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Perkins & Will

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Perkins & Will reviews

3.6

70% would recommend to a friend

(654 total reviews)
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Phil Harrison

84% approve of CEO

57% positive business outlook

Perkins & Will has an employee rating of 3.6 out of 5 stars, based on 654 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Perkins & Will employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Construction, Repair & Maintenance Services industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

654 reviews
1.0
Oct 1, 2014

Turf wars and ego fests.

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Pretty office, lot of good, talented co-workers.

Cons

Nasty politics and leadership appears like they are biding their time while collecting a fat paycheck. Zero culture of mentoring. Most principals are egomaniacs and out of touch with the rest of the team. They spend most of the time in corporate retreats and market sector shenanigans. Few opportunities for advancement for women and minorities are almost non-existent.

3.0
Aug 26, 2012
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Perkins+Will has many intelligent individuals having extensive knowledge or impressive project experience not to mention there are so many pleasant and unique personalities. The firm places huge importance on continuing education so there are always ample ways for LEED APs to fulfill their CMP as well as in-house IIDA and AIA CEUs. Plus there are numerous great tools for personal enrichment (Rosetta Stone, Lynda.com and GlobeSmart) that employees have access to. The research done on their Precautionary List and all of the efforts they are undertaking with material health is extremely admirable (the NIH Asthmagen study, the Building Product Transparency label with Construction Specialties, and more) I'm very proud to be a part of a design firm that places importance on these issues and goes the next level to raise awareness about it and is actively seeking to make real change happen.

Cons

Despite the Pros, morale is very low. Many employees are spread too thin and overworked being shuffled from one project with intense deadlines to the next without much breathing room in between. Unrealistic deadlines are typical making it difficult to attend any of the in-house learning opportunities or spending time using Rosetta Stone and the other tools. Work/life balance is lopsided so those with families lose out as well as the people who can't spend an evening going on a date or a weekend with friends because they are always on a deadline. Another major Con, which is no secret, is that there are a lot of principals. Theoretically, with as many as we have, we should have a lot more projects lined up and be one very busy office! I often wonder how that really affects the projects we pursue, the negotiations and how PMs have to navigate to compensate and the lack of/very low bonuses that get issued to the staff. (This is one area where the firm isn't so transparent). On top of that the opportunities for advancement are limited to teacher's pet types in the office; We need more to look forward to than beer Friday's...

4.0
Aug 18, 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Overall I enjoyed working here; the benefits were decent but not amazing, the office culture was really great - super social! Relatively flexible hours and you could work from home 2 days a week. The work was pretty uninspiring at times but most of the employees are great people who are talented and capable. I definitely enjoyed working here and rarely felt like I was overloaded with work. Overall, I would say that I would recommend it as a workplace but would suggest that someone not consider it long term or a career firm.

Cons

Despite the great employee culture, it's still a very corporate office. There's a ton of turnover, they are constantly hiring and losing people. They do frequent layoffs - I was recently laid off in a commercial slump when last year the company was doing great and they had hired at least 20 people in the past 6 or so months, and they have done 4 series of layoffs in about 4 years. Granted, some of that was COVID, but still it's a frequent occurrence. Also, while they have competitive salaries, it's important to note that they do annual bonuses INSTEAD of annual raises. The raises are barely even COL raises. The bonuses are definitely generous when the work is good, but don't expect your salary to increase while there. Also, oftentimes their loud rhetoric about sustainability and diversity was not being reflected, except in token ways, in their work and office. Additionally, promotions seem pretty hard to come by; I had a few friends who were turned down for promotions with little reason.

Viewing 10 - 12 of 654 Reviews

Glassdoor has 773 Perkins & Will reviews submitted anonymously by Perkins & Will employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Perkins & Will is right for you.