software engineer

inspector

system engineer

senior software engineer

engineer

Parsons

Typical day at Work

As warehouse supervisor I preplanned what were to be done in the warehouse. It will be discussed after the safety meeting by our manager.He asked me always of what were still to be done in the warehouse at the Lay down yard. Each morning we stressed what were the priorities which needs to be done first down to the least priority on that day.

What you learned and Management:

-Pre-planning was very important in the smoothness of running the yard. The flow of work was very smooth. I also learned during the receiving of items. I should know it was the real items ordered and wthout defects, wether its fragile or not; First In First Out materials especially the consumable ones; it should be properly stored;

My Co-worker:

Besides, I learned how to drive forklifts, 10Ks, skytraks and delivery trucks, microsoft word, excell and search engine. In the laydown yard I handled people of different nationalities such as: Iraqi locals, Indians, jordanians, Romanians, Thailanders and Filipinos.

The hardest part:

-When our job contract was almost finish, we were told construct a warehouse at FOB Hammer. We travelled 3 hours from our camp passing through civilian areas where the presence of insurgents were eminent. We stayed there for 3 weeks setting up the warehouse. After getting it done we went back to our camp.In our way back, an IED went off hit one truck at the other side of the road the civilian said. Good that it happened 30 minutes before we passed on that area.

The Most enjoyable part:

Every Saturday afternoon after office hour our warehouse manager grilled meat, sausages, and chicken for all of us where we ate together joking and doing fishing along the man-made lake of late Saddam Haussein.

Things have not been going well on the Federal Services side of the business. There have been loss of programs with tons of layoffs and the company doesn't seem to care to retain their engineers. This is causing remaining talent to leave due to lack of job security.

Leadership is disgracefully poor. Especially upper. Some in leadership only care to advance their personal careers and not the company's. There is definitely the "good ole boys" mentality when it comes to individuals that get promoted and move up the ladder. 

There have definitely been "unusual" promotions. Some promotions to VP that have left some folks baffled. It doesn't appear program performance is a criteria in selecting individuals to promote to VP. Dozens of folks are getting laid off and programs are disappearing, meanwhile folks running those programs are getting promoted. Just doesn't seem right to me.

Pay is another issue. It wasn't until I started looking around when I discovered the company's lower than market pay. In addition, compensation increases are minimal. Don't expect a huge bump in pay with annual compensation increases. In order to correct below market pay, some folks get competing offers from other companies. They use these offers to get the adjustment they desire. Unfortunately, there is an unsaid disdain for individuals that do this by management. To top this off there are no bonuses.  Also, pay discrepancies are crazy. Individuals with the same job title and function, can have a difference of $82K in pay. 

Upper management doesn't seem to care nor listen to employee suggestions. Since it's a big company it's to be expected.

If you are a dedicated worker with great skills but too proud to brown nose, stay away from this company.  

A Boss is different from a leader.  I am sure that there are a few good managers within the company, but the ones that I had worked under over a period of ten years are unprofessional with huge egos.  They are no role models and no leadership.  Lot of favoritism given to those who plays the office politic games.  

Make sure to buy your "Boss" and "Boss' boss" the big $ gift cards every Christmas.  Pay for their drinks when they invite you to the happy hours.  Buy lunch on the two boss' b-day.  And always claps and agrees when your boss bad mouth their peers behind the closed doors.  Having any integrity or slight conscious will bring you nothing but extreme unfair workload with impossible turn around time, insane conflicting priorities plus constant deadline changes. Your boss will go out of her/his way to make your life miserable.  Worse, the credit and promotion are always given to the "players" instead of the one who actually worked. 

At the end, your boss will lay you off under the excuses of lack of works or redundant position when it comes the opportunity of Company Restructure even though you have been forced to work Unpaid overtime every week.  If you wonder who is going to do the work after the real workers are gone?  No worry.  The boss will justify  to the CFO to hire outside consultant and spend more money that was cut from the laid-off employees!

1. Clear all the Inspection Requests. Read all the Contractual letters marked for my action and draft reply for signing Authority's review and signature. Advice contractual issues to the team at site. Review Cash Flow and Contractor's Interim Payment (if submitted).Co-ordinate with my HO and Client when needed. Advise contractor on day to day basis for the proper submission of IRs and there approvals etc.
2. Learned how a construction project runs at site from start till end with many issues raised and amicable solutions found.
3. Management is vital for the successful completion of any project. Proper management makes any trivial issue very simple and acceptable for all the parties involved in the construction projects.
4. Working atmosphere makes toughest works very easy and enjoyable. Working with my boss (Syrian) and senior (US) in Parsons for the Ministry of Finance Project in Abu Dhabi was very learning and wonderful experience for me. Also working with my boss (Palestinian) in ACE International for Abu Dhabi Municipality Project was wonderful.
5. Hardest Part of the Job was to clear four pending Interim Payments for the contractor from the day one after joining a project (re-measured contract).
6. Most enjoyable part of the job was with Samsung at Palm Jebel Ali because Contractor was very co-operative, Professional and respect for the Consultants.

