus. Unheard of but true.
The work is high level learning and fast paced but not a call center. No sick time, all PTO available at day one with two weeks upon hire. I could go on and on about the positives unmatched anywhere I've worked. Yet I resigned due to a climate of disrespect, office politics, backbiting, unsubstantiated performance reviews, not having a support system nor an opportunity to progress due to the above-mentioned huge acquisitions. Money is tight! Departments being cut, such as Purchasing, S&OP are now outsourced abroad. No loyalty, many Leads have been there for years in Customer Service and are very disruptive and unprofessional.

This is not a bad place to work, honestly. But the schedule for production sucks. If you want time to spend with your family, do not work here. 12 hour shifts, with a rotating schedule where you work two weekends every month. New hires will get grandfathered into raises/programs while you sit and wait for your raise to come down to you and you've been there a year or longer. It seems like they have some ideas and goals they want to reach but no real idea how to and with dozens of people all working on it and not really coming to a cohesive decision. Benefits are good but all in all the cons outweight the good in this situation and i cannot recommend this job except to get a bonus and make money while you wait and apply for something you ACTUALLY want to do. They are pretty good about safety, mostly after the fact in my experience but they acted quickly.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Industrial mechanic 6 salaries reported	$33.32 per hour
Production operator 10 salaries reported	$25.58 per hour
Customer service representative 4 salaries reported	$65,500 per year
Manufacturing operator 8 salaries reported	$21.22 per hour
Process engineer 2 salaries reported	$85,100 per year

Working at Celanese: Company Overview and Reviews

Celanese

Celanese Ratings

Popular jobs at Celanese

Salary Satisfaction

Job Seeker Tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected