environmental engineer

water resources engineer

shift leader

engineer

gis specialist

CDM Smith

I was initially excited to join CDM Smith as an entry-level Environmental Engineer and had high hopes for the future of my career. The company impressed me in a number of ways at first. However, the honeymoon lasted fewer than 6 months.

First red flag that I unfortunately ignored: the Cleveland office has a high turnover rate. Four young engineers (20s and 30s) left shortly before I joined, and a fifth young person left shortly thereafter. Hmmmm....

For the first few months, I enjoyed getting to know my coworkers and joined in with their jovial small-office culture. I was learning new things like AutoCAD, gaining some fun experience in the field, and felt welcomed. It felt like I fit right in and had found my home. I couldn't imagine why anyone would ever want to leave.

But I discovered why soon enough.

After about 6 months, I finally began to notice a detrimental trend; from the very beginning, my manager and supervisors hadn't been giving me nearly enough project work to do; certainly not enough to enable me to fill a 40-hour timesheet every week. (I only had 1 supervisor who genuinely tried to find work for me to do.) I soon learned that this is actually an ongoing firm-wide problem for junior-level engineers (Levels 1, 2, 3, and 4), because CDM Smith hires WAY too many entry-level engineers and then doesn't have nearly enough work to keep us all busy. Yet I was assured many times that layoffs RARELY affected entry-level engineers.

Haha. Nope. I got laid off just 1 week shy of my 2-year work anniversary. It happened to me!

Next, I began to notice something about most of the older project managers; if they assigned me something and I either failed to read their minds or didn't do well enough on a certain aspect of the assignment, they would never forgive me for it, never forget it, and never let me live it down. As time went on, if I didn't perfectly impress these project managers (both in the Cleveland office and in other cities' offices), their attitudes toward me would change, they would give me less work or no work, and they might not even answer my emails. The workload was feast-or-famine, and this cycle worsened and leaned more toward famine as time went on. I was told "this is just the nature of the consulting business." No, it's the nature of lack of business.

So of course, since they failed to keep me busy for the first 8 months that I worked there, they enacted the only logical solution... which was to hire on ANOTHER entry-level "engineer" to divide the insufficient workload even further. Shortly afterward, COVID hit (which didn't help), and we all got sent home for the next 7 months, which was not an ideal setup for me. The company is run by geniuses.

Next, an important aspect to know about the job is that the "engineering" work is really mostly mind-numbingly boring clerical / administrative busywork (i.e. document reading and editing, data entry, etc.) and you should expect it to be just like this for at least your first 5 years of employment, as the junior employees are given the grunt work that the senior employees don't feel like doing. This caveat was conveniently not mentioned in the job description or interview process. And the boring busywork is truly morale-crushing.

Management (both lower-level and upper-level) generally doesn't care about helping you succeed, but will be quick to judge you, especially if they can use you as a scapegoat to cover up their own incompetence. Management is also not very sympathetic about personal life issues that may interfere with work. (Oh, your car was totaled? Too bad... still don't want you making needful phone calls to insurance companies during normal business hours... even though you're using up your PTO.) Management also can't seem to decide whether it's efficiency or "staying billable" (filling a timesheet with project hours) that's more important, and they will gladly move the goalposts repeatedly so that you're never fulfilling the "right" priority. My manager gave me incorrect guidance and misinformation early on, and the crucial true information wasn't communicated to me until many months later (8 to 19 months), by which point a couple of otherwise unknown problems had already been fomenting the whole time uncorrected. And of course, I'm the one who got the blame, because it was easy for them to deflect the blame.

Furthermore, young junior-level employees are discouraged from sharing their own advice, ideas, and innovations. And there's no general suggestion box. You may actually face backlash from easily-offended project managers if you dare to suggest a more efficient way of getting a task done--- it sure happened to me.

Because there are too many of us entry-level employees, we are treated like an expendable commodity and ARE at risk of being laid off to cover for the incompetence of lower-level and upper-level management. I was led down a pathway of specialization that didn't fit with my passions, and this pathway (process-mechanical) didn't have enough work, so I lost my job because I wasn't "billable" enough. The newer entry-level employee, however, got to keep her job, because she was led down a different pathway of specialization (water resources engineering) that actually had a fair amount of work; the pathway that I was interested in and had originally requested for myself. Oh yeah, and she got to stay also because the Cleveland office "needed" a female.

The work overall wasn't too difficult, it just turned my brain to mush. (I learned very little after my first year.) You often aren't given a realistic amount of time to get tasks done the right way, and might have to work late into the evening / early in the morning to finish a task by a deadline. The project managers often like to delay your part of the project and then expect you to suddenly crunch to get it all done by a deadline they weren't prepared for due to their own procrastination. New projects (or phases of projects) are always set to begin "hopefully next month or the month after." Always in the future... never now.

