Overarching theme: not a lot of bang for your buck, new college grads prioritized over those with more experience, education, and military vets.
Bonuses/raises: although you get them annually, they're usually in the realm of 1.5 to 3% for salaried employees, which doesn't really offset inflation. These are merit-based which depends a little bit on your performance and a lot on how Pepsi as a whole performs. Since goals vary from site to site, if you're at a high-performing site but Pepsi has a bad year (which it has been), then you could potentially work your butt off all year but not get a meaningful raise or bonus.
Job opportunities: I am an 8+ year Army Vet with multiple desirable grad degrees (MBA-Supply Chain, MS-Corporate Finance, etc) and was hired on as a front-line supervisor in supply chain. After 18 months, you can apply for jobs up to 2 levels above your current role (Pepsi has levels, much like federal GS jobs). This was initially attractive to me and I though I could move up to where I should be rather quickly. However, although I am qualified to apply for management and higher jobs, they haven't interviewed me for any I have applied for. On the other hand, there are numerous campus hires who have only been with the company for 2 years or less that have already been promoted and they were initially hired in at a higher grade than myself. Let's face it, a 22 year old fresh out of college has no idea what they're doing compared to a 30+ year old vet with more education and more time with the company. The company is more focused on new college grads to promote within the company it seems.
Mobility: On the supply chain side, there doesn't seem to be a lot of upward mobility. We just underwent a restructure and some executive positions were actually eliminated. This would suggest that you (a) wait it out until a higher position in supply chain opens or (b) you switch over to a different function (sales, safety, HR, maintenance, etc.) and try to work your way up that way. I'm not sure how one could bounce back and forth between functions and work their way up the pay scales without having the requisite degrees/experience to work in those fields, however.
Work/life balance: You're only guaranteed Thanksgiving day, Christmas day, New Year's day, and 4th of July every year (could be more or less, depending on your market). You will otherwise be working 50+ hours a week even during holiday weeks, if not more. Even those few days you get off, you'll still be working to make sure nothing fails.
