Caltrans reviews

4.1

79% would recommend to a friend

(851 total reviews)

Malcolm Dougherty

67% approve of CEO

76% positive business outlook

Caltrans has an employee rating of 4.1 out of 5 stars, based on 851 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an excellent working experience there. The Caltrans employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Government & Public Administration industry (3.6 stars).

Reviews by job title

851 reviews
2.0
May 29, 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Flexibility of hours, vacation days, etc.

Cons

Hard work pays off for some. However, some get nothing but more work. It's who you know not what you know.

1.0
Feb 12, 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Strong worker protections from the unions. An opportunity to learn a great deal about how the sausage is really made in transportation policy and procedure. Job security - performance expectations are either too vague or too low for anyone to actually fire you during your probationary period.

Cons

Antiquated policies and procedures for just about everything. Performance expectations are either too vague or too low, or both. Each division is isolated in its own silo, making it difficult to collaborate across divisions on new ideas that would benefit the whole department. (This also results in many duplications of efforts, simply because each division is not talking to each other.) Culture has a strong resistance to creative thinking from its employees, at all levels. Poor communication from management on expectations, program status, and funding levels. Old, depressing office building that is falling apart. Technology is always at least 5 years out of date (we just upgraded from Lotus Notes to MS Outlook 2007, for example) and most employees are surprisingly not tech-savvy enough to adapt to the rapid changes happening in our field and in other state DOTs. (It's worth noting that all of these observations are at the main headquarters office in Sacramento. I have heard from other employees that it's not quite as bad in the district offices.)

2.0
Feb 17, 2011

It sucks to be a state worker

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

you are not demanded to work 60 hrs a wk or come in over the weekend just because. friendly people family friendly

Cons

pay sucks. i got paid the same as 10 years when i worked in the private sector. you are always under the gun that you are paid too much when you are underpaid significantly. you got no respect from people.

Viewing 25 - 27 of 851 Reviews

Glassdoor has 970 Caltrans reviews submitted anonymously by Caltrans employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Caltrans is right for you.