DOWL reviews

4.2

93% would recommend to a friend

(134 total reviews)

Jeffrey Shoemaker, P.E.

92% approve of CEO

91% positive business outlook

DOWL has an employee rating of 4.2 out of 5 stars, based on 134 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an excellent working experience there. The DOWL 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

134 reviews
1.0
Dec 21, 2017

Senior Engineer

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Smaller company, with good geographic and market coverage in the western US

Cons

Bit of a weird cult culture. Very commodity-based consulting, rather than selling services based on value. Not very employee oriented.

avatar
DOWL Response
8y
Sorry to hear you had a bad experience with DOWL. We wish you nothing but the best going forward and hope you find happiness and peace. And all of us in management agree that Lynn Bruno is a talented leader with much to offer the company.
5.0
Mar 24, 2020

The sky is the limit

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Autonomy, Opportunity, Engagement, Mentorship, Benefits, flexible schedule

Cons

New office, turnover, slow software adoption, city commute, company merge issues

avatar
DOWL Response
6y
Thanks for the nice review. I hear you on the Blue Beam issue and recall talking with folks in Portland a month or so ago regarding some of the frustration of not having this loaded on everyone's machine. I have talked to our CIO and we will be expanding our number of licenses. Not to make excuses, but this C-19 thing has dropped a bomb on our systems and workload and we are playing catch-up. On the positive side, we have responded quickly to your work from home request and we have greatly expanded this program in the last three weeks. : )
2.0
Jul 6, 2018

Engineer

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Employees I worked with were good people and you’ll get to work on interesting projects. I think most of upper-managements’ hearts are in the right place (although I don’t believe most of the lower-level employees think that).

Cons

Bad vacation policy for salaried employees. To “earn” a vacation or take time off for a federal holiday, you pretty much need to work that equal amount of over-time hours. Not a family friendly policy if you ask me and I personally think it burns out a large percentage of employees over the span of a few years. Honestly, I haven’t heard of one other company that uses this policy. I could be wrong…….who knows. For a small company, it has the corporate feel of a very large company. Not a big fan of that.

avatar
DOWL Response
8y
Yes, the DOWL company has some great employees, terrific clients, and interesting projects. Your comments about the vacation policy are not new - we have a number of employees that love the existing system (we have survey responses that show that), and some that struggle with it because they want the company to tell them when and how much they can be absent from work. DOWL treats our exempt employees as professionals that are in control of their own schedules as they work with their teams to serve our valuable clients. I will be the first to admit that this system does not work for everyone, and that this system is different than some (or all?) of our competitors. But DOWL's charter has never been to "be like everyone else". We want to be an orange in a world of apples! Management at DOWL views us as a professional organization that provides high level services to great clients. There are no little or big people in DOWL as far as I am concerned. Our family roster must be filled with passionate contributors with a desire to be part of a special team.
Viewing 7 - 9 of 134 Reviews

Glassdoor has 141 DOWL reviews submitted anonymously by DOWL employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if DOWL is right for you.