Driven by numbers - Anonymous employee CDM Smith Employee Review

2.0
Jul 10, 2017
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Some great people, hard workers, strong managers in some areas

Cons

Drive by numbers to correct mistakes made by bad eggs ... then driving out the good eggs who are punished by the new procedures/standards. Currently losing a lot of good, hard working technical staff at various levels due to layoffs and folks needing reprieve from the numbers games. Sales staff are becoming handcuffed by standards that are nearly impossible to meet when chasing work. A militaristic-like push to meet utilization goals is breaking down the collaboration between sales and technical staff to win new work. Then when sales are down and less work is coming in, staff is laid off to keep profits higher across the year. Need better career paths for staff of all levels in all departments. Right now, there's only a focus on those who transition to sales or project management. Need better training and mentorship when folks move up - especially for those moving from project management to sales. Too often they are set up to fail as management just assumes they'll pick up the skills along the way or already know what they're doing. Work/life balance is rough in some positions. When there's a lot of work, it tends to fall on those who are best to do it, but instead of sharing the load, it's dumped on a select few to fix/figure it out/drive it forward.

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

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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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