analyst

civil engineer

project manager

intern

marketing coordinator

Kimley-Horn

The are some professional and very talented people here, but the culture epitomizes profit and greed over everything else. If that's your thing, sure go for it. HR will tell you that KHA has a "work hard, play hard" mentality. This is really translation for the expectation of spending your entire waking hours in the office working or risk being fired.

A 46 hour minimum work week feels like a 1920's sweat shop atmosphere. "You can't be successful if you work less than 46 hours" is written in the employee manual.  This is the most archaic, untrue, and BS language I've ever seen. Your time is micromanaged down to the minute. Don't even think about asking to see your kids music performance at 3:30. There is absolutely no work/life balance. I was never home to have dinner with my family. There are many there who think this is normal and I really feel sad for them, because it's not.

There is zero regard for employee growth. The minute your utilization UT drops, you are let go, even if you've had excellent performance. Employees are disposable. Managers will browbeat employees to work so that projects can finish well above a 3.0 multiplier and celebrate their 5 figure bonuses and the corporate culture champions this practice. For public sector clients, it is completely unethical to claim you need senior engineer hours to complete a project, then switch to the lowest possible engineers or interns in order to maximize your profit at the taxpayers expense.

Annual salary was a little low, but they try to sell you on a getting an unspecified large bonus for all of the overtime you'll work. Instead of a large bonus, I was given a decent sum to my 401k. However, the company will let you go before you have much vesting, and gets to take it back. Not only is this practice unethical, it should be illegal. It equated to paying me less than 1/2 of my rate for the several hundred overtime hours I worked. 

I've been with several companies, from the largest in the world, down to a small business. KHA is by far the worst.

Pro's:
- High bonuses (see con's as well for this) & 401k and Profit Sharing
- Great People to work with 
- Clear growth and path to being a shareholder (only for engineers, if youre anything else like business, accounting, marketing then there isn't a clear path to ownership)

I have no hatred for this company, I really liked my few years there. During my time these are the downsides I noted before I left to go to another engineering firm.

Con's:
- Salaries are pretty low and the bonuses are taxed very high so you'll likely only see about 60% or less of that bonus 
- Work/Life balance is impossible. It's an extra effort firm so you're required to work more than 40 hours a week. 
- The "Half Day Friday" is absolutely fake. No one actually leaves early and most people use that day to catch up on hours if they had a doctor appt. or something else in the week
- Meeting UT (Utilization) is insane. As an engineer we bill our clients by the hour. That means 96% of every day worked needs to be billable work. If you have to attend a training then you have to make that hour(s) up. If you go on vacation then you're UT drops and you have to make that up. UT is tied directly to bonuses and compensation.  


MAJOR CON:
- Kimley-Horn is not as nationally recognized as they make you feel. They also use the designation of "Analyst" and "Production Intern" for interns and engineers in training. So if you do decide to leave, it can be challenging getting your resume to a hiring manager. I was told by one that he put my resume to the side because he didn't know what analyst meant. When in reality I was actually overqualified for the role.

All in all, take everything with a grain of salt. Your experience at KH is also tied to the team you're assigned to. Some people have more stress than others. At the end of the day it's a ton of engineers that are also playing the role of managers, accountants and design experts. Not all of them are good at everything. 

I took Kimley-Horn over another position I was at for about a year. That was a big mistake. Kimley-Horn is far too complicated than what it needs to be. They tend to over analyze things to make them more complicated than is necessary. Everyone there thinks they're the best and the smartest so you always felt on guard. 

The pay was ok, other companies pay a lot more for the work you were expected to do. I was advised when I started that I would be in the parking garage across the street. Nope, I was in a very unsafe parking garage 4 blocks away on the 6th floor. That added a lot to my commute time that I wasn't expecting and was lied to about.

Management was poor in the Accounting department. My Supervisor was all over the place and couldn't handle problems as they arose. I understand going to meetings in the corporate world; however, expect to be in "brainstorming" meetings all day long at Kimley-Horn. I wasted so much time going to unnecessary meetings.

I would not recommend working at Kimley-Horn. They have a lot of rewards and accreditation's for being family-friendly and empowerment towards women. That's incorrect. Everyone that worked there was expected to work 45 hours (5 extra unpaid hours each week) and the majority of the people there worked as soon as they got home or stayed in the office until late at night. That was my main reason for leaving because I find time with my family to be more valuable than work. If you can't complete your work during work hours, then you're either inefficient or overworked.

I learned a lot from working here. A fast paced environment that allows younger staff to develop quickly. The skillsets you develop will depend on the type of work that needs to be done. If your supervisor or another PM needs an analyst to perform a specific task for a client you will learn how to do that task very well. Any opportunities to learn skills you think may be beneficial to your career that may not immediately benefit a PM will be hard to develop. All that being said, I have positioned myself to move on from this company with an advantage in my technical capabilities.

