CDM Smith reviews

Some managers are out of touch. Constant push to use Bangalore India staff when most of the local teams will rarely see the value (i.e. are they really working themselves out of a job so that leadership can see a higher bonus next year? Try as you might to advertise the benefit, junior employees will ALWAYS be skeptical... as they should be.) Project Managers are becoming strictly data sources and data inputters. That's it. Most of us PMs still like to have some engagement in the technical details (or, at least they should be). Don't let the PM's become so disconnected that they lose touch with the details of the project or with the project teams.

Low pay for the cost of living in the area, company does not provide support for professional development (you must pay for programs yourself AND you must take PTO to attend programs) which is especially difficult for new engineers trying to learn and grow, not enough design work for younger structural engineers, terrible time sheet system that takes half an hour to fill out every week, NO paid maternity leave (only unpaid, 12 weeks and you must have been working for the company for at least a year to get the "benefit" of UNPAID maternity leave). Health benefits are very good, but very expensive. Raises are 2-3% each year, which is a pitiful outlook for people wanting to stay with the company for a long time. Overall, a lot of these cons work together towards one underlying principal that the bottom line is the most important thing to CDM Smith.