Gone Downhill - Staff Scientist CDM Smith Employee Review

3.0
16 Aug 2017
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Competitive Salaries and multiple locations within the US. Many good people in many offices to work with. It is also difficult to advance if starting as a field staff in the environmental division.

Cons

Insane focus on utilization. The pattern seems to be when your UT drops and you charge admin time due to lack of work, you are let go. This is compounded by the extremely poor management style in many offices, especially the Western US, and distribution of work. With recent lawsuit payout for millions for inept work and corruption on several build projects internationally and nationally, CDM personnel have suffered a large round of firings and now suffer a big brother style tally system for projected UT. Also, with the recent firings and 'reorg' as they call it, CDM Smith could be preparing to eliminate their environmental departments all together. All staff to advance and come out of the field.

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
4w
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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