Arup Reviews

Pros

Work on fantastic projects
Good company ethos
Good range of benefits
Access to some of the best technical minds in the world
The pride you have of working for, or having worked for Arup

Cons

It seemed that the senior management has apparently abandoned Ove Arup's philosophy
Very result driven now
Promotion is very slow in some regions
Pay much lower than elsewhere
Recent redundancy consultations poorly handled

Advice to Senior Management

Read Ove Arup's Key Speech again. And apply it to how you run the company.

Pros

Great work life balance, Friendly people, a great vision and mission for unifying the purpose and vision of the organisation.

Cons

Not very commercially focused, some tolerance and promotion of poor performers. Vision not executed well, with actual performance and achievement not really managed well.

Advice to Senior Management

Ensure poor performers are managed, particularly principals.
Focus on managing the scope and profit on projects, not just the technical outcome.

Pros

Excellent colleagues. Proud to work there. Limited hierachy. Availability of senior staff. Cutting-edge projects.

Cons

Low Salary.
HR Control over promotion.
Limited time to innovate.

Advice to Senior Management

Continue communication effort.

Pros

Opportunities galore and given enough space to excell

Cons

Rewards not sattisfying, Arup need to look after it's employees

Pros

Great people, great company, fun atmosphere, prestigious and interesting projects, challenging work, highly intelligent coworkers, open information sharing globally across the firm, opportunities for learning, opportunities to create your own path and learn what you want.

Cons

Long hours, and not so great if you end up with one of the few terrible managers.

The vast majority of the people there are great and you'll likely love it, especially at the lower levels where you aren't a threat to anyone. However, there is a bit of political game-playing going on at the higher levels, and unfortunately some of the leaders with high integrity are blind to the games of the people without it. The ones who do see it may not be able to help you.

Advice to Senior Management

Stay true to the Ove Arup spirit. Be aware that communication between staff and management is not as open as you seem to think, and that there may be a few who don't belong. Not necessarily because they aren't productive or smart enough, but because they are willing to damage good people to further themselves. They are poisoning corners of an otherwise amazing company. Your employees who work for these managers do not have the options to speak up that you think they have, and you are losing great people because of it. It is also teaching people to play politics if they want to survive there.

Greg Smith's resignation letter from Goldman Sachs says it well: "Weed out the morally bankrupt people, no matter how much money they make for the firm. And get the culture right again, so people want to work here for the right reasons."

Don't let this happen to Arup. Encourage more American locals to work in the UK for awhile at some of the better offices, so they understand that the proliferation of British leaders in the US is because the work culture they "grew up" in is an integral part of Arup's success. Enron and Goldman Sachs are indicators of what the work culture in the US can bring if you let it. Keep the best of both cultures, and know which parts to discard.

