Exponent reviews

Vacation hours are counted against your annual billable hours calculation (used to determine productivity and promotions)

This company is modeled after law firms / management consulting in the use of billable hours, promotion criteria, and even the job titles. For example, Exponent hires exclusively engineering PhDs and yet they call people "associates" and promote people to "principal". This general model isn't inherently wrong, as consulting firms and law firms have generally proven to be successful and lucrative. But Exponent has the crucial flaw of being a PUBLIC company. Thus, unlike all other successful law firms or top consulting firms (MBB, etc.), they live and die by the quarterly return. This results in extremely short term thinking about pure profit and $$$, which stifles any growth of the company and ultimately individual employees. There is not a single innovative thing that has come out of this consulting firm in decades. While other consulting firms (which also live by the billable hour) have deftly pivoted to digitalization and data science initiatives a DECADE ago, Exponent is still doing litigation investigations and investing no money in the future. Exponent thrives on the allure of quick big money for fresh PhD grads, and thus receives a steady stream of top-end MIT/Stanford/Caltech/etc. PhDs. But this is generally a HUGE mistake for this people, because there is absolutely no skill growth in your time in Exponent. Most people (90%+) have to take a step down in a role when transitioning out of Exponent, because the skills are not transferrable at all. The remaining 10% of people are either Exponent lifers (stuck because they have nowhere else to go), or those who have played the "game" enough to make it to the top and play the Ponzi scheme some more. If you are a fresh PhD grad looking at Exponent, I recommend staying away.