CDM Smith reviews

CDM Smith is a large company that seems to vary a lot of work all over the country. I worked out of the Irvine office as a geologist for several years. The manager in the Irvine office is not good, picks favorites and talks poorly of the not favorites to all staff. She is very unprofessional, actually yelled at me several times over the years, and does not treat staff with respect. She expects field staff to work 12+ hours with no complaints and does not allow staff to charge all of their travel time to and from sites, as one example of many problems. If you want to get field work under your belt and then move on to reports and project management, this is not the office for you. She does not allow staff to advance in their careers. There is a very high turn over rate because of her poor management and that she does not allow or encourage progression in careers.

Same micromanaging manger for almost 10 yrs I worked at CDM in Oak Ridge/Knoxville. He was manipulative, never won new work/contracts, and kept hiring new people when there was very little work to spread out. Not sure why he still had the position he did. Blatantly stated that he was there to ride out a contract until he retired. In general, under his control in the Federal sector, there were tiny raises the majority of the years I worked there, most raises below 3% and some as low as 1.7%. Benefits were extremely expensive and continued to increase every year. You are required to meet certain goals to receive a discount on your insurance. I would NOT recommend working in the Federal division for this company. There are other divisions that are well organized from what I could tell by working with project managers in them. Since I have left, in the last year, there have been 4 other people leave this department due to lack of work, no ability to grow, and management.