Only for die-hard building science fans who want to devote their life to the industry
Pros
-You will likely meet a few great people here that will be lifelong friends -Some employees have a serious passion for the industry which is inspiring -You will work for a company with a great reputation in this industry -Some of the managers/group leaders are fantastic engineers and great teachers -The pay is mediocre, but the benefits are okay -Even though there are cons associated with working at RDH, it feels like RDH is trying hard to make the company and work-place better
Cons
-The training of their new employees is incredibly inconsistent. I believe they are working on this now, but this is something to ask about in your interview. -There is almost no work-life-balance. RDH may say that they strive for work life balance, but this is not accurate. I still know people working there that say it has only gotten worse. Many people work 10+hrs a day on a regular basis, and even work on weekends. If you ask your manager to help reduce your workload, little will be done, and they will just toss one of RDH's core values at you in response like "do what it takes". Essentially, be prepared to not come home for many dinners because you will be sitting at your desk writing reports into the evening. -The office environment can often be depressing and negative. Most of the conversations in the office are either about how poorly their projects are going, how awful most contractors are, how overworked they are, how late they had to work the night before... the list goes on. Essentially, there is little to no positivity. -RDH does not contract out window testing, and makes the engineers do this. But this is why you got an engineering degree, right? ;). Essentially, just be prepare to be on site a few times a month up to a couple times a week testing windows. This can be very exhausting both mentally and physically. And be prepared to work beyond 8hrs nearly every time you go out on site for testing. -Each manager has slightly different rules which will impact your entire experience at RDH. For example, one manager will allow you to work late one day, and leave early the next day to compensate (if your workload allows this which is rare, but nice when you have the odd slow day). However, another manager will require that you work a minimum of 8 hours a day no matter what. The biggest issue here is just that they are inconsistent. -Like all consulting firms, there is a high level of pressure to fill your timesheet with nearly 100% billable hours. I get it from a financial perspective, but it would be nice to have some flexibility here once in a while. -The company culture is very different from one office to the next - you might flourish in one office, but burn out and hate your job in another office. This is a well known fact within RDH. -It is hard to move around within RDH and try new things - people can get pigeon holed into a specific area. Overall, I would say that working for RDH is very hard. Nothing will be sugar coated. It is not for someone who thinks building science might be 'kind of interesting' or 'fun'. This is for the die-hard building science fan that wants to devote their life to the industry. Be prepared to work long and hard hours and have nothing else in life to talk about except for waterproofing and how many hours of overtime you worked last week.
