Pros
AEI is a steppingstone for your career. Projects cover a diverse range of markets. Each office location functions as a different company. On my last day a colleague said: "AEI's lack of organization is both its greatest strength and its greatest weakness."
Cons
I was reading through other reviews and "Dysfunctional Family" really nails it. Leadership chases rejected plan reviews around the country yet does nothing to get the more competent/motivated people in place to maximize project success. It's not what you know, it's who you know. I was on a large project that started off with serious issues born from incompetence/laziness. The project engineer and I brought the issues to principal leadership but they ended up doing nothing. Eventually I did receive an apology from leadership. Although, when I need to engage leadership I expect action, not apologies. Later, when we brought the issues to the employee's direct supervisor instead, he admonished us for not bringing him the issues sooner. The employee had already been given a good raise by then. HR is awful, too. They have been running on a skeleton crew for the better part of the last decade.