CDM Smith Environmental Engineer/Client Officer reviews

4.1

88% would recommend to a friend

(60 total reviews)
avatar

Timothy B. Wall

97% approve of CEO

91% positive business outlook

Environmental Engineer/Client Officer employees have rated CDM Smith with 4.1 out of 5 stars, based on 60 company reviews on Glassdoor. This indicates that most Environmental Engineer/Client Officer professionals have an excellent working experience there. CDM Smith is rated in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) by Environmental Engineer/Client Officer professionals compared to other employers within the Management & Consulting industry (3.6 stars).

Reviews by job title

60 reviews
3.0
Sep 17, 2013
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Challenging projects. Firm has a long and established reputation in water and wastewater. Generally high compensation. A great place to start your career...then move on. The bonus program is nice if you figure out how to get in it, but just don't ever expect to understand it.

Cons

The firm has instituted an amazing level of bureaucratic reporting and paperwork to feed a gaggle of "managers" that seem far removed from being a consultant. Weekly utilization reports are downright harassment---take a first quarter vacation and the number "managers" will haunt you weekly until you get caught back up. Constant battles between staff and project managers, project manager and client services officers, and client service officers and corporate management.

5.0
May 29, 2012
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Employee owned Matrix organization allows for promotions vertically and laterally Locations worldwide Opportunities for engineers, planners, scientists Supportive of professional development Competitive salary and benefits

Cons

While there are more opportunities available, it is occasionally difficult to get involved in projects you like, because they aren't actually located in your region. Small (but slowly growing) presence in Arizona outside of engineering sector

2.0
Sep 12, 2011
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Decent pay and compansation package Knowledge share Professional conferences participation Never had problems with expense reimbursement including overhead expenses

Cons

1. CDM is not lack of technically sound engineers and resources, unfortunately, lots of projects still failed even when the projects had enough budget and time to execute. Budgets are always low or burned faster than anyone knows. In no doubt, this is in large part due to the poor project planning and/or management. 2. When project suffers from deadline and budget problems, employees have to either sacrifice work-life balance by working overtime without pay or risk becoming the PM's scapegoat and getting a bad annual review. 3. At CDM, project quality management is just a joke: as long as you finished the project within budget and deadline you are gold. Let the clients and operators worry about the problems later. 4. Lots of senior level engineers like playing blaming games and creating fame for themselves to secure their jobs and get promoted. Don't know if they were born that way or became that way after being with CDM for too long (being forced by the environment). 5. Some company 'gurus' in certain specialty areas are too busy to do any real project work: going to conferences and traveling around the country to attend meetings seem to be a lot more fun that sitting at the desk every day.

Viewing 58 - 60 of 60 Reviews

Glassdoor has 1,076 CDM Smith reviews submitted anonymously by CDM Smith employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if CDM Smith is right for you.