- Where you start at is typically where you stay. If you are a project engineer, that is the path you will stay on through Senior Engineer Project Manager, Senior PM, etc. Usually they stick PE's without projects in Preconstruction for a few months, but you rarely see anyone jump from one path to another. This makes for a division and lack of understanding of what everyone does. (Example: An estimator once asked a project engineer what a pay application was and why we had to do them every month.)
- If you have more than 2 years experience in the industry and are not looking for a field position (i.e. Carpenter, foreman, etc.), the chances you will get on are low. The preference is for recent graduates and those with little experience.
- Hours are long across the board. Doesn't matter your role, expect 12 hour days to be normal. Weekends as well.
- While you get PTO, taking it is another thing. Roll-over is limited to 5 days a year that MUST be taken before March 31st. While it is yours to take, others tend to frown on when you use it outside of holiday periods like Christmas
- Performance reviews are non-existent. Around 2014, they did away with formal reviews in favor of "Open Door Policy". It is expected that you and your manager set aside time to talk about your development. Easier said then done with how heavy everyone's workload tends to be.
- Family and Health are not high priorities. The last few years saw bigger pushes for employees to focus on health but it tends to fall to the wayside after March. Starting or having a family is very difficult, especially for operations staff (office engineers, project managers, superintendents, etc.) as they are required to move from project to project.
- Moving, like mentioned before, is a requirement. Data centers (their bread and butter) are usually located in sparsely populated areas with few follow on projects. This means a move is required if you want to stay on. Also, you'll get 1-2 weeks at best to get ready to move
- Company Core Values are there, but not pushed or really talked about. Each year's core theme tends to focus on client related items and not the core values. My colleagues at other companies could recite theirs yet I don't think most employees, myself included, could name more than 3.