Exponent reviews

-Opportunities to get project management experience (which directly decides how quickly you move up in the firm) can be extremely scarce depending on your personal situation. Some upper level staff adhere to the philosophy of giving opportunities to junior staff while others keep it all to themselves to pad their own stats (and pockets). It is possible you could quickly gain experience and become a leader but it is more likely you will fight tooth and nail and get nothing which is demoralizing. -The way the company is structured naturally feeds work to the top-level staff which makes sense from a first look, but when you find out getting work or "capturing" projects is one of the top 3 metrics used to decide your advancement in the firm this quickly becomes a con. -Managers and Principle Engineers in the firm have ZERO training in leading people. The firm assumes that you are a good leader if you've managed many projects and thus brought in a large amount of money for the firm, but this has nothing to do with leading people in reality. -The overall culture is flawed. You will hear many times from senior staff that Exponent is 'a company of individuals'. This naturally breeds chaos in high pressure projects as there are many egos to feed which slows down progress. It also can result in associates being caught in between two senior staff that are feuding or decide they don't like each other and don't want to work together. If you enjoy the team aspect of engineering then I must warn you, this firm will frustrate you.

Looking back, I did not really have a great experience at Exponent. 1. I was hired for a month in one position and was told they made a mistake and moved me back a position. They told me I would gain that position back in a year which did not happen. 2. Although it was great working with so many experts with PhDs, there is a very elitist feeling in the office. I had someone tell me I didn't deserve a raise because I did have a PhD even though I worked 50+ hrs a week and had the same UT as people who had been there for 5+ years when I had only been there for 6 months. 3. I was stressed out a lot of the time that it started to affect my health. I often skipped meals to keep up with work. In the end I lost 10lbs in a few months and I was on the verge of being underweight. 4. For the department I was in there wasn't really a career path. I knew I'd never get to be a manager there no matter how long I stayed at the company. Many of my coworkers had been there 5-10+ years and never became a manager. Overall, it wasn't a bad experience but it wasn't a great experience.