retail sales associate

sales associate

maintenance mechanic

quality assurance inspector

chemist

With such a huge global presence at first glance PPG seems like an opportunity to advance a career, but within a few months you'll realize you've been indexed. Unless you're buddies with the right people, you're not going anywhere no matter how good you are. Furthermore, they hire outside more than inside for management and the higher pay positions: usually someone the management knew or a place they worked. I have a college degree, many years of customer and sales experience and still couldn't advance by working diligent and asking for the advancement. The company pays so little that it's hard for even a store manager (also over worked at 12 hr days) to survive on the salary. The equipment and stores are so dated and needing repair that you'll need to work around it because the management is reluctant to replace or repair it. Stores are run with as minimal employees as humanly possible (1-3 per store average) which means you will be swamped and overworked making the little pay not worth it: especially when you are worried about covering your monthly basic bills. If someone calls in, you're in for a rough day. Despite being constantly praised for good work I was paid .24 cents for my one and only raise in a year ($12.24/hr). Advancement to make higher pay is also kept slow. You'll find you can take a test to make a .50 cent raise, but you can't take the next test (.50 cents) for 6 months. If you don't pass the test, you can't take it again. You'll be asked/demanded to cover shifts at a store far away from you costing more for the gas than you can afford: this can happen mid-shift costing even more. If you work incredibly hard, keep the store clean and well stocked, expect the general manager to still find something wrong.  The salespeople do not create value, instead they sell cheap, at cost and in bulk. That means you'll be exhausted trying to make 3 pallets of paint (1 pallet 36 - 5 gallon buckets) to equal the dollar amount of 1 pallet of paint. Managers are always stressing on meeting the absorbent monthly goal, which increase every year, so expect to be slammed with tons of heavy, dirty work that will leave you exhausted and sore at the end of the day. Multi-tasking is at a level that will test most people at some point. Expect to be handling customers, while tinting, shaking and stacking a pallet of paint, while answering the phone to take more orders while load/unloading a truck, while matching a color, while searching on the computer. This is recipe for an accident so expect to make mistakes, spill paint, break something etc. Their computer system software is needlessly complicated and poorly written: you will find yourself typing your password many times over and over again; getting your order wiped clean for clicking the wrong thing and spending a lot of time just doing simple tasks. I have worked at 6 of the stores in my region and talked to other store in other states for a possible transfer: these are companywide problems and there are even worse situations at other stores. Transfers to another place where the cost of living is lower just means lower pay. 

One good thing I did find is they are so desperate for employees that it's nearly impossible to be fired for making mistakes: even costly ones. Even employees who are lazy, unreliable, accident prone and otherwise terrible at their jobs remain employed for years here. However, most people were fun to work with: that's mostly why I stayed a year. One thing to think about if you work there: The people who have the cleanest clothes (no paint/dirt) do the least work and cause most of the trouble for everyone.  Another gem: if you decide to still work here and they make you a low offer, don't take it thinking you'll make it up on advancement you will absolutely not! Insist on pay that you can survive on. I went in asking $15/hr they offered $12 and I took it because I wanted to get out of my other paint job and I wanted to work my way into sales. Later, I found others with no job experience   (at any job) and bad work ethics got $14/hr. Ask for the money or just don't take the job.

Initially, learned a lot about different apps/systems.

Typical day of work for the starting analyst involves learning a plethora of apps/systems/environments, and taking calls - anywhere from 10-35 calls a day (varies due to season & # of analysts working on the shift).

After becoming eligible - will be able to work off-shifts/overnight shifts (4-12am, 6-2am, 11:30pm-7am)
Service desk is global and 24x7x365. On off-shifts you'll have customers from Australia and China.

After your first raise, you'll receive a SME (Subject Matter Expert) role. These vary, and there are a number of them. But there are a handful of them that are essentially worthless - they don't carry any additional knowledge and responsibility. The availability of the GOOD SME roles is based on luck - when you get your raise, and what SME group needs an additional analyst at that time (Max is 4). Down the line, you'll eventually receive additional SME roles (up to 2 for a total of 3).

After 18 months of employment you're eligible for a tier 3 job, but good luck getting one if it's available or if the tier 3 teams don't play favorites.

It's a fast-paced, competitive environment. If you're not doing well enough by your second milestone (basically a review of your progress), you will most likely be fired, because you can be very easily replaced. Since the position moved from Contractors to Employees, job security is a thing of the past.

