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      Black & Veatch

      Engaged Employer

      Black & Veatch reviews

      3.5

      66% would recommend to a friend

      (2,082 total reviews)
      avatar

      Mario Azar

      42% approve of CEO

      62% positive business outlook

      Ratings by demographic groups

      Black & Veatch has an employee rating of 3.5 out of 5 stars, based on 2,082 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Black & Veatch employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Construction, Repair & Maintenance Services industry (3.7 stars).

      Reviews by job title

      2K reviews
      3.0
      Aug 19, 2008

      Black & Veatch - A Great Place to Learn...and Then Leave

      Project manager
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      Black & Veatch is a good place for a new engineer (recently out of college) to begin their career. There are literally hundreds and hundreds of very talented engineers that work at the company and you can't find a better place to learn engineering from experts with years of experience.

      Cons

      I worked at the company for over 10 years in two separate divisions as an engineer, project manager and management consultant. Every year I was told that the company lost money. Give me a break! The partners at the company are notoriously cheap (as a young engineer I was once asked if I could sleep in my rental car to save the on hotel bill - and no, my boss wasn't joking). Later in my tenure at B&V I was assigned marketing areas in North Dakota, Louisiana, western Kansas, and a few other non-adjacent remote territories, but no marketing budget to get there. Needless to say, I didn't expend too much effort to meet sales targets. While at the company I went to school at nights to get my MBA, even though my Department Head left no doubt that he did not approve of my degree choice, choosing to refuse my requests for salary reimbursement (which was a benefit offered by the company). When I left the company, my direct supervisor (a partner) refused to speak to me for three weeks until my last day. I saw sex discrimination (I'm not sure I'd want my daughter working at B&V), poor management, and a lot of empire building while at B&V. If you're young, B&V is probably a good place to start. After you gain your experience, leave to continue your professional education and development, or you will probably look back in 20 years and regret it.

      3.0
      Aug 15, 2008

      As a global industry leader Black & Veatch is, with few exceptions, a great place to work and develop your career.

      Construction technician
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      Black & Veatch is a very large and accomplished global company. As such there are numerous opportunities to follow different career paths in terms of location and job description. There are opportunities to work on six different continents and over 100 different countries. The company provides employees with the opportunity to stretch their limits by applying for many different job types (within the employees educational and experience limits). For example if you were currently a field construction manager and wanted to move your career in the direction of project quality control or safety management, the many opportunities available and the open mindedness of the company would allow you to do so. Another advantage to working with Black & Veatch is the compensation. The company offers a competitive compensation package that includes a salary and benefits package that is in line with industry standards. On top of this the company offers other forms of compensation to ensure employee satisfaction. That is the company does not shy away on reimbursing and providing financial comfort to employees. For example, the company regularly offers long term per diem to employees who work "in the field". Also the company offers very large incentive plans for employees who are willing to work oversees. Another example, in many cases even salaried employees will be paid for working overtime. Salaried employees don't receive an elevated rate, but they do get paid for the time they work. Those are just a few examples of many, but in my experience the company has never made it difficult for employees to receive this extra income or be reimbursed for items purchased for company business (tools, travel, food, etc).

      Cons

      Working for a company as large as Black & Veatch can sometimes mean getting lost in the shuffle. This can happen in any company but I have seen this happen here on more than one occasion. Most of the time this is because direct or upper management forgets about the needs, promises to, and/or obligations to those under them. As a result people get left behind in terms of getting certain projects, getting recognized for work down, getting proper training, etc. Another downside of working at Black and Veatch is that in order to really make it anywhere with your career you have to be willing to commit to do and go where management wants you too. It's not unlike many big firms, but the people who are willing to do the jobs no one else wants to do, go places no one else wants to go, and work hours no one else will, are the ones who will rise up the quickest. This seems normal but it means that if you aren't willing to do those things, you probably wont get promoted as fast or rise up as far. You also have a high chance of seeing a difference in your pay rate. This is true even if you performed wonderfully at the job you do have.

      2.0
      Aug 6, 2008

      A good place to start, a bad place to stay

      Mechanical engineer iii
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      The company is diversified and has work in many areas. They have a lot of good electronic tools and standards that make doing the work easy. There are many mid and senior-level employees with excellent knowledge of the industry, and that makes B&V a good learning environment for a recent graduate. There are many training opportunities, too.

      Cons

      Good luck NOT getting pigeon-holed. You waste a lot of time doing "People FIRST" or whatever they are calling their career development tool these days, but no one really cares what you want to do. They will put you where they want you regardless of your career aspirations.

      Viewing 2080 - 2082 of 2,082 Reviews
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      ReviewsBlack & Veatch reviews

      Glassdoor has 2,285 Black & Veatch reviews submitted anonymously by Black & Veatch employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Black & Veatch is right for you.