Pros
CDM Smith has incredibly smart people who work on projects that have a positive impact on our communities and the environment. The push the limits with what is possible and are a leading company in quite a few areas with engineering, construction, and technology. At an employee level, they have great health benefits and compensation. If it wasn't for negative experiences with team leadership, I would still be working for CDM Smith. They are truly a great company with strong values.
Cons
I had worked for CDM Smith for about 2 years before I was transitioned to a role. I was not given a choice but it was a growth opportunity so it was exciting. My manager, an experienced employee at CDM Smith, was a new manager. Prior to this change, my manager had been in a more senior role. Myself and others on the team experienced much scrutiny and criticism in the form of "feedback." This behavior was never addressed even though it was apparent most of the team was experiencing it. When this employee transitioned to a manager role, the behavior still did not change however, now I experienced boundaries being crossed between personal and professional life and had unprofessional comments made to me during meetings with others. I tried to establish boundaries between personal and professional life and was questioned about why I did it, what the problem was, and I was told I should have handled it better. (I should have contacted my manager to tell them what I was doing.) When I tried to address other negative behaviors with both my manager and team leadership, it fell on deaf ears. It seemed that the team's leader favored my manager and excused the negative behaviors. This continued on for close to a year before I decided to leave. The team's leadership enabled the negative and toxic behaviors and have done nothing to make CDM Smith a positive work environment. There is a lack of communication about changes, directives, and so on. If a mistake is made blame is immediately placed on that person rather than looking at what could be done differently. Raising issues only puts you into passive aggressive situations. There may be a focus on leadership skills but communication and providing feedback are two that are lacking. The type of feedback that was provided 75% of the time made me feel as if I was stupid and was never meeting the mark. I would constantly ask for clarification on tasks, submit work for reviews, and look to work with others. This occurred for so long over my 4 year time with CDM Smith that I became complacent and felt like I was more of an order-taker than a contributing and collaborative employee.