project accountant

engineer

design manager

it support specialist

intern

I worked at HDR for just over one year. The main pro is how flexible they are with your working time/work life balance. My schedule there was ideal. Another pro is that there are a handful of genuine people working there who strive to be good coworkers and team players. The majority of people I crossed paths with while working there did not fall into that category. Many of the people in my office seem very disgruntled and unsatisfied. Many are the long-timers who were at a previous company that was absorbed by HDR and miss how things were at their old company. I was told to lie about hours I worked by someone who took me out to a jobsite within my first couple of months there. He didn't give me a job number and told me to count the time at the jobsite as my "lunch break" (which is unpaid). Additionally, all of the department meetings for my team were scheduled during lunch, as are many other meetings and an insane amount of non-useful, time-wasting lunch and learns. Not only does this hijack your only personal time for the day, but you are also basically expected to work for food (usually pizza or other unhealthy food that does not exceed some predetermined cheap amount that the meeting organizer has permission to spend per person....somewhere in the $8 per head range....less than minimum wage in many places).  My timesheet was rejected by my supervisor on multiple occasions when I counted time for meetings that he asked me to attend on my lunch break....I consider that work (not a lunch break), and I don't expect HDR to work for free. So why would they expect me to work for free?

Management does not communicate well. Out of all the project related e-mails I've sent, I am not exaggerating when I say that I've received responses to about 10% of those e-mails. This habit of very poor communication is being passed on to all of my younger coworkers who have not been exposed to a more professional environment, and I feel badly for them. I was scolded for communicating via e-mail and told by my supervisor to just go and talk to people about projects at their desk. Just for fun one day, I noted how many visits I received from an assistant project manager and another teammate on the same project throughout the day. I received about 20 unexpected, drawn out  visits between these two teammates in one day. Additionally, I received conflicting information from each person during those visits and from the lead project manager regarding the requirements for the project. This could have been avoided if the lead PM for our team had sent out a simple e-mail to put the requirements down in writing for everyone and for future reference. Duplication of efforts and rework was a common theme with all of the projects I worked on at HDR.   How can someone efficiently accomplish work under those circumstances? It was very frustrating to say the least. Sometimes it's more efficient to e-mail and outline what is required. Sometimes it's more efficient to discuss something in person. Additionally, I was often working "blindly" on a project. I asked questions about deadlines and other expectations and was never told (multiple times on multiple projects). There should be a balance, and project managers need to be trained on management, communication, and level the of management required. I experienced either micromanagement or complete lack of management. There was no in between. 

After a year of working at HDR, I am left with the impression that the company is growing at a rate that management is not prepared for and that they are poorly trained for (or not trained at all). You are just a number at this company which is acquiring/absorbing other companies on almost a weekly basis. 

Additionally, if you work part time here, they literally will only allow you to count 6 hours for holiday time. That is stingy. There are no bonuses. I've worked at much smaller companies, which give very generous bonuses and will not dock your holiday pay based on whether you are part- or full-time. If you are considering working here or are already working here, you just have to fully understand "the beast" that is HDR and fight for what you deserve because they're not going to give it to you otherwise.

When I interviewed at HDR I spent a long time talking to staff about their work, and heard nearly unanimous enthusiasm for the company (although I was never able to speak to someone who worked under my prospective supervisor). Many people said that because of employee ownership, they really respected WLB and had reasonable expectations around working hours. I thought it was too good to be true, and at least for me, it was... There is a very bizarre culture here. The compensation is pretty low for a private consulting firm, with a lot of traditional corporate bureaucracy (billable hours, utilization targets, etc.) that makes it difficult for someone with a high target to take advantage of certain resources and opportunities. Despite the low pay, everyone here seems to have that traditional consulting ethic of working to death (sending emails and making phone calls between 3-6am, asking for things at 9pm due the next morning). In their defense, from what I can tell, it's super dependent on who your supervisor is and what your role is in the company. If you're interested in working for HDR, I would recommend talking to someone who works with your prospective supervisor because otherwise you could be trapped with someone who is completely removed from reality. But the predominant culture is very heavy handed with pressure to work crazy hours. They might not tell you that you HAVE to do that like they do at other consulting firms, but the implication is there and pretty pervasive. 

I have to give them credit. They must have read indeed's manual on how many great things you have to have to be a great workplace and said "we need to do all that stuff". The problem was that only about 5-10% of the employees were involved, who were then generally so desperate to get others to join or participate that the invites to "come enjoy this new way to virtue signal with us" that it bordered on harassment. You can expect a very thin patina of awesomeness when you are looking for a great conference room to meet in or office location, but in general, one of the most expensive engineering firms on the planet with little to none of those rates and dollars actually trickling down to employee wages. Unless you do the required "I left for a couple years" move, in which case you can expect a modest bump in pay, just enough to engender hostility from the folks who have stuck around to slug it out. Those highest in the industry rates aren't for employees you shilly sit.

My days at HDR were very busy.  I started the day by reviewing the available Incident Reports and Service Requests to see what needed to be assigned next.  I would then take what was next on the list with the highest priority given to out of work incidents.  The day required me to balance taking new incidents with completing my currently assigned workload.  We also were required to handle requests for assistance via email, instant message, phone calls and walk ups.  