The most enjoyable part of the service desk is the other service analysts. Very helpful and intelligent co-workers. The hardest part of the job is having rotating shifts (having to work weekends, adjust your sleep schedule) and very little chances to get a tier 3 team, as those jobs only appear when those exact teams have members that move somewhere else within the company, essentially a trickle-down. Even then, there had been times where a tier 3 team would hire someone outside of the help desk, which, in general, isn't normal.

TL;DR:

Great entry-level job to start, competitive pay, excellent benefits (PPG pays 1-1 on your 401k). Try not to stay too long. Maybe try brown-nosing management if you want to adhere to their favoritism. Advancement opportunities come seldom & every other analyst eligible will apply for them as well, making it extremely competitive.

I have only worked on the Architectural Coatings side of the company and have held various positions within that market. This is not a review of the company as a whole, merely the AC side. 

It was a positive experience in regards to the people I've worked with, as most are genuine and hard working which compliments the similarly characterizable customer base. 

Management in general seems to be interchangeable leading to a despondence amongst the average workers. Most, if not all, coworkers that I interacted with above the hourly level are self-taught with all the resilience and lack of refinement that you would expect from years of pervading vague management.

There is opportunity for advancement within the company, but be prepared to be left to fend for yourself if you want training for your newly acquired position. The pay scale for a promotion is based on a minuscule percentage of what you made at your previous position within the company, so you better bargain well for your money from the beginning. 

I have worked in areas of management and can confidently say that by far the most off-putting characteristic of the company is being heavy handed in micro management but hazy on education. There is a culture of abundant paperwork and unexplained expectations. A common response when asking for assistance in understanding proper procedure is to be told to ask someone else in your same position, or worse being pointed to their dizzyingly clunky "store assistance" website. 

It is a fact of the corporate world that you have to stretch as much as is possible to stay profitable, but with that being said, there is a limit to what is ethical to ask of an employee. There are countless cases of salaried and hourly employees working abhorrent hours per week due to understaffing and receiving complete silence when asking for help from their supervisors. Many stores including some that I myself had worked at are expected to provide exceptional customer service, stay profitable, keep the store clean, and still remain attentive to paperwork......while only being staffed by a single person working more than 70 hours a week on salary.

Overall this is a good company if you are at the extremely low hourly end of the spectrum or if you are at the extremely high corporate end. As for the majority in the middle, it is best to seek a career elsewhere.

Please keep in mind this is my experience and this may not apply to all the regions that have PPG stores. Depending on where you are you may have a handful of co-workers, or just your boss. Lack of communicating from either higher-ups or your own customers because every day is a different problem. There's always something to do and if you get along with the rest of the staff, days go by relatively quick and easy. There is so much to learn and you won't have all the answers to questions right away but that's okay. Even for seasoned employees they won't know every single thing either but there are tools in place to find what you're looking for. Lots of people have worked for this company for years but don't be surprised at how some just stay put in their position and don't move up from their positions. Opportunities to advance may be there but you may have to seek them out yourself. 

You have some really old equipment to work with(tinters, forklifts, etc) leaving you to somehow make it work with what you have. Monthly goals are at times changed making everyone feel like there is no sense of direction. There is a lot to learn and if you feel up for it, the workload is there. Trust me, there is a lot of frustration to deal with if you take this job. From the point you start you may feel like the job is one way, only to find out later that it's entirely different. The pay and benefits may be worth it if it interests you and you like a challenge. Work weeks stem from Mon-Fri to Mon-Sat because of staffing and scheduling so be sure to clear that up with your supervisor.  With the right people in charge and helping you out, this would be the best place to work. If they did more for their employees they would feel appreciated and want to work for your company not work for a paycheck. They need to do their employees a favor and pay them what they're worth and get more people hired. Once again this is my experience and not to generalize all of PPG Stores.

-Tremendous learning curve.
-Opportunities for Sales Bonus(Quarterly and Annually)
-Great benefits(Life insurance, Vision, Dental, 401k)
-Lots of work and challenges if you feel up for the tasks.
-Don't expect state of the art equipment.
-Staff can be great to work with.
-Higher ups can improve on their priorites.
-Appreciation for your work could be improved upon.
-Opportunities to advance are there, if you seek it and take on the learning curve.

