Work in HR or Recruiting?
Foster Wheeler
3.1 of 5 33 reviews
www.fwc.com Geneva, Switzerland 5000+ Employees
Work in HR? Complete Your Profile

Foster Wheeler Reviews

Updated May 12, 2013
All Employees Current Employees Only

3.1 33 reviews

                             

83% Approve of the CEO

Foster Wheeler CEO and Director J. Kent Masters

J. Kent Masters

(6 ratings)

46% of employees recommend this company to a friend
33 employee reviews
Relevance Date Rating
in
  • Culture & Values
         
  • Work/Life Balance
         
  • Comp & Benefits
         
  • Career Opportunities
         
  • Senior Management
         
  • Approves of CEO

 

Chennai (India)

Current Employee – been working at Foster Wheeler full-time for less than a year

Prostimings, team work, exposure, benifits

Constravel, deadlines, timings, work culture

Advice to Senior Managementgood job

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Was this review helpful?
Yes | No
Flag Review

  • Culture & Values
         
  • Work/Life Balance
         
  • Comp & Benefits
         
  • Career Opportunities
         
  • Senior Management
         
  • No Opinion of CEO

 

Houston, TX (US)

Former Employee – worked at Foster Wheeler full-time for more than 7 years

ProsChallenging work, opportunities for young engineer. stable workforce.

Consgot monitored in/out office, too strict on office time

Advice to Senior Managementneed diversify the technology, not only focus on coker

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Was this review helpful?
Yes | No
Flag Review

  • Culture & Values
         
  • Work/Life Balance
         
  • Comp & Benefits
         
  • Career Opportunities
         
  • Senior Management
         
  • No Opinion of CEO

 

Houston, TX (US)

Former Employee – worked at Foster Wheeler full-time for more than 7 years

Pros9/80 work schedule allowed for a good amount of time off. 3 weeks PTO for new hires. Good 401K and medical insurance programs. The building and furniture are above average.

ConsUpper management likes to micro-manage and monitor its employees. They ask for opinions from their employees, but they don't seem to want to implement any change related to employee satisfaction. When the previous CEO left for another office, bonuses and incentives diminished or disappeared. It's pretty difficult to get recognized for your achievements or hard work at this company. It's also hard to advance in the company unless you are buddy-buddy with someone with power and influence in the company.

Advice to Senior ManagementListen to your employees, and try to trust them to be honest on their own.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Was this review helpful?
Yes | No
Flag Review

  • Culture & Values
         
  • Work/Life Balance
         
  • Comp & Benefits
         
  • Career Opportunities
         
  • Senior Management
         
  • Disapproves of CEO

 

Current Employee – been working at Foster Wheeler full-time for more than 3 years

ProsVery strong in down stream processing.

ConsTrying to expand upstream business. In the process of re-organisation

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Was this review helpful?
Yes | No
Flag Review

  • Culture & Values
         
  • Work/Life Balance
         
  • Comp & Benefits
         
  • Career Opportunities
         
  • Senior Management
         
  • No Opinion of CEO

1 person found this helpful  

Houston, TX (US)

Current Employee – been working at Foster Wheeler full-time for less than a year

ProsSalary is decently competitive and their 401k matching is comparable to a state worker's TRS.
9/hour workdays with every other Friday off

ConsTo really know FW requires knowing the history from various other workers. Many workers are fairly new due to turnover and the boom and bust of unstable business due to projects. Management seems to care most about upstream divisions, but has poor attention and does not assist in departments outside of engineering. The guidance from the corporate HQ office is poor and there is a severe lack of operational maturity. FW loses business to competition due to poor planning and effective monitoring of operations. Various departments outside of engineering have many high-level managers and directors with poor and lazy attitudes. Many of them are just not used to having to be competent at their professions like FW's competition. Had I known the entire history and been able to interview with others outside the department hiring manager; I would've never come here.

Advice to Senior ManagementImplement TCO mentality from top down and provide global guidance to offices in a singular effort. What good is upstream without staff to properly support them?

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Was this review helpful?
Yes | No
Flag Review

  • Culture & Values
         
  • Work/Life Balance
         
  • Comp & Benefits
         
  • Career Opportunities
         
  • Senior Management
         

 

Chennai (India)

Former Employee – worked at Foster Wheeler full-time for more than a year

ProsGood company to work outside india

ConsGood company to work outside india. in india its not doing good

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Was this review helpful?
Yes | No
Flag Review

  • Culture & Values
         
  • Work/Life Balance
         
  • Comp & Benefits
         
  • Career Opportunities
         
  • Senior Management
         
  • No Opinion of CEO

 

Livingston, NJ (US)

Former Employee – worked at Foster Wheeler full-time for more than 7 years

ProsNone that I can think of.

ConsA company that works in low margin industries can't be generous to their employees. Terrible raises, delayed raises, 4 in 5 years, etc. Suggest working for a company that makes a lot of money. They can treat their employees better. This is a while back, put I doubt much has changed.

Advice to Senior ManagementNone

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Was this review helpful?
Yes | No
Flag Review

  • Culture & Values
         
  • Work/Life Balance
         
  • Comp & Benefits
         
  • Career Opportunities
         
  • Senior Management
         
  • Approves of CEO

 

Singapore (Singapore)

Former Employee – worked at Foster Wheeler as a contractor for more than a year

Prosget very good knowledge and work style,

Conslittle gap of communication and can't say more,

Advice to Senior Managementmake trans perncy with employee

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Was this review helpful?
Yes | No
Flag Review

  • Culture & Values
         
  • Work/Life Balance
         
  • Comp & Benefits
         
  • Career Opportunities
         
  • Senior Management
         
  • No Opinion of CEO

 

Chennai (India)

Former Employee – worked at Foster Wheeler full-time for more than a year

ProsFoster wheeler is big MNC company.MNC experience is really helpful to my knowledge.

ConsThey give more important to senior people or smoking colleagues.

Advice to Senior ManagementPlease ask some basic technical questions in their relative field of engineers at telephonic round interview or writing interview and If applicant will be selected as a employee,then after you will give full work freedom to the selected employee.You do not take one year or six months time to job confirmation of new employee because already he has been qualified at the time of interview.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Was this review helpful?
Yes | No
Flag Review

  • Culture & Values
         
  • Work/Life Balance
         
  • Comp & Benefits
         
  • Career Opportunities
         
  • Senior Management
         

1 person found this helpful  

Reading, England (UK)

Former Employee – worked at Foster Wheeler full-time for more than 3 years

ProsLots of talented people on projects.

ConsThose talented people on projects always frustrated and dissatisfied. Corporate management very disconnect from project people and very bureaucratic. Lots of procedures and rules that don't quite work or make sense. Overhead management is about 10 layers, and you are lucky if you get to talk to your immediate line management once in several months; and you have no chance to ever get to meet and talk to managers beyond his level.

Advice to Senior ManagementDear upper management: cut your numbers by half and make the company more competitive pn the market. Stop spending all your time in endless corporate meetings and get to know your projects and people who execute those projects. You keep losing talented people because they do not feel valued. Quite on the contrary, most professional, talented and free-spirited people in your company feel they are treated like schoolchildren who always need to be told and disciplined.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Was this review helpful?
Yes | No
Flag Review
110 of 33 Reviews RSS Feed embed Embed

Worked for Foster Wheeler? Contribute to the Community!

Add Review Add Salary Add Interview Review Add Photos

Your response will be removed from the review – this cannot be undone.