The project work and opportunities to learn are fantastic. Management does not care about employees.
Pros
The company's usual 37. 5 hour work week is the best I've seen out of any company in the industry, and in the summers usually they switch to a 37 hour 4-day week. The current Staffing Manager for the structural department is very accommodating to the needs and interests of the junior engineers when possible. The combination of site and office work provides amazing learning opportunities where you get to see what you design in office become a reality. The wealth of knowledge from working at a company that is over 100 years old really gives amazing opportunities to learn about and work on groundbreaking projects. The company is small enough where you can know everyone, but big enough that there is room for vertical and lateral mobility.
Cons
Benefits are the worst I've seen out of any company in the industry. Only 10 days vacation for the first 5 years of employment (which was non-negotiable) and only then do you get 15 day. No comp time unless it is within the same month or if you work on a federal holiday. No 401K matching for the first few years, and then the starting matching is less than 1%. The Covid-19 Pandemic has shown that the principals and certain managers do not value the health and safety of the employees beyond what is legally required. Under the guise of "Corporate Synergy" the office has been open since the end of June with mandatory (opt-out only with good reason) attendance 1 out of every 3 weeks. The principals claim we need to be in the office to properly collaborate on projects, but personally I have never been on a project in the past 6 months where my team was in the office at the same time, or where it felt necessary to be risking travelling to the office on public transit every day. I can specifically recall a case where a PM was complaining about engineers not wanting to go onsite because of health concerns and also insinuating that an engineer was faking Covid symptoms to avoid site work. In general, some principals are misogynistic & verbally abusive. I literally cannot write here some of the things that have been said to me.