The workplace culture in the Cleveland office changed, especially post-COVID. People are less friendly and avoid working in-person now even though they can. So, if you're out of sight, you're out of mind. The company culture is also changing; CDM Smith randomly started going "woke" in 2020 and has been diving deeper into that cesspool. The company claims to be "employee owned" but operates like a heartless big corporation. They also claim to "hire for careers; not jobs" but they definitely hire for jobs; not careers. They don't give you any career guidance or even bother informing you of all the niches within the company, much less how to get plugged into them.

The only reason why I'm giving the company 2 stars instead of 1 is because they have excellent benefits and pay a decent salary. But entry-level Environmental "Engineers" beware; you're in for a disappointing experience. The job is NOT real engineering; it's project administration. CDM Smith operates as the middleman that coordinates between the clients and the contractors. It's the contractors that do most of the real engineering work; CDM Smith mainly just guides it and puts its P.E. stamp of approval on the finished product.

If you're fresh out of college and need an "engineering" job, sure, go ahead and apply at CDM Smith. If hired, work there for maybe 1 year to gain some experience, update your resume, and then quickly move on to a better job at a better employer someplace else. Only 50% of my job description was fulfilled after 2 years; it isn't worth staying. If CDM Smith rejects you, be happy; you dodged a bullet. Trust me. CDM Smith wants to hire and retain human drones who will crank out the document reviews. Don't become yet another cog in their mindless machine.

From start to finish, my full-time "career job" at CDM Smith felt like a crummy civil engineering internship. Don't expect anyone at the Cleveland office to help you advance.

I was bitten by a dog (had to get stitches) and was laid off a week later. The reason was because I was working alone in the area however I was not aware I was by myself. 
Management wanted us to do both lead inspections and H20, but would only send us to areas that were already done with lead. They also enforced a different quota for employees doing H20. 
Management had no idea what was actually going on in the field and threw employees under the bus as a result. 
Every leader had different instructions and listening to one over the other led to more problems. 
One of our leads was nowhere to be found most of the time and they let go of the lead who actually communicated with people.
Management was passive aggressive towards employees seeking clarity.
They picked 2 favorites out of about 10 people and disregarded everyone else, giving them promotions and praise. 
Project Manager said multiple times "if you don't want to work due to weather it won't be held against you at all" and all of a sudden flipped it around. 
They pick and choose what to enforce and only enforce when things get hairy.
I was transparent, honest, and genuinely tried to do good work but from what I hear my numbers were "bad" but only because I was doing both programs, which out of nowhere they decided we should be doing both. In the beginning we were either H20 or lead. 

You'll only get recognition if you suck up to the managers here. That way you can get away with whatever you want 


I met some of the brightest people I've ever met in engineering at this firm; really good solid people who knew their stuff. If you were lucky enough to work with them, it was good. But often people were left without proper direction and that caused problems. Project management is pushed on younger staff before they really have enough experience to understand what they are managing and there really isn't enough senior staff overview to catch problems before they go too far. QA needs a lot of work as things get missed that shouldn't. Coordination of a project needs a lot of work especially between disciplines. Project meetings, whether formal or informal, need to take place to assess where a project truly is at a given time. Some form of minutes or schedule of deliverables (whether they be internal or external) needs to be developed and distributed to the project team with a person designated for that deliverable and a deliverable date (i.e. understand the critical path). It is important to make sure that the team knows who is responsible for said information and when it will be available. Upper management (at least in the mid-west, can't speak for the rest of the country) leaves a lot to be desired.  They certainly have the talent to be a fine company. It's the execution that is lacking.

Have worked here for over 6 yrs and received no training as requested during my reviews. The managers ignore the fact there is little billable work and we are required to be utilized at 86-87%.  Holidays and PTO factor into that rate and it is very difficult to maintain a utilization rate that high. if you don't maintain that rate and "play the game" with the managers don't expect to get a descent raise above cost of living/. Upper management continues to get late bonuses but the company says it is doing well yet minimal raises are given out and no contributions have been given to our out profit sharing in 3 yrs. 

There is no growth in the the federal group that i have seen unless you play up to mananagment

I have seen other managers in other departments and they are not as mine. They are kind, respective and don't micromanage to the point of looking for you while you go the restroom or checking in constantly.  It is a shame one person can cause so many to be unhappy yet HR has been constantly told and nothing is done about this manager.  

It is good to see other managers treating their employees better but the federal group is consistently filled with micromanaging leaders.

