key account manager

service technician

chemical operator

field service technician

material handler

Solenis

The work is difficult both mentally and physically. You have to be ready to learn a lot, and put what you learn to use. The plant is very safety focused and tries to make the work environment as safe as possible. That being said, it is still a dangerous job. You will be around very hazardous chemicals, working with industrial machinery, performing most work manually, and working in a production room that gets well over 100 degrees during the summer. 

You normally only work 8 hours Monday through Friday. During busier time you may have to work 12 hours or on weekends.

The main draw back is the front office staff trying to get too involved in operations’ work. They will try to write you up for any mistakes you make, they expect you to drop everything if the plant needs more work completed, and they will make decisions that affect you without taking you into consideration at all. When something goes wrong, they will always find a person to place the blame on, even if the incident was a system or procedural issue. They will always seem to be friendly, but they do not care about you as an employee.

The pay is higher than you can find most anywhere else (without having experience or a degree), and they do offer a very extensive benefits plan, but the health insurance is expensive and not that great, especially for what you pay.

Job advancement is purely based on seniority, so there is little motivation to go above and beyond with your effort, and with most people making a career working there, you will probably be stuck on nights or swings for years before making it to day shift

I worked for Solenis and, to be succinct, I would not recommend them to anyone. Although pay and access to resources is mostly good, the general work-life balance is abysmal and the decision making ability of middle and upper management is extremely questionable. I've never worked in a position for a company where I felt more separated from a team, company, or culture and constantly had to seek out even basic information. 

With this said, I have also worked for industry leaders in water treatment/chemical sales, and, having seen multiple sides of that coin, I would whole-heartedly recommend anyone interested in working in chemical sales to look elsewhere. (Side note: I left the industry after Solenis)

Upon leaving Solenis,  I rejected multiple offers for advancement/relocation due to ineptitude of upper management and have gladly closed that door.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Working with great some not all operators

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Management is the probably the worst Ive seen anywhere

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Management is anti operator.  They allowed mostly all equipment to fail and then put it on the operators. Everything the "engineer" touched went down the drain. The "safety" lady has no voice cause she cant go against management. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
A typical day is trying to get things to work. Going around pumps with side pumps. Being aware of leaking lines that just get packed with grease to keep going. Tank farms readouts that dont work making it difficult to offload trucks. And getting told why are things taking so long by management.

Workload increasing for years but few new hires are not enough to replace those laid off fired or moved on, in all departments, resulting in more work for fewer people.  "Raises" don't cover inflation, even with positive performance reviews.  Metrics for bonus and changing goalposts mid-year make payout essentially impossible, demotivating employees.  Burnout is common, very high sales turnover and lost business, chaotic focus on too many things desperate for a win.  Too many internal meetings, leadership team is inexperienced in industrial water and don't have vision beyond copying major competitors.  No opportunities for advancement, very discouraging environment and low morale, I do not recommend working here.

As an entry level engineering student interning at a paper mill for the first time, the learning curve was tremendous and I was slow to the mound quite often. However, the experience as an intern definitely gave me the start of growing pains needed to really get involved in the pulp and paper industry, and earn my skin in the game as going from knowing nothing about real industry experience to gaining general background on the specialty chemicals needed to run a papermaking operation along with a refined understanding of how a paper machine works outside of the textbook readings and classroom.

Career opportunities for some, a select few if you fit the mold, not for all.  Significant emphasis on popular work culture terms, diversity, inclusion, equality, respect for others, without actually being embraced by leadership. 
 Zero tolerance policy with lacking of actual company action.  Well known employee retention issue as many employees have resigned and left for external opportunities.  "Solenis only hires top talent" company is experiencing issues hiring anyone at all.  Leadership is horrible.  Rules and policies are applicable per discretion of management and leadership.  Expected to work overtime unpaid.  Toxic workplace environment.

Typical work day you come in other person leaves u might have 8 samples sitting waiting for you to get started when you get there. Typically they come in 10-15 minutes after u start expecting it to be done. Depending the day and what comes in it can be an extremely busy day barely any time for lunch break or a very slow day. People are mostly friendly but be warned managers not all just a few they aren’t afraid to throw you under the bus. Write everything down make sure you take good notes and you’ll survive 

Solenis appears to be a good company. However, you are barely trained, given minimal support and feed back, unless it’s negative - well depending on who your manager is. 
There are people getting laid off around you, every other day, due to the position of the company, which is in shambles right now, this is due to the constant mergers that the CEO likes to do. He continues to acquire new companies without considering the burden that it puts on the employees….he thinks the answer is to layoff the US employees and outsource to Brazil & India. 
IT’S NOT WORKING. Your job is to put out fires, until you are laid off. 


The leaders in the industry that became part of Solenis left within 1-3 years, mostly because the lack of strategic vision and no work/life balance. When Solenis purchased the water and mining process treatment division from Ashland Chemicals, the money spent in R&D and New Product development was dramatically reduced, resulting in failure and forcing the company to continue the use of product and technology from 20 years ago.

This company states it is an equal opportunity employer and list every demographic but age that speaks volumes.  They are not an equal opportunity.  They let 5 in our group go.  Which is fair if needed for the good of the company.    However when you take the easy way out and let the oldest in your group go.  And when jobs do become available you have to give the year you graduated for most it is an indicator of age and is a form of discrimination.   

The group I worked with were great, most of the time I worked there.  But HR and the upper level management need some serious over haul.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Key account manager 28 salaries reported	$111,199 per year
Service technician 15 salaries reported	$69,544 per year
Chemical operator 21 salaries reported	$56,450 per year
Field service technician 6 salaries reported	$94,578 per year
Material handler 19 salaries reported	$58,101 per year

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