The people at PPG are for the most part very kind.  They are available to help if you need it and are patient enough to help teach you new skills.  I was given access to whole entire projects and have developed into a well rounded chemist with experience that I believe made me confident in my work and taught me how to self promote an idea or myself.  A typical day depends on what is happening in the lab.  As a chemist you can be doing purifications, synthesis, supporting a pilot plant batch, or preparing a project for a commercial scale validation run.  Some times you are in the lab all week long and falling behind on your desk work or analyzing data, other times you are at your desk waiting for data to analyze or in meetings preparing for a commercial validation batch run.  Some weeks, you are doing what essentially feels like nothing and that is okay as well because science moves at different paces.  I have learned a lot from working at PPG and it ranges from how to develop a way to sell myself for promotion, how to manage a technical project, how to make professional connections, and how to do a lot of unique science related things to be efficient at my job.  This job did require you to extract multiple results out of a single experiment which is the most important thing as a chemist in my opinion.  I  learned how to translate technical information into a way that non technical people can understand.  I learned how to manage my time and this was through the efficiency gain with multiple purpose experiments.  As for management,  I believe there are issues at PPG.  I believe that PPG is a stable company that will help you expand on your knowledge, but will not help you move up in the career ladder.  Depending on what you want as a scientist, you can be a technical leader or a people leader and I believe PPG helped me become a technical leader.  This was a hard part for me to come to understand and left me feeling jaded when I left the company, but I have realized that career development is not just a  new title, but also can be new skills that can be transferred to where ever the next job is.  Overall, PPG is a company that developed my career in a way that is unrecognizable but will most definitely help me make leaps in my next journey.

You would think that selling paint was easy.  Well, let me tell you that it is not easy.  For residential and multifamily paint alone PPG has about a hundred variant products/sheens/bases/primers.  There could be 4+ different systems that one could use for a wall, and they can all be correct. 

At the same time customers are always wanting to cut corners, and they get mad if you try to warn them that there could be failure (like painting the outside of a house while it is raining/below freezing/snowing!).

I am usually not a big fan of unions, but I am a fan of trade unions.  A lot of the "professional" painters have had no formal skill training. It seems the requirement of being a painter in this time and age is that if you own a paint brush and a roller you are good to go.  When the job goes wrong it is never their fault.  It is the paints fault.  

The pay leaves something to be desired. It is hard to get good entry level workers when you are working 40 hours a week making $10 to $11 an hour.  There is little room to make mistakes on the selling side of the industry.  If one gallon of paint is tinted wrong it could cost the company thousands of dollars.  The type of people that get hired at that kind of salary usually make mistakes, have a bad attitude, and/or have poor work ethic.

If we do land our hands on a good worker they usually don't stay with the company very long.  Promotions are hard to come by, and if you want to get past a store management position you have to relocate to another market.  

Management is constantly under pressure.  They work 50 to 60 hours a week on salary.  They are under pressure to keep expenses under control. It is really hard to keep claims expenses and wrongly tinted paint expenses under control when you are constantly having to deal with the type of employees that are willing to work for so little.  Also, it takes 6 months to a year to train a employee to the point of being reliable. Management is also graded in areas that are almost completely out of their control.  One is sales margins.  Sales margins are 95% reliant on the outside sales reps and their quotes.

Your typical day of work will probably start with 5am to 1pm just learning whatever they can teach you with the zero amount of work they have there. I worked with some decent people and I am going to miss them, but most other older folks will try to get you in trouble and give you false information. They don't like new people there and it seems it is all a game how they treat you. 

In training they will tell you all kinds of misinformation about "floating holidays" and days off then when you use them you will receive a write up for doing so. It is sort of a learn as you go process where everything you do will probably be wrong. Even following managers instructions will lead you to getting in some sort of trouble. To break this down a little more, the trainers are not bad. They are decent folks and I truly believe they are the only ones that want you to succeed here but they do not teach you about policy. You learn a great deal about equipment and a lot of stuff that you won't even use unless you are specially trained to do so. 

I had hopes of growing with this company, I really put all my eggs in one basket and chose to put the work in and dedicate myself and folks this just is not it. The management has no idea what they are doing. They have 5 or 6 people standing around doing nothing while one person who has been there 20 years is working on the window. I really don't understand how they aren't going under right now. If you do take the job here, you cannot miss any days. Doesn't matter if you have covid19 or any other communicable illness DO NOT CALL OUT. Get the whole plant sick because calling out will get you fired. They do not care about your health or wellbeing, just as long as you are there. I've heard of people not being able to go get cancer treatments etc. because of this. You can be there a week and you will have all kinds of lowdown on everyone and everything that goes on in the plant and word travels like wildfire kinda like being in school all over again. 

