Foster + Partners Project Management Associate reviews

Where to start. I’ll start with the role. I joined the project management team as an associate. I expected to be managing projects, as the name suggests. But unfortunately the role was paper pushing to justify the salary of the partner who headed up the department. The work we were asked to do rarely left the department and mostly consisted of producing dashboards to present to the partner reporting on the projects. Which were worthless as you did not get close to a project. I could’ve put up with the mind numbing tasks until I found a new role but what I could not and refused to put up with was the openly accepted and encouraged bullying, racism and sexism. If you could imagine working in an office environment in the 50’s; rapidly ageing suited white men with egos as big as their combovers calling all women ‘secretaries’ and mocking anyone whose first language was not English. I say this acknowledging that it comes from a place of privilege, it’s something I’ve ever experienced before and am staggered still goes on in a company with such a world renowned reputation. I could go on, but in essence. Your mental health, morals and overall wellbeing is not worth it. Run, run as fast as you can.

The senior management is doing their own thing, there is lack of transparency of what is happening in the company. Partners have their own meetings, noone knows what they discuss in those meetings. Long work hours, usually until 6pm when many offices in London work until 5.30, and you will normally work overtime, very limited flexibility in work hours. They expect you to work overtime, in fact if you do not work overtime, you may be seen as not working hard enough. Salary could be better. Once you are in the company, carrier progression is very tough. They do not hesitate to hire someone new and give them better role opportunities and salary, but will give very limited career opportunities to the current employees . No site visits are envisaged for project management, you will manage your projects from your desk, without being given an opportunity to meet a client face to face.