At work I would design and develop a variety of projects, often working on multiple projects with very tight deadlines simultaneously.
I learned numerous programming languages and environments and improved my skills in website development and programming.
The company is managed OK but not great. The applications developer technical path beyond the first 4 levels is not suited to software engineers and applies better to a researcher paradigm. As a result, it's difficult to advance technically unless you publish papers and actively contribute regularly to proposal writing. These contributions are dependent on your management providing you the opportunity to contribute, and thus not under your control.
My co-workers were very nice, the company has very friendly and easy to work with professionals.
A lack of managerial support and direction was the most difficult part of the job.
The most enjoyable part of the job was working with other developers to design and program new applications.

What is the best part of working at the company?
The people, we all work together like a well oiled machine.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
In my department I am not stressed until the systems fail, especially on a Monday.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
I am full remote, so I don't get into the office much, but we do have weekly teams calls to check in. We call each other during the day to ask questions and talk through any problems. You do not feel like you are floating without help, because we help each other. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Lets see, when I log on at 6:45 the first thing I do is read and respond to my emails.  then I check the number of expense claims in my que waiting to be processed. Mondays and Tuesdays expenses have top priority. if it is the first Wednesday of the month, the next thing I will do is the monthly cellphone reconciliations. If it is the second Wednesday of the month, I will reconcile the employee credit card refunds and if its the third Wednesday of the month, then I will process the procurement credit card invoice payment batch. My days/weeks are all different depending on what is due.

A typical day at work is exhausting. They unfortunately have become a company simply buying up other companies. The company has completely changed in the last 10 years. The new management, especially middle managers are soley focused on squeezing the last ounce of sweat out of you. Its sad, but true.

A once decent company dedicated to the bottom line. A horrible place to be and forget work/life balance. You will be lulled into a honeymoon period by clever managers, and 6 months in, the vice starts to tighten.


You will then be reminded at review time that the company simply "has no money" so minimum compensation increases are the norm, all the while asking you to work longer and harder.

It is interesting that CDM Smith does hand out massive bonus checks to all those managers who are successful in keeping the money from you as in minimum raises etc.


I am not a disgruntled employee, I am simply stating why after 18 years, I left and have never been happier I did.

It has become a terrible place to work and a money grabbing greedy firm like many others where the few at the top take it all...

Worked at the little elm waste water project for 3 months and watched a co-worker almost get killed. The project managers picked him to do a confined space entry and insert a inflatable bladder into a live storm sewer drain. They had no idea the specs on the bladder and over inflated it while he was still inside the manhole. The bladder ruptured and he was critically injured with concussion and multiple broken bones not to mention he could've been killed. The next day upper management tried to blame the mishap on all the employees and said they had nothing to do with the procedure itself. I quit that same day. My life or anyone else's life is not worth any amount of money. The hourly pay is good but there is so much that you won't see until months down the road. Be careful, look after yourself and your co workers. Stay away if your a potential employee. You can look up the 911 call to the little elm, tx emergency dispatch for a confined space entry that went wrong in mid November of 2015

This  company expects employees to "sell" their skills within the company to create and build billable time management. In other words, it's up to you to find projects to work on.  As a non-engineer employee I was competing with engineers who had better ties with project managers to get included on projects.  Group leaders (more or less your manager) have the job to push you to get on projects competing with OTHER company employees to get hours to bill to for various tasks.  The company also has demanding personal goals to be met (through the direction of team leaders) .  These yearly goals include certifications, online courses, speaking in conferences or exhibiting a personal project that relates to potential new projects.  The main problem with these goal requirements is it has to be conducted while maintaining a 90% billable on projects.  This means 10% of your time will be towards career/goal growth which means you cannot take any vacation time, take sick leave or you will fall below the 90% billable and be laid-off.

The company was great in the past, and still wants to be, but unfortunately it no longer is.  It's values are strongly advertised but people are not held accountable, so there is a gap between rhetoric and reality.  The company is very conservative, and young innovative people are not recognized or encouraged (despite all the talk of the opposite).  Because of a big billable focus, it feels like a grind where your value is based only on your last successful project.  If you have a manger that supports you, all is well, but the leadership is generally poor, so employee experiences vary widely.  Lots of talk about innovation, but very little evidence (other than a finely-tuned spin machine). CDM Smith is a company resting on past performance and a desperate need for everyone to drink the Kool-Aid.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Environmental engineer 1 salary reported	$70,887 per year
Water resources engineer 4 salaries reported	$97,612 per year
Shift leader 17 salaries reported	$144,685 per year
Engineer 7 salaries reported	$81,571 per year
Gis specialist 5 salaries reported	$64,900 per year

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