Great People, Poor Senior Leadership - Engineer CDM Smith Employee Review

3.0
2 Jul 2022
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- Co-workers across the country were great to work with - Managers did not micro-manage; always try their best to keep you busy - Benefits and PTO policies were good when I was there

Cons

- Leadership in Boston is like a cult; they keep saying they want to have a better understanding of the operations in local offices, but keep missing the mark and out of touch - Kept talking about staying away from Utilization, but action spoke louder than words - The number of acronyms are laughable - Rebranding old initiatives as new initiatives - Lack of diversity (mostly white people) - Raise is small, promotion is rigid/takes forever, not merit-based

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 Jun 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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