Good luck to any of you who decide to venture forth here!

This is for Cleveland Ohio plant, I did get laid off, and this is only the bad part LOL it was my fault, I broke the rules. So follow the rules and you should be okay, that pays pretty good. It's not the best for working with chemicals that gives you cancer, or working in the cold or rain or heat, or not having a correct tools.. but it's still pretty easy job , to me it was still kind of fun. I might go back. Right now they're doing 12 hours, so roughly 4 days 1 week and 3 days the following, you work 7 days in 2 weeks, but their paychecks are wonky. Nothing is together everything is separate. It could be a little overwhelming looking at your paycheck. But then when you do get bonuses it all adds up so if they take more taxes, so don't know how they are doing the paychecks. But at all works out some way, benefits are pretty good, they match 6% with 401k and we get medical and then a few other things so not bad. When they tell you you get 3 weeks vacation, that's a lie. Because they don't want to change anything in the system, so those three weeks are scheduled for 8 hour shifts when you are scheduled 12 hours. So technically you get 2 weeks. Plus mandatory over time, so you almost barely have a life, just a regular 12-hour shifts we're okay but adding to 8 hours extra and the whole summer almost 2 years with 12 hours. About 6 months with the extra mandatory. Management could be a little better. Some people could be toxic. But still pretty good place it's how you want to make it, even though I just got fired. It was on me it was my fault, so because I left and good hands I could go back later. Just follow the rules and you should be okay. Don't be stupid like me LOL, and if you get perfect attendance like I did he actually get 12 hours attitude your vacation

Typical day involves sampling coated flat glass product, adjusting machine to keep coating within quality specs, troubleshooting problems and fixing same as they may occur, as well as aiding Maintenance in problem identification. Daily checklist of machine temps., flows.and potential problems done everyday, also. Weekends are devoted to opening up coating machine to do weekly repairs/replacement of parts in this high maintenance machine. Also assisting machine operator, and performing the Operator job in his absence is required, as well as building of machine components as necessary.

I have learned to do all tasks required for this position, and co-workers and management have told me that I do quality work.

Management is striving to increase production and quality, but are stuck in a period of high experienced employee loss (retirements, etc.). Unfortunately, this shifts a higher degree of stress/workload to remaining knowledgeable employees remaining until newer employees can be brought up to speed. Also, employee input does not seem to be given the consideration this very specialized process/machine would seem to warrant.

Being hired during the last recession at a lower pay scale, yet doing the identical tasks as those hired before this period, is hardest part of going to work as this seems to impart "second class citizen" status. Also, regrettably, outside the workplace friendships can highly affect in the workplace decisions, giving some a favored status. This can make for difficult workdays.

Best part of job is making improvements to long established work tasks, finding ways to do things more efficiently. Working hard , doing the job right, and feeling like you've made a difference for the better is definitely best part of job.

Since joining I’ve seen ppg cut cut cut cut everything from heads, to raises, to bonus’s, to coffee in customer facilities. Every year we have to worry if our team will get smaller or what else will be taken from us.  My team works in customer auto plants and we are forced to work weekends with no say and get straight time as OT pay. Everytime upper management steps into our customer sites we get to deal with the backlash of an angry customer for the next month. They cut our performance bonus to laughable amounts. Ppg makes more profit off 1 tote of paint than our entire teams combined yearly bonus (our plant gets roughly 1000 paint toes per year)…..ppg shows how little they care about keeping good people everyday. I’ve seen management offer a buyout to a 65 year old great employee so he started SS benefits and cancelled insurance only to have ppg rescind 2 days before his last day. Multiple promotions promised and after months, told it didn’t go through and in 6 months we’ll try again. This company has constant issues making batches and getting product into plants and onsite employees get to deal with the customer backlash. Moral is at an all time low with 5 of 6 team members looking for jobs with competitors. While we get treated like this ppg management gets $50k min bonuses up to $13 million in bonus for ceo. All about upper management and shareholders. Taking advantage of skilled employees in a specialized field will cost ppg as the teams are why customers stick with ppg, not the products. Sad to see ppg go down so far.

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