Construction Practice - Revenue Matters More Than People
Pros
The Construction Consulting practice has a diverse office, with a refreshingly large number of women in management positions. There is ample access to industry experts with opportunities for informal mentoring (Exponent's mentoring program only accepts employees with 2 years at the company). Depending on the contracts assigned, work schedules are fairly flexible, though this not always the case for entry-level employees. Working from home is acceptable, when approved beforehand. Good project experience for recent graduates, although the day-to-day tasks are dull and repetitive. Paid overtime, however management treats this as a "bonus", which it is not.
Cons
Since the company is publicly traded, management is primarily concerned with revenue, and treats all other aspects of business as extraneous. Junior employees are commanded to achieve unreasonably high billable hours / total hours (utilization), to the detriment of 'overhead' activities. These include professional (licenses/certifications, industry groups/society meetings and conferences, publications) and people development (mentoring/training, team building, career planning). These activities are expected to be addressed off of the clock, with minimal impact to the employee's utilization. This results in entry level employees being "nose to the grindstone" at all times, with little time to give to business development, recruiting, research opportunities, or even work with other practices. Meanwhile, senior management is allowed to have low utilization because of business development efforts, but since the organization is so top heavy, this affects the profit margin of the practice adversely, and directors admonish us to get utilization back up. Overtime is required at the Associate and Senior Associate level; lower level employees always work on multiple projects, but are also expected to support any random request that a manager sends along. This is not well communicated at the outset, but becomes integral to promotion and is used as the basis for raises and bonuses. The promotion cycle is strictly once a year, and is not a 360 review. Management does round tables to discuss lower level employees, and awards raises and bonuses based on the cumulative opinion of the worker. This a very subjective process that allows personal perception to outweigh technical performance. As long as utilization is high and the employee is seen by most managers as a team player, hard worker, and client pleaser, a small reward is given. Raises are not generous (1-3%), and bonuses are based off of revenue (~10% of base salary if you get one). Junior employees rarely get projects assigned to them, so little revenue is attributed to them, so bonuses are usually modest, too. Base compensation is not considered competitive by most employees in the practice, including managers. Negotiate salary before accepting; if your number is outside of their range for a position, they may offer you a higher level position if you have the requisite experience. The practice has very high turnover (12 people in 2 years). Reasons given that pertain to the company: dislike of the major client, little room for advancement, unsatisfactory management style, and dislike of daily duties. The Construction Consulting practice has an unhealthy work environment for junior employees, as they are treated as chattel to be traded among projects as needed. Due to the high turnover, these transitions occur frequently, and are usually too quick and not well communicated to the client. Associates are expected to onboard new hires and train new employees while continuing to manage their usual tasks, while also participating in recruiting efforts and addressing ad hoc requests. There is little respect given to schedule or current commitments. Feedback, when given directly rather than passed down the chain to a supervisor, is laced with inappropriate observations about personality and character disguised as career advice. Upper management is extremely absent, and fosters no relationship with lower level employees. Management laments the high turnover and low morale, but takes no action to improve the work environment or give space for employee feedback.