Disfunctional from the top - Anonymous employee CDM Smith Employee Review

1.0
18 July 2015
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Most employees are great to work with and do their best to keep the organization running. Benefits are pretty standard for a company this size.

Cons

CEO - Non-existent presence. Placeholder until COO grows up COO - Clueless wanna-be who rode coattails to the top CFO - OK CIO - Overrated. Claim to fame some bogus recognition. Head of major unit leaves to return to competitor from whence he came. Left hand has no idea what the right hand is doing. IT department closes US-based helpdesk with no concrete transition plan. Company claims $1.3B of client revenues but has a profit of $25M, a horrendous return of less than 2%. Current rumor is the company is tapping line of credit to make payroll after paying relocation penalty and management bonuses.

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
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
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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