Positive workplace, difficult to grow your career - ARCH 2 Bora Architects Employee Review

The people were an incredible resource to learn from, the work is large and instrumental in the PNW.

Can be demanding work schedule.

Despite being founded almost 60 years ago, Bora is constantly striving to create a healthy and progressive work environment. Bora has the best work environment (BY FAR) that I've ever experienced. The partners are accessible and involved (not to mention, they are awesome people) and business practices are very transparent, as opposed to other offices with one CEO lording over everyone. Various committees are active in making sure that employees are being taken care of and utilized to their fullest potential, and that the office is taking advantage of new technology, software, and business practices. The office is very friendly and casual, and always open to new ideas and contributions from employees at every level. Bora understands that to get (and keep) talented employees, they need to offer competitive pay and benefits. Employees are very diverse (by Portland standards at least...) and Bora has good family policies, offers paternity leave, and generally supports a healthy personal life. They are committed to keeping the office space clean, productive, and set up for optimal employee productivity and comfort (offer standing desks, etc) They support career progression, licensure, and reimburse your exam fees once you pass. Include lower level staff in meetings so that you are involved in projects, not just doing tasks that are delegated to you. Overall very balanced focus on personal and professional development. Clients seem very happy and many come back for multiple projects. Very solid future ahead!

Despite the awesome benefits they don't match monthly 401k contributions - hopefully this is in the works for the future. Bora is looking into alternative office setups, and I wish they had more small "nooks" for us introverted employees to work at a computer - I like the transparency of an open floor plan but it can be very tiring and distracting at times.