surveyor

engineer

senior engineer

senior consultant

principal software engineer

American Bureau of Shipping (ABS)

ABS itself is not a terrible company but management has taken whatever good there can be had and have made it a horrible place to work. If growth is important to you when looking for a job be sure to stay far away. Co-workers have been great, they are helpful and don't horde information and are wiling to help you solve issues and expand your knowledge. Management on the other hand is absmal. Be prepared to stay in whatever role you are hired in for a long time. Also make sure you go for a FTE role as ABS does not like to promote contractor to FTE if they are working in IT. Management will mostly ignore you unless you are working on their favorite project or one of their favorites employees.  Management will mostly only talk to you if you have done something wrong. There are not many  oppurtunities for growth and management will exclude you from most project or even fail to inform you of changes they are making to things you are working on until the last minute. Unless major changes happen I would advise most to stay far away from ABS.

I enjoyed my time spent at ABS. It was a friendly environment, offering many perks such as an open gym, free sodas and snacks, occasionally some free ABS gears. What I've learned is that you have to separate personal feelings aside from business. Truth be told, is that ABS values their permanent employees, more than their contractors, and it is unfortunate that even good contractors are the first to be let go when it comes to lay offs, even if they are better than the current permanent employees. My co-workers were all amazing people, and I couldn't ask for people to be around. The hardest part of my job was handling the stress level, while trying meeting all of the due dates, and set targets of the firm. The most enjoyable part of the job was quickly becoming and integral part of the firm, and handling important responsibilities for the firm. My only advise to upper management is to carefully review their contractors and full time employees. Some of the most important assets to ABS are the contractors.

ABS is a good company and a strong pillar in the maritime industry. I enjoy coming to work every day. It's vision to provide sophisticated digital services to it's customers is clear from the top down. ABS has an industry-leading benefits package that provides valuable programs to support it's employees health, financial security and retirement savings. ABS is one of the few companies in the country that still offers a fully funded pension plan anywhere from approximately 5% for five years of service/15% for 10 years of service, 26% for 15 years of service, and it keeps going up and up from there. (These numbers are rough estimates based on a calculation that ABS uses.) The medical benefits are some of the most affordable around. For a family, the medical is $245/pay period and the family deductible is just $500. ABS does not charge you extra for your spouse if he/she has coverage with their current employer. ABS is a friendly organization and the leadership team is striving to improve communication and transparency, while promoting safety and value to it's employees and customers.

The only benefits of my experience there was 1- I had to learn some new things, not that they had a training program, or anyone of my group seniors were open to share their knowledge, I just had to learn the hard way. 2- Salary 3- Meet a few nice people. 
I have to say experiences may be different depending on the group and manager. but I think upper management's only concern is numbers: High utility, High on time completion, High performance and in that way if there is a manager that produces those numbers with zero management morals and ethics, they don't care. They never evaluate the managers, they never ask the opinions of engineer working under managers to see how they are doing, they really don't care, they only care about stealing more from DNV or BV that cannot afford to care about how healthy their environment is. My experience was absolutely bad, but I have to say this is not always the case, some managers are really professional and working with them in ABS would be great as was the case for me before changing my position in ABS.

ABS is built on Survey.  Surveyors must understand the workings and operations of equipment.  Engineers are employed "to check" calculations for subject matter submitted.  Not to understand or create technology.
Engineers work in the Office; Surveyors work in the field.  Senior Management doesn't have a clue but listens to the voice at hand, i.e. Engineer's with no field or operational experience.
An Engineer with a science related degree can take a well control course and become the Senior Technical Advisor for American Bureau of Shipping even though he doesn't have a day of operational experience or Survey of equipment other than static pressure vessels.
ABS tends to listen to and promote incompetence and let competitors who shouldn't even be on the same platform capture the market.

I've been at ABS for a little over 18 months and have been very pleased with the direction the company is moving. I love the work I do and the people I get to work with, the benefits are great, and I'm starting to see leadership place more emphasis on career development and valuing the input of employees. I can't speak for all roles since some of this differs by department, but I personally have a a great work/life balance - there's enough work to keep me engaged, busy, and challenged (certainly never bored!) but not so much that I feel my personal/home life suffers in any way. My manager is fair, genuinely cares about me, and takes an active role in my career development/growth opportunities.

ABS is a good company and a strong pillar in the maritime industry. I enjoy coming to work every day.  It's vision to provide sophisticated digital services to it's customers is clear from the top down. ABS has an industry-leading benefits package that provides valuable programs to support it's employees health, financial security and retirement savings. ABS is one of the few companies in the country that still offers a fully funded pension plan!  The medical benefits are some of the most affordable around. For a family, the medical is $245/pay period and the family deductible is just $500. ABS does not charge you extra for your spouse if he/she has coverage with their current employer.

ABS is a friendly organization and the leadership team is striving to improve communication and transparency, while promoting safety and value to it's employees and customers.

The demeanor of the office building is very mundane and dull. Employees do not seem happy to be there. Some managers talk down to you and embarrass you in front of your peers. 
The hardest part of my job is pleasing my manager who does not demonstrate proper managerial skills. She would curse, make you feel inferior. We also lost an account due to her behavior. Therefore, my department would have to pick up the slack.

The marketing department employees are not happy to be at work when the manager is in the office. 
The most enjoyable part of the job was lunchtime and when the manager was out of the office. Co-workers take their time off when the manager is there. And make sure they work when the manager is out of the office for the day, or on vacation. 

My co-workers are great, but everyone is equally miserable with the manager(s).

Experienced two workplace environments, one out in the field and one in the office.  The field work allows more freedom and individual tasks while the office work can lead to more oversight and collaborative work.  In either areas, management fell short to provide the necessary support one would think can get.  Seems the top level management controls most everything and all those under needs to follow suit.  Be careful how you act around these managers as they will not be afraid to let you go.  
There used to be a sense of satisfaction in the work but now it is seemed missing as well.  Pretty much you can work your way up the ladder otherwise you will get stuck and there is no push for you to improve or continued support to learn more skills without shelling out your own money.

ABS is a classification society which focuses on rules and guide creation. Most of the jobs do not need engineering design. For senior engineers with years’ experience, ABS will not provide opportunities for further career development. How long people work with the company and who you know are more  important than what you can do. Making boss happy is more important for career development when people have no opportunity to show their skills and abilities through engineering project. Some middle managers micro manage the employees and there is no much life and work balance. All the work need to be approved by several levels, and the engineers have no control about the project, when to start or when to finish. The salary is low compared with other companies also. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Surveyor 5 salaries reported	$106,800 per year
Engineer 4 salaries reported	$88,500 per year
Senior engineer 7 salaries reported	$119,714 per year
Senior consultant 6 salaries reported	$89,667 per year
Principal software engineer 1 salary reported	$135,900 per year

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