Total disconnect of the needs of employees - Anonymous employee CDM Smith Employee Review

3.0
7 Apr 2017
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

I've worked with people in many offices and the majority of colleagues are friendly and helpful.

Cons

Lack of support for Project Managers and utter disregard of the importance of support staff. As more and more major changes are rolled out by corporate more and more back end administrative tasks are put on to the responsibilities of the PMs, meanwhile CDM Smith continues to roll out massive layoffs of the administrative staff every year. There is little to no opportunity for administrative staff to branch out and further their career. No matter how hard you work or expand your knowledge a promotion, title change, salary increase are rare to impossible for an admin more so the past few years. This leaves many offices either administratively under staffed or with poor admin support staff. Additionally, on-boarding is poor here. If you are starting here and particularly if you are a less experienced employee be prepared to reach out to others for help and guidance. You will not always know who to contact for help or even finding work so talk to and ask everyone until you build up enough of a network to be provided a steady amount of work.

Explore other reviews about CDM Smith

5.0
22 Apr 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
18 June 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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