Sargent & Lundy reviews

All work is hyper process-driven, and the credentials are awarded subjectively by "process owners" who protect their turf. A licensed professional engineer may be required to stamp drawings that s/he is not "qualified" (by S&L processes) to prepare. Much time is spent following procedures and justifying every calculation to the Nth degree, rather than focusing on getting the job built. Superstars and slackers get the same performance reviews. Cronyism among partners and their "little buddies" is pretty common. Innovation is discouraged, they just want repeatable error-free work. Junior engineers get minimal exposure to actually building substations, power plants, etc. The best people started in construction or utility themselves before coming to S&L. Private cubicles are rare, usually noisy open "quads" with minimal storage and room to spread out drawings - makes it very difficult to concentrate. No refrigerators or free coffee in the break rooms. No working remote. Antiquated homegrown IT department is completely disconnected from the real world.

I've been an engineer for more than 20 years, so I have heard a lot of positive things about S&L. Well, don't believe everything you hear. I was working remote, and I heard a lot of complaints about how I wasn't working when I was supposed to be. And keep in mind: I was in meetings with these people from 9am and I was still answering e-mails all the way until 10 pm at night. In fact, I worked hours I didn't even put on my time sheet, and that still wasn't enough for these people. They also had the complaint that I didn't turn on my camera during meetings, in spite of the fact that just about everyone in these meetings didn't have them on either. The designers left a lot to be desired too. In many cases they were supposed to be checking things in the model, and they were not. Apparently they had numerous other complaints about me, and they told everyone BUT me about them. Very disappointing.