Goody86

Hi All,

Is there anyone on the Forum who left the UK to work for Irving? Really keen to chat to someone and get a feel for what it’s like.

Thanks,

Tom.

Howefamily

Irving is a large family company. I havent worked there but heard mixed comments on it. I think it depends on what dept you are in.

Goody86

Hi, thanks for this reply!

I met face to face with a manager and someone from HR in the UK on Monday, they were great and seemed pretty open on the pros and cons.

Hoping for an invite out for the formal interview in the next couple of months. It seems a great relocation package to be honest with lots included, and we’ll definitely be taking it if offered.

Tom.

BristolUK

I've not heard of people complaining about them as an employer, it's more about how they "own everything" and I think there's a long standing bias based on practices long in the past.

Back in the 70s me and a friend came to visit his dad who lived in New Brunswick. There was a smelly mill and polluted rivers and tales of anyone complaining about it losing their job because their employer was owned by Irving.

My friend's dad made it a point of never buying Irving gas and if he was in the position of being out of gas with the only option being Irving, he was ready to buy 50c worth to get him to another option.

Environmentally, the company has won awards so one assumes there's been an improvement with the younger family members in the decades since.

They seem very generous regarding donations and scholarships, stuff like that.

But you do hear the odd anti-Irving comment on social media or comments section on news reports.

Siouxie

https://www.glassdoor.ca/Reviews/Irv...ws-E639247.htm

https://www.unifor.org/en/search-cro...ing%20Shipyard / https://www.unifor.org/en/whats-new/...ote-998-strike

https://ca.indeed.com/cmp/Irving-Shipbuilding/reviews

https://ca.indeed.com/cmp/Irving-Shi...ng-Inc/reviews

scilly

which division are you looking at?

Like Bristol, I've also met a number of Maritimers who will not buy Irving oil unless they absolutely cannot get to another gas station.

BristolUK

This just reminded me...none of the family drives so we get a taxi back from shopping.

Sobeys does a coupon for reduced gas depending on how mush you spend in store. It's of no use to us and I offer it to the taxi driver.

Quite a few have said "no thanks, it's Irving" and I was never sure if that was because they didn't want to get Irving gas or if the taxi company had some alternative arrangement for them.

Goody86

Thanks for the replies!

The job is in Shipbuilding, an Engineering Office job.

I initially posted this back in Jan, so have moved on a little, and spoken to people who work there (before it was the UK based recruitment agency)

I’ve been very impressed by everyone at the company who I’ve spoken to so far. I work for a large defence contractor in the UK at the moment and the reviews on the links posted earlier are almost the same. I think in a large company you’ll always get vastly different experiences and opinions depending who you talk to.

I think I could have worded my original post better, I was hoping there would be someone here who had relocated under the current (been going about 4 years I think) recruitment drive.

I received positive feedback from the face to face I had in the UK last week, so I’m hopeful that I’ll be invited over for formal interviews and a look around sometime in the next month or so.

Goody86

Repeated myself a little bit there, sorry about that!

BristolUK

No, I think you were clear enough.
I just thought it was better to say a little than nothing , so I said a little

But mainly I just wanted to differentiate between the often negative attitudes about the family and what people actually think about working for them.

And if one of them is reading this, I'm happy to receive something for the good words.

scrubbedexpat133

Just out of interest is that coupon for Irving Stations? The reason I ask is that Sobeys owns Fastfuel, FasGas and most of the Shell stations here. Irving also supplies most of the other stations either directly or indirectly.

scrubbedexpat133

Read this.


https://www.nationalobserver.com/201...-new-brunswick

BristolUK

Yes they were. Well, it was Irving that stood out. I never actually checked the small print. I haven't had any for a while now - there seems to be an air miles option instead.

Shakyuk

That was really interesting, I had no idea just how big and powerful the company is.

scrubbedexpat133

Anyone planning to move to Atlantic Canada should read that and have a long hard think about it IMHO.