They don't care for their employees - Water Resources Engineer CDM Smith Employee Review

1.0
Oct 31, 2012
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- Good place to start your career if salary is not a big concern. - Interesting projects to engage. Convincing your group leader, project managers to let you try them is a different story. - There are a lot of nice folks in the organization.

Cons

- You will get typecast in the long run. - They'll expect you to work beyond the 40 hr limit. Which is legit if there are deadlines. But when it comes to CDM, they expect it every week, round the year. - There are a few bullies who will burn out the younger professional. - If you happen to be a foreign national on H1B visa and you encounter visa approval issues when you are abroad, be very worried. They will abandon you. It happened to me.

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
2w
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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