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Michael Baker International

Is this your company?

If you don't like your home life, Baker is the company for you. - Civil Engineer Michael Baker International Employee Review

2.0
Jul 31, 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Good people who know their job. The company puts out quality work. I really enjoyed the work I was doing. You get paid straight time for hours over 40. Fairly competitive compensation package, though you likely can make more elsewhere.

Cons

Investor owned, you are just a serial number to the company. Little to no training unless you are a minority or woman. I was actually told "go find a youtube video or something" by my manager when I informed him that I had never used inroads before when I was assigned to design a roadway corridor. Also expect over 100% utilization, especially if assigned to a design build. My normal working hours were closer to 45 than 40 most weeks and after I was assigned to a design build project my hours were between 55-60 most weeks. If you complain about working so much or being overloaded managements typical response was "don't you like money?" and then they would brush you off. Also expect to essentially have to ask permission to only work a 40 hour week and good luck taking vacation time off unless its thanksgiving weekend or between christmas and newyears. Rampant tribalism between the traditional project design teams and the design build design teams, project managers would not share workers with other teams. Consequently some people were barely pulling 40 hour weeks while others were working 60s. Bonuses were extremely rare unless you were a manager who was high ranking enough that you weren't really doing production work. So when managers would decide to advance the schedule of a project to receive an early completion bonus, the staff doing the bulk of the work would see none of the bonus. Don't expect to grow or be allowed to shift sideways in the company, they hired you for one task and if you express an interest in cross training in another discipline they assume you don't like your job and you get informally blacklisted and sidelined. With few exceptions, most people were hired from outside, not promoted from within. While I was there we had 2 CEOs and i lost track of how many different COOs we had, seemed like every 3-6 months somebody with the "Chief XYZ Officer" title would leave the company and be replaced by someone from outside. Not really sure what anyone above office manager actually did for the company, each office was functionally treated as a separate company for all intents and purposes, executive leadership was only ever acknowledged when they would make some company policy change (usually for the benefit of corporate investors) or when they would do the quarterly newsletters.

Explore other reviews about Michael Baker International

5.0
Mar 4, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great variety of projects and city clients

Cons

Pay is generally lower than in a city planning position

3.0
Jun 9, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Love the people, great work environment, good work-life balance.

Cons

Lots of meetings and sometimes not a clear direction on job expectations.

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