This firm has a demographic problem, senior management is predominantly made up of white men if not, white women. The firm has a very strong Kool-Aid culture of people buying into the firm as a family. It is very hard to fit in if you have a different cultural experience than the majority of people in your office and if you don't have a great individual relationship with a PM that can trust to pass their clients off to you. There are few people of color in the firm at all and it is very challenging to see a path of advancement as young staff if you have a different upbringing. I am aware this is also an industry wide problem however, I don't believe the firm took much initiative to fix their problem as it did not seem to be a profitable effort.

KH is the best place to work for the right kind of person. If you are a go getter who wants to help others succeed, and make their clients successful, while getting paid well...then this is the place to be.

YES, you will work more than 40 hours a week. Probably 45-47 hours a week on average. This is normal for consulting. If a consulting firm tells you they work 40 hours a week they are either lying or you will not be paid well. That may be okay for you, which is fine.

1. I have never been told I can't take vacation or work from home or leave early/show up late. I get my work done when is best for me.
2. Bonuses are insane! Take whatever you think a good bonus is and double it (or more). I was fortunate to have scholarships, but my friend at KH paid off 80K in students loans in 5 years thanks to our bonuses.
3. KH gives nothing to your 401K year 1. Year 2 and going forward if you put 4% of your salary + bonus into your 401K, KH will give you 18%!!
4. We're ahead of our peers technically. The career growth is nuts.
5. Who doesn't love PMing a project 3 years after graduating?

Again, KH isn't for everyone, and that is okay! People have been unsuccessful at KH, but successful at other companies. Anyone who says they are overworked either should not work in consulting or they don't communicate how they are feeling to management.

Kimley-Horn is widely regarded as a top-tier engineering and planning firm known for its strong culture, technical depth, and client service. The company works across transportation, land development, water, and environmental projects, and it has a reputation for delivering practical, buildable solutions. Many employees praise its entrepreneurial environment, robust training, and performance-based bonuses, which can be lucrative for high performers. The firm invests in mentorship and encourages early responsibility, helping young engineers grow quickly. However, the pace can be demanding, with long hours during peak deadlines and high expectations for responsiveness. Work–life balance varies by team and office, and the culture rewards those who are proactive and client-focused. Overall, Kimley-Horn appeals to professionals who value ownership, accountability, and career growth. For clients, it is often seen as reliable and responsive; for employees, it can be both rewarding and intense, depending on priorities and workload, and supports long-term professional development goals.

Kimley-Horn undoubtedly offers wonderful benefits, freedom to build your own career, and a really great network of coworkers, but it definitely comes at the expense of flexibility and your personal life. With the rapid return to office in the middle of the pandemic, I know many parents in particular are at the end of their rope, and the company has been slow to pivot to allow more flexibility or remote work long term despite repeated cries.

Long term I know Kimley-Horn will adjust, it just may be too late for many of it’s top young talent who are ready for a new normal.

In the end, KH is a great place for young employees willing to put their career first and live for the job, but in the end, many who hit mid level find themselves transitioning to other firms in order to regain some work-life balance.

Pros:
Decently competitive salary and benefits, approachable teammates, events outside of work.
Cons:
Extreme micromanaging and time surveillance and expectations to produce OCD perfectionist work within unreasonable and unfeasible time frames, expectations of working 10 to 11 hour days and upwards of 50 hours a week. Zero work life balance because of this. Team supervisors are unapproachable and utilize gaslighting and tactics of constantly comparing you to peers if you are not producing perfect work the first time yet are unwilling to provide routes of training to higher level employees. The majority of office staff are new college grads that can be hired on at a cheaper billing rate and can be trained to become a robotic workhorse. If you appreciate a more laid back and slower paced environment where you can be appreciated for your work, this is not the place for you.

My time here has been short but overall the benefits are nice but not worth the environment. People work overtime every single day. And I have yet to see what the bonuses are like but I’ve heard they’re huge. I doubt they are big enough to compensate for the amount of hours of overtime salaried employees work. The people are nice and helpful though, people are usually willing to help. But there’s a constant sense of urgency every day because everyone is behind on a project. They overload everyone with projects and laugh about how stressed they are instead of just… not over loading their employees. The UT system is dumb and you are expected to work overtime for any PTO taken, including holidays in order to meet your utilization time goal. What’s the point of time off if your have to work yourself to the bone just to get that time?  

What is the best part of working at the company?
Obviously the people there for the most part are great to work with because you’re in the dump together. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Deadlines and budgets, like most jobs but this was the most intense turnarounds and budget management. They’re obsessed with having everything billable so they lack training. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Clingy and Toxic. They force you into sharing things about yourself for anyone who prefers work to be work and not a social group hang it was tough. The quick turnarounds on jobs and absolute noise from people gossiping made it impossible to get work done quietly. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
10 hours days no lunch. Constant emails and random side quests from jobs that should have been updated weeks ago but nobody has enough time to QC so everything is rushed.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Analyst 17 salaries reported	$87,559 per year
Civil engineer 1 salary reported	$85,000 per year
Project manager 11 salaries reported	$105,700 per year
Intern 3 salaries reported	$24.67 per hour
Marketing coordinator 4 salaries reported	$76,375 per year

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