Everything that I know about IT I learned while at HDR.  My training came from learning by doing and asking questions.  I did take a course on beginning computer repair but to be honest, my job was only rarely dealing with actual computer repair.  We mostly did troubleshooting of issues and those that we were unable to fix ourselves were escalated to the vendor that we had for a vendor technician to repair.  Most of my job dealing with software errors, installs, requisitions (hardware and software), lease replacements and things of that nature.  

The hardest part of the job was keeping up with the constant tasks that IT management would send to us while also trying to keep up with the incidents and service requests in a timely fashion.

The most enjoyable part of my job was seeing the reactions on peoples faces when I was able to resolve an issue that was causing them not to be able to work.

HDR is an enormous, multinational company. My opinion of the leadership team and the HQ big-wigs was positive: semi-annual all-staff virtual meetings, honest discussion of the company's future, etc. The "employee-owned" aspect is a big deal at HDR. For newcomers it means basically nothing, because you get none of the benefits of employee ownership unless you've worked there for several years. 
The Bellevue office (basically HQ within WA state) was problematic. Every young professional felt we weren't being compensated fairly given the high cost of living, meanwhile we knew some of of the higher ups in the office were earning upwards of $250k - definitely felt like a kick in the gut. So the middle-career people who've been with HDR for 5+ years love it, while I observed that younger-career professionals were a revolving door, coming and going every 2 years. 
I think for people who genuinely just want to pick a job and stick with it, HDR would be great. If you want to like every aspect of your job (the people, the work, the location, the benefits, etc.), then you'll definitely be able to find something NOT to like, and then will have a hard time making it to the 5-year sweet spot. 

When there is a lot of work going around things are good. But the company is really top heavy in most offices, I worked in a few. So there is a lot of pressure for production staff since it is so thin. Lots of turnover, about 45-50% in the office I was in for 4 years. Once the work gets thin, depending on the supervisor, they just hang you out to dry to look for work yourself. So then your utilization goals drop, and not matter what big projects you've helped with, all those late hours getting big jobs out, doesn't matter anymore, your out of there. If your wages start to get too high the supervisors complain and don't want you working on their job at your rate. Other employees have cut throat tactics to keep work on their desk, like talk bad about you behind your back etc. Love the type of work when it was there, but it's not about the work it's about the people. If your a manager it's great, but if your production staff if can be tough if your under certain supervisors.

Employee owned Stock, with absolutely no voters rights? Emphasis is not on quality architecture or design, it is on profit, profit and more profit. Talking out of both sides of their mouth, give client good service, but don't spend any extra time doing it. When you run out of work for two weeks, congrats you WILL be laid off, doesn't matter how many good projects you completed, length of time in, or how many client calls you took on weekends. If you manage other employees, you actually will have the same utilization goals as the people you manage!! Also, in my opinion they have a bad client reputation in many local areas which prevents winning new projects.
Does anyone actually apply to work here? No, usually you are just the victim of a buyout. Salary was fair, but that was because salary was fair at company that was bought out. All bonus incentives were also taken away with NOTHING replacing them.
If they buyout your firm, suggest looking immediately elsewhere, unless you are the owner.

A typical day at work started with a cup of coffee and 2-3 engineers and/or project managers asking me to type/mail/process letters/memos/reports or get meetings together.
I learned how to multitask and be diplomatic trying to help all my engineers and managers.
The manager I had was a wonderful person, very dedicated to the job, but also very human to his employees.
I worked with 8-15 engineers at a time. Juggling was my business on “who’s on first”. We all had a great companionship/working relationship in the Water/Wastewater department that I worked in. There are the times that we would go on weekend trips together (snow skiing, camping at the beach, bike riding, and walks).
The hardest part of the job was getting information in time to finish Request for Proposals. Sometimes we would have to work all weekends in order to make deadlines.
The employees I worked with were the best!!! I would love to work with any of them again.

HDR was a very pleasant place to work, encouraged continuing education / professional growth. Fiscally conservitive, and we paid bills on time. There is strong corporate support from the Omaha, NE. office when needed. During my past 8 years my primary clients were Scripps Healthcare and San Gorgonio Memorial Hospital, Kaiser and Palomar medical center. I had an excellent team of designers and architects to whom i provided daily leadership. I was also involved in business development, Managed project schedules, budgets, financial projections and negociated owner and consultant contracts. I interfaced with other architects in southern California. I enjoyed the professional relationship with each team member. I recignized team members for their success in reaching milestones and job well-done accomplishments.

HDR has poor management and little guidance on trying to advance in the workplace. I compare it to a sweatshop as they over work people and do not compensate them accordingly. They don't value people in the work place; that is why the turnover is so high. (especially in marketing). I worked within the marketing department. Make note marketing within an Engineering firm is very different from how marketing business is conducted at other companies. If you take a job within marketing at HDR think of it as a glorified administrative position. The hardest part of the job is working with project managers/client managers because most of them are inexperienced and more than half the time your chasing people down to do their own job.
This is a good company to get some experience under your belt, make connections/relationships within. But this is not a place where you want to stay for too long and get stuck; because their is little growth and advancement. This can be a high stressful environment.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Project accountant 5 salaries reported	$81,615 per year
Engineer 3 salaries reported	$96,000 per year
Design manager 3 salaries reported	$89,333 per year
It support specialist 7 salaries reported	$33.36 per hour
Intern 6 salaries reported	$22.50 per hour

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