Pros
Working there you are sure to meet some kind hearted, relatable individuals. I can honestly say, some of the best coworkers I've had the pleasure to work with came from alliantgroup. I think they are relationships that will transcend my time with this wretched company.
Cons
I can only speak from what I saw in the 179D department but I think it is safe to say that THIS COMPANY IS A JOKE! It truly is very petty and gossip driven. Management is comprised of nothing more than yes men. The most of them are unintelligent people with no mind of their own who push the agenda of their insecure and antisocial 'leader'. You will be told of the core values only to find out that no one truly follows them, including management. Instead they are commonly used as 'buzz words'. These are words that management likes to throw around when they have no other good reason to deny your request for a promotion or raise. The definition of each of those values changes from day to day (by management). One day, collaboration could mean that you are proactively keeping your project team up to date on project deadlines. But the next day it could mean you meeting with your director to tell him that your coworker actually has the audacity to leave on time every day when their work is done. What you don't know is that leaving on time is frowned upon whether your work is done or not. It will be a point that management will bring up to you and it will be a reason you are stalled at your current position with the company. While they are not legally able to outright tell you to stay late and come in on the weekends, they will make it clear that when they give you more work than humanly possible to do in the given workday you stay to get it done. Your task as an energy modeler will be to make buildings largely built in the 60s and 70s to qualify for energy efficiency tax deduction. The work and methods used to achieve this goal are questionable at best, and no one you directly work with will be able to explain to you what is technically going on with the systems you are modeling. Why is that you may ask yourself? Well, this company does an exceptional job of driving away top end, intelligent, subject matter qualified individuals because EVERYBODY takes issue with the loose interpretations that are used to qualify projects. Not many mechanical, electrical or plumbing engineers work there anymore because they've all been either fired when they ask too many questions (or have an ethical objection to the methods taken) or quit. All that is left are a bunch of down on their luck civil/structural engineers and architects who have no knowledge of how anything works. I honestly believe that this company purposely turns away subject matter knowledgeable individuals because of all the objections that they continuously raise. Your direct supervisor/team lead will be someone who is a middle of the road/average modeler who will not be able to answer your questions past day one. But one month in, he/she may be asking you how to complete a task because he/she doesn't know or understand how. These are your 'architects' and non-degreed individuals who have sucked up enough to management to warrant that promotion and will talk bad about you to them whether you are doing a good job or not. Bottom line, if you are not constantly feeding management gossip about employees, you will get nowhere. Pay and career opportunities are a joke. Senior management has openly said how this position is the bottom of the totem pole and how there is nothing worse than being a modeler. Pay was cut for modelers only in January 2016. Most modelers lost between 20%-40% annual pay with no warning. Raises were refused for even the high performers but there were questions abound about why productivity and hours worked was down. Do you really still want to give 150% effort for a company that willingly and drastically cut pay and refuses to recognize its high performers with periodic raises? No, you won't. But management will be completely oblivious as to why moral amongst modelers is so low. No one wants to work well past 9 pm and weekends after you cut pay so drastically while simultaneous giving us the run around when it comes to raises and promotions. My advice to any individual considering this position would be to turn away and accept another offer. There is nothing here for you but long (10-12 hour) days, uncaring management and a very small chance at a career with low pay. At this company you will have no social life. Thinking of getting a masters/mba? You won’t have the time. Thinking of having a natural social life with friends, families and kids? You won’t have the time. Thinking of becoming involved in community work or having a flexible work schedule that allows anything other than work? You will be denied. Save yourself the heart ache. The bad reviews are true and honest, just like this one. The good reviews on this company are from HR directly or employees who suck up and are told by superiors and HR to go and spread positive word about the company online to try and attract more candidates (I’ve heard that one from the horse’s mouth). There’s a reason this company as a whole has such high employee turnover, they don’t treat them right. Don’t be a part of this nonsense, you can do better.
