Pros
Opportunity to work on once in a lifetime projects. Lots of resources and typically well staffed projects. Cutting edge technology is used. Typically motivated and high performing team members. Pay and benefits tend to be in line or a bit higher than competitors especially if you're in a travel role.
Cons
Employees can get lost in the numbers. Field staff can be considered a commodity rather than people. It's easy to get placed in a role with little consideration for advancement. Employees that politic and vigorously/continuously sell themselves tend to advance regardless of ability compared to their peers that don't play the political game. True Blue employees (hired directly out of school) tend to be fast tracked over new hires from other companies. There's an unwritten mentorship undercurrent that seems to happen where senior employees take select junior employees and fast track them through the ranks. There's no specific rhyme or reason to this but it's certainly a phenomenon. Expect robust corporate measures to mitigate risk. Particularly risk associated with personnel. This comes in the form of layered and redundant processes, reviews, and management sign off. If you're looking for a role with lots of autonomy, empowerment, and freedom this may not be the place for you. It seems as though over the years every time a team member made a mistake a process was created to mitigate it. The result is frustrating bureaucracy and paperwork. It certainly creates an environment of distrust towards the employees. Of course like most companies in this industry the hours are very demanding. Expect 60-70 hours per week as typical and depending on the operating group, travel is very necessary to take advantage of growth opportunities. The field level is quite disconnected from senior leadership. There is a few layers of middle management from field to C level creating a very bureaucratic environment. That being said, your management experience can vary wildly depending on jobsite staff. I've experienced solid field level management as well as toxic micromanaging project level leadership which can create a very demotivating project experience for the staff. In general the management is very capable and experienced builders and highly motivated. Unfortunately it's hit or miss on how adept each manager is at managing TEAMS and staff. It's a bit of a roll of the dice if you get assigned to someone that leads a solid team and motivates their staff or someone that manages their team like they're managing a construction project. Whether you're field level staff or field level leadership there will always be a group of people telling you how to do your job. Some do it in a encouraging, coaching, motivating way and some do it in a toxic, bullying, micromanagement kind of way.
