Alta Planning + Design reviews

Management is a mess: there is little transparency from the state of the company to changes in utilization targets to cryptic departures. Alta is very top heavy, yet there is little support or communication to junior-level staff. Many project managers and principals demonstrate a general lack of competence often mishandling project billing, going over budget, and overloading junior staff from lack of proper planning. Inappropriate and unprofessional behavior from senior-level staff: one C-level leader of the company threw objects around their office in a fit of anger in front of me. When I reported this to my supervisor, I was simply told this happens sometimes. No HR person there most of my tenure to report misconduct. One year the company-wide 'happy holidays' email left in an owner's disparaging notes about an office's poor utilization and announced layoffs. Little respect for staff: employees are overworked and under-appreciated. Promise of growth and training, as advertised in job postings and interviews, is not a reality. Lower than market salaries and demanding workloads. Requests for training sessions, support, and salary increases were ignored (not refused, but actually not responded to). LOTS of turnover. Lots of inefficiencies with work- junior level staff is often carrying a significant portion of project workload, even managing large projects, without the title/pay of the upper-level positions they are actually doing. Lots of redundancies and inefficiencies with project organization, expense reporting, project billing, and time reporting. Because of underestimated budgets and poor management, many hours working on projects are unbillable.

Insane turnover - The #1 reason why you should stay away! Average tenure for this company is less than 3 years. I've seen offices open and close left and right during my time here, people let go just before the holidays, and great people up and quit without warning. Management tries to keep this under wrap so as not to alarm people, understandably so. Lack of leadership - despite being primarily composed of associate and principal level staff, experience and mentorship does not reach middle management or lower staff. This makes running projects inefficient. Most of the 50 or so offices are satellite offices with 1-3 staff. Seems like the business model is just to have a "presence" in the most regions possible vs having functional offices strategically placed. HQ lacks oversight over the smaller offices, which creates an experience that varies greatly by office. Development and growth of staff is absent. Zero accountability - The review process has gotten increasingly willy-nilly. There are no measurements in job descriptions or review processes to keep people accountable, yet staff is rarely promoted or rewarded with an increase in compensation. Subpar compensation - While benefits are pretty rad, compensation is subpar to industry standards. Competitors offer upwards of 15% more pay. Marketing - Don't understand why marketing is so difficult for Alta when it is a) composed of so many principal-level staff and b) goes after the same type of projects constantly. Offices fend for themselves when it comes to marketing, which can make day-to-day work stressful. There is minimal marketing support from HQ, most work is done by folks who are already managing projects and doing production tasks. Lack of diversity - Lack of women or people of color in this company. Lack of knowledgable production-level staff - Most offices just lack production staff, so project managers are left to market and do the day-to-day work on their projects. The good production-level staff is very specialized and not versatile at no fault of their own. Lack of career opportunities - I've seen good, hardworking people leave because of lack of upwards mobility. Repetitive projects - Typical with consulting, but sometimes unbearable at Alta.