Bad management running a good company into anonymity - Anonymous employee CDM Smith Employee Review

2.0
Jun 24, 2016
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Great people. Excellent benefits. Can achieve a good work/life balance. Opportunity to work on large, challenging projects.

Cons

Management is apathetic and/or incompetent. There are good managers, but they tend to get drowned out by the rigid hierarchy and inefficient management structure. Management lacks vision and drive to grow. No career path for middle management and experienced technical employees who are not part of the "anointed few". Middle management has little or discretion or authority to act on anything. Decisions have to be made at the Unit President level! Stagnant compensation levels for experienced staff, while younger new employees are hired at competitive salaries. High turnover rates and no efforts to correct this trend.

Explore other reviews about CDM Smith

5.0
Apr 22, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Lots of training and opportunities

Cons

Company structure can be confusing

1
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CDM Smith Response
3w
Thank you for taking the time to leave us a 5-star review! It was great to have you as an employee and wish you all the best in your future endeavors.
2.0
Jun 18, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Flexible hybrid schedule is very nice and starting salary is high for early career engineers.

Cons

The main people running the company are not engineers and you can tell. They are all focused on utilization with rates often set at 97% or higher. This had led to my supervisor asking/telling me to not charge company required trainings. As an early engineer it really feels like they don't want to invest in me and only care about their bottom line. If you are an early career structural engineer you will also not get any meaningful work until you've been with the company for at least 5 years. The senior engineers do not trust you and will only give you grunt work.

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