Pros
1. Potential for overtime pay 2. Lots of opportunities within the company if you know who to ask 3. This was recently after the acquisition of Parsons Brinkerhoff. Allegedly, rumor was that that meant that the positive PB culture would be maintained...but I didn't see any of that. 4. My managers (not project management) were responsive and helped me find other work (albeit nothing came up until the end of my time). During my exit interview, my third and final manager was receptive to the negative feedback I provided and was very apologetic. I felt bad for blind-siding her when I submitted my resignation email (she had only been my manager for a few weeks at that time)
Cons
I experienced many cons while working for WSP, but the highlights were... 1. Out-of-the-blue employment agreement change on second day of job (from salary to hourly) 2. Middle management was not being informed about what was going on for my project. 3. Project management for my assignment seemed very disorganized at times and incompetent during others. Examples include a) Myself and others (young, new employees) were tasked with rewriting procedures and field observation forms when the originals were deemed insufficient. b) PM was hiring temps/contractors like crazy and then suddenly there were laid off due to lack of work. Many direct-hire personnel (including myself) were furloughed with zero notice, while PM knew in advance that would be a shortage of billable hours. c) HR was disorganized (see a)) to such an extent that it took 5 months for me to receive a company-issued laptop, as HR was under the (incorrect) impression that I would be short-term hire. 4. Middle-management turnover. Over the span of my short time with the firm, the following people resigned: 1. person who signed my offer letter 2. HR person who issued my offer letter 3. first boss 4. second boss 5. I encountered a very bro-ish culture that at times felt very unprofessional and unwelcoming. By "bro-ish," I mean that many of my colleagues projected a "tough" and almost seemingly amateurish attitude about many things. This created an atmosphere not quite of fear, but definitely somewhat intimidating. 6. Because of of how PM managed us, the culture made me feel reduced to a body who could burn billable hours. On the PM side, there was very little interest in addressing concerns with how the project was run (see also the no-notice furlough issue).
