civil engineer

electrical engineer

surveyor

engineer

lead engineer

Westwood Professional Services

This was my first job out of school and worked for 3 years. Worst mistake of my life. No proper training. Its like you are thrown in water without teaching you how to swim. Terrible management. All the decisions are made by corporate in Minnesota, who have no understanding of how it affects the lower level employees. The company is like a nation in itself, where all the decision is made my upper management with nobody to have any say in it. Extreme favoritism. It doesnt matter what quality of work you do, it only matters how much you get on the right side of your manager. They made pandemic as an excuse to get rid of every single employee they didn't like, even when their revenue grew that year significantly. It was heartbreaking to watch more than a quarter of employees lose their jobs. Staying there for 3 years was the worst mistake of my career, and really pushed me back in my career. Bare minimum pay. 90% of my team turned over twice in 3 years. When I joined my current company, I realize how bad the company was. At least I learnt my lesson young, on what kind of company to avoid forever.

This company has absolutely nothing that they claim to provide for employees!  They threw me on a project that I was excited to take on, until I find out that it had no budget left and I was expected to work on weekends for free!  And I was supposed to take on my supervisors position/ duties,  according to my supervisor's boss, but they had no idea that she refused to hand anything over or delegate the work load. I was treated like an outcast because I wasn't in their "click" and it was truly a shock to know I left a good company to work for some heartless people given my circumstances. I was expected to be at work an hour away by 8am but my kids could not be dropped off at school until school opened at 7:45am.  And God forbid you have anything come up to where you can't make it in or have car issues on way to work, because they will treat you like you are not allowed to be human! I worked for free on wknds, was willing to do anything they needed, and stayed over my 8 hours most of the time working with the late crew, and none of that mattered. Lack of communication, unrealistic expectations, and cut throat environment. Hostile workplace! RUN!

You will be promised raises and bonuses that you will not get. Managers here will effectively like to you in an attempt to keep you. 

You will be told how to do something 5 different ways by three different people, and then your performance will be questioned.

Every project will have many hands on it until it is run into the ground and has become a drafting nightmare. 

There is no training. Some of the more senior office staff cannot adopt company standards and will routinely give bad advice to those who are less experienced.

This is an ALTA shop. You will not get exposure to many other aspects of surveying beyond title commitments. Have you heard how some companies want their warehouse staff to pack more boxes faster everyday? This is the survey version of that.

 I was routinely toldto get back to work while managers talk about non-work related topics. 

You can do ok here if you keep your head down, don't complain, don't talk to others, are ok with doing the same thing over and over again, and don't care.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Type of surveys. Equipment and trucks. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
100% travel,  experience is not compensated. Management prefers young inexperienced people, who have zero business surveying, and nit picks experienced crewchiefs. Also the younger guys can do no wrong even if they don't have the mental capacity to remember their job from one point to the next. Everyday, for months doing the same and still can't remember from morning to morning what to do and how to do it.  

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Mixed bag,  if you are experienced and take pride in your work producing quality work expect to be bashed over small trivial things.  On the other hand, if you can't do your job they will praise you and tell you that you are great. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Stressful, cringing everytime the email chimes wondering what you will be scolded for next.

Inadequate training and unrealistic expectations. Employees are given a heavy workload and if you ask for overtime you are denied. Management hides behind the carrot of a bonus to get more productivity. However, you soon learn the bonus amounts to little and staff often burn out. High turnover for the position and a nepotism culture. I was routinely berated and bullied in front of staff. Drama would carry forward in front of clients and other teams. Staff are extremely micromanaged. You cannot go one day without a team meeting to go over basic tasks. These meetings were primarily used to talk negatively about other staff. It’s a highly toxic culture that encourages working through breaks. You are expected to attend useless corporate meetings while juggling a heavy workload. Every time boundaries were attempted, the expectations kept changing. Management has allowed staff who have bullied employees to remain in the company. 

Many good, hard-working, talented professionals being mismanaged into the ground. Administration and management are more concerned with growth of company through acquisitions and ever-growing business contracts than supporting employees to produce quality engineered products. Disorganized management protects toxic, unproductive employees. Very few experienced staff are overworked to meet poorly managed schedules and also "train" growing number of new graduates. Training involves throwing new hires into large projects with little oversight or guidance.

Enjoyed the work quite a bit, but lack of project direction and transparency made the nuances of the job complicated. Little to no training; be prepared to pick things up on your own. Company grew exponentially in a short amount of time via mergers and acquisitions, with upper management touting goals and success, meanwhile coworkers benefits get stripped little by little. 

Westwood tends to hire via temp agency, which can often set unreasonable completion criteria (such as 1000 hours - no OT, no PTO use or accrual, no holidays/company days). When holiday bonuses were disbursed in person, I was the only one in the office who didn't receive one. It was a slap in the face. Management was tone-deaf and out of pocket in their actions at times, such as legitimate physical abuse. Work was great, but the work environment could be downright toxic. 

* Very knowledgeable doesn't equate to effect managing/communication.
* During the interview, management made it very appealing to come onboard, promising a raise after 3 months, as well as for applying to attain a particular certification (both were never honored).
* Cliquish office culture.
* Mistakes are frowned upon.
* Communication is abysmal -- you have to fight to get feedback.
* Management will talk down about other employees during workload meetings.
* Management pushes their "Core Values", but refuses to acknowledge those who accentuate that work ethic.
* Management consistently says one thing then walks it back. They will encourage you to work as much as needed, then excoriate you for your dedication and initiative (both being "core values") to work on the weekend.

The benefits are really good and the company seems to care about employees overall, so it's a shame to have to write this in a negative way. The work is very monotonous (basically one type of work constantly) and despite having meetings about how much work there is, there is too much downtime. I have found myself bored constantly. 

Training is lackluster at best as well. There were multiple times where I thought I was doing something correctly, but apparently wasn't following a specific standard that I had never been shown. 

I do not recommend giving a two week notice as you will most likely be let go before your time is up. But there is so much work to do! 

A typical day involved completing assigned tasks, coordinating with others, and meeting deadlines. I learned to manage responsibilities more independently and improved my communication and attention to detail. While there were opportunities to grow, the overall workplace culture could feel tense at times, which made collaboration more challenging. The hardest part of the job was navigating differing communication styles, while the most enjoyable part was gaining new skills and working with supportive coworkers.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Civil engineer 43 salaries reported	$95,993 per year
Electrical engineer 63 salaries reported	$102,012 per year
Surveyor 25 salaries reported	$22.82 per hour
Engineer 9 salaries reported	$94,167 per year
Lead engineer 15 salaries reported	$127,167 per year

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