Pros
The employee stock option is near unmatched. 3 leaders heading the Austin Land Development bring in lots of work. They are great at client relations. These guys are solid and will continue to bring in work until they retire. It doesnt seem the company is looking to hire more leaders like them. The way they do this it seems to be through acquiring other companies. The land development group seems to run a very good balance sheet. Expenses are kept down as much as possible. Having corporate leadership (Houston TX) definitely improves the experience here. If the Austin leaders were running the company the workplace may not be as nice as it is now. Project Managers are very well qualified. My project manager was great and was an excellent communicator. He knew the material outside in and inside out and was able to explain concepts. He wasnt behind me checking my work or expecting me to work more than required. He understood not everyone wants to work more than 40 hours and he respected that, expecially if you are a salaried.
Cons
If you dont work 60 hours a week, you will not get the respect of higher management from the land development group. The raise for getting my PE was funny. I had to go and ask for a higher raise. When I was hired, I was told a 10K raise. It was no where near when I received the raise. If you get your PE Raise, expect not to get your yearly raise that same year. I didnt get a review or raise that same year I got my PE. I didnt last longerin this company after that. My point of view, if they do this once, they will it again. Dont expect to learn CAD the right way. Each team teaches CAD different. Project managers brought up in this company since EITs lack the most updated CAD skills. I understand that the more you grow into a PM role, the less you will spend on sharpening your CAD, but some of these PMs were taught CAD from the year 2000. There is no CAD standard so its every man for his own here. From my experience, when you give your 2 weeks notice, if you are a male, you are told to leave the same day or the next day, to not make it look as bad. If you are a female, you are allowed to stay your 2 weeks and even get an order of bagles your last day.