1. Responding to the Request for Proposals (RFP) from the Pharmaceutical, Biotechnology Industry, R&D Firms, Authorities and Universities.
2. Assembling team of the Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology Process Engineering Experts supported by the Architects, Engineers and Construction Managers, as it is required for the complex EPCM project execution.
3. Planning project execution with cost and fees estimating, assembling Multidisciplinary Proposals and presentation to the clients.
4. Programming Facility Space Requirements, Planning New Buildings and Site Improvements.
5. Coordination and supervision of Process Experts, Architects, Engineers and Construction Mangers during conceptual design and Basis of Design (BOD) documentation.
6. Coordination of the Construction Documentation and project execution
7. Controls and responsibility for the Costs, Schedules, Scope and Client Relations.
8. 40% time dedicated to travel within USA, Europe and Mexico

It's a big company now.  

Good people are found here and local management is supportive.  It was a fairly nice work environment pre-COVID. But day-to-day work seemed to lack tangible direction unless there was a specific emergency.  In general projects seemed to be created as proofs-of-concept but expected to produce deliveries as if there had been significant formalization.  

Acquisitions of smaller companies made things very difficult for employees of the acquired companies: repeated benefits corrections, corporate desktop/IT policies not supportive of software development (admin access, ability to run services, corporate software restrictions incompatible with project-specific technology, etc.), constantly changing HR and IT security policies, sloppy network transition/integration with acquired companies.

It often seemed  more important to demonstrate training, certification and adoption of concepts such as SAFe than to acknowledge gaps between the real world and where such concepts would make sense to apply.

Corporate middle-management seemed like a closed community: promotions seemed to be based on the existing structure/management/friends of whoever/whatever acquired company was in control of the next acquisition. 

A typical day began with meeting with Engineering to discuss any updates on changes in the daily schedule designed to terminate the Agent VX.

I would meet with the laboratory specialists to verify if there had been any safety reports, spills or accidents from the previous day. None were ever reported while I was there. The laboratory specialist were key in helping us destroy the Agent VX. 

Reviewed Safety practices daily with the Safety Manager and determined if there were any issues from handling of the Agent the day before. None were reported.

Met with Government personnel on a bi-weekly basic to provide status of the issuing of purchase order and Subcontracts for various requirements to assure all contract deliveries were within budget and one time for delivery,

Management and Co-workers were serious Professionals who understood the importance of a safe environment to destroy the Agent VX.

I also managed the Contract for the Facility Personnel who were responsible for cleaning of the interior building on the entire site in Newport, Indiana. 

We finished the program early and most of the people who were required to stay to close-out were there when I left the company to return to Indianapolis, IN.

Parsons is the fourth employer I've had on the same Government Contract in a 29 year period.  I have worked in 47 States, Two US territories, and 2 foreign countries on this contract.  Asking my Job Location is irrelevant because the surveyor doesn't allow you to put "Nationwide" or "Worldwide" as an option. I put the World Headquarters as the location, although I've never been there.   I've had job assignments as short as a week and as long as 3 1/2 years.  I even changed employers during one assignment because I started the assignment as an employee of one of their subcontractors.  I've worked in -40° weather and 120° weather and everything in between. Sometimes I work inside, sometimes outside.  The cab of my truck is often my office.  

Parsons is a Worldwide company that works mostly for Government Clients.  They build Airports, Bridges, Roads, Water Treatment plants, and much much more.  In my job I do not report to a Parsons office or facility, I report directly to the client's facility would could be a huge building or a remote mountaintop site, or even located out in the middle of a farmer's field. The job is full time travel to anywhere the client has a need of our services.  In my job position, if there was no assignment available at the moment, I didn't work and didn't get paid for that period.

What is the best part of working at the company?
So much going on.  Lots of ways to connect.  Like I was a member of the AI/ML group, and the software dev group.  There was a remote lunch presentation by the guild most Wednesdays.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Client meetings with important customers.  Just like any other contracting company.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
It really varies with where you you work, and what team you are on.  I know Parsons likes to attract young people just out of college.  They have an office called "the Farm" for new folks waiting on the their clearance to come in.  They have game days and host a capture the flag cybersecurity events.  My first team were some really talented developers, fun and I learned a lot.  We were on the 12th floor, overlooking the Potomac river and Georgetown.   Later, on another contract, my entire team were remote in another state, no, three states!  I got to work from home full time.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
That really, really depends on the team.  Because I am a developer, all my days start with a 15 minute meeting to report what I'm doing and what I'm going to do.  Although one of my teams met once a week.  A little frustrating -- especially remote work -- so I pushed people to chat about the project whenever possible.

A typical day at work would usually start with a cup of coffee with the project director discussing the to-do list for that particular day and then I head to my workstation and start working my magic. I have gained experience in one of the important software (Micro-Station) which is used by highway engineers to design and analyze the road. I was also able to observe how traffic distribution and traffic count was put into action in real life since Parson is responsible of more than 90% of Dubai infrastructure. Moreover, the field trip is where knowledge gained in office was put into action, where I got the pleasure to go to Dubai water Canal (one of the huge infrastructure project in the world). I was able to observe the routing of utilities using Micro-tunneling and Horizontal Directional Drilling. Management was an upstanding characteristic of the company as the office was organized in a way to optimize the output of each engineer. Co-workers always made time whenever I had a doubt in the project I was working on even if they were busy. The fact that it was a straight 10 hours with 30minutes lunch break was the hardest part through the job. On the other hand, getting to understand the engineering concept behind every detail in the road.

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