Pros
Very smart people, lots of possibilities for improvement of skills and competencies, very good for process engineers to start their career through SGP. This especially counts for graduates as HR "babies" who are nurtured, and taken as future leaders of the organization
Cons
The experienced hires are workhorse of the organization, and highly technical people, however they seem to have different treatment - less chance for career advancement. Especially since Shell does not share transparently peer-ranking in terms of CEP and IPF - these depend on the line manager directly and leadership team. However, most often CEP of experienced hires is low, as they are hired to "do the work" and not become team leads let alone executives. So if you are considering changing your job from other company to make a career in Shell - think twice before you do so. Once in shell, experienced hires would realize they are on the lower job and salary level then their peers with similar education/experience who started in Shell - which makes them feel unfair. Also, once joining Shell, you should know that you are not getting a permanent job - but a job for which your window is open after 4 years. It is expected for people to change jobs every 4 years, and there is no in-role promotion - you have to change your group or location. There are internal HR rounds, if if you do not move within a certain window of time, you are taken out of organization. This was not transparently shared when I started my job. When my competencies were ranked among peers, I was told "I am too young to get mastery level" in one competency, which would not make good feeling with some older colleagues. This is clearly politics vs reality.