Great Company, but some managers need to clear out of the way - Project Manager CDM Smith Employee Review

3.0
18 Oct 2019
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Diverse engineering firm that has some extremely intelligent and skilled people working there. The ability to work across different offices when extra help was needed was really easy, and the ability to connect and network with people who are doing things that you are interested in is a great benefit. Senior leadership is fantastic and supportive of the employees. If you have the initiative, there is great support for training and opportunities to engage in your community.

Cons

Some managers are out of touch. Constant push to use Bangalore India staff when most of the local teams will rarely see the value (i.e. are they really working themselves out of a job so that leadership can see a higher bonus next year? Try as you might to advertise the benefit, junior employees will ALWAYS be skeptical... as they should be.) Project Managers are becoming strictly data sources and data inputters. That's it. Most of us PMs still like to have some engagement in the technical details (or, at least they should be). Don't let the PM's become so disconnected that they lose touch with the details of the project or with the project teams.

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

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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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