Pros
I worked for Bechtel for 8 years. I have many great things to say about them. I started my career there first as a co-op, then an intern, and then as a full time employee. I was a Mechanical Engineer started off in Construction for a new build and then moved to a Design Engineering position. Then over the course of time moved to many work locations (Florida, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, etc...). We can start with pay. Bechtel does a base salary. But for young engineers (under a certain pay grade) when you work overtime you are compensated with time and a half (by the hour). This is great because you get paid for the time you work. (Intermediate employees get paid base time overtime) And during construction; that can be a lot. There are also pay bumps for those who work different unconventional shifts (night shift, graveyard shift etc.) Benefits for fulltime (not construction) are good. Currently they are using Anthem for healthcare; VSP for eyecare; Retirement Online for 401K with match post 1 year of service. (My spouse still works there.) If you're seeking higher level degrees you can apply for educational compensation up to $5500/year. Bechtel is all about quality and schedule. They have aggressive schedules but are constantly balancing it with stringent policies and procedures incorporated from lessons learned over their 100 years of experience. As a family company, they care a lot about your family traveling with you. (As former military I can compare their relocation packages). They have great relocation packages for permanent relocation (over a year). If you move they do a full pack and unpack. If you own a house they help you with closing costs. They will ship a vehicle. They will compensate you for the travel distance and give you per diem for food. They try and make transitioning as easy as possible since moving with a family can be very difficult. They also encourage spouses to work in the same company so they can be relocated together. Bechtel is a private company with a cushion to rest on. Since they don't trade stock they can afford to work at a loss for many years until a market will turn. They can be selective on which jobs they bid for. However, it means that as an employee; besides the general sense of how the company is doing in a given year; you don't know how well since they don't have to disclose their stats.
Cons
Onto the Cons. This is not a female friendly or minority friendly company...at all. Bechtel staffs and de-staffs projects very quickly and if you are "low" ranked they will layoff their personnel very quickly. However, their ranking policies are inherently flawed. Ranking is based on the following (equal) criteria: performance, relocation availability, and likeability. Therefore, think about it. If you are a person at a stage in your life where you need work life balance and cannot relocate easily; you will be laid off. If you boss dislikes you...you will be laid off. Your performance only accounts for 1/3. You can guess a lot of female employees who are pregnant get...laid off. Many parents with young kids get laid off. Employees who are disabled are deemed unable to perform and are laid off. Employees on short term disability are laid off. This is a trend. Employees for them are commodities. Over the last eight years I've seen them try over and over again to try and reinvent the company culture. But last I checked only 1/10th of SVPs and VPs were women. Over the course of a 100 years their (distinguished scientific) fellows had 2 females. Company culture changes are not forthcoming. They have three employee resource groups: a veterans group, a women's group, and the "new" employee group. The Women@Bechtel group is four years old. Bechtel is inherently a "good old boys" club. I fear for Brendan Bechtel (the CEO's) daughter's futures in this company if this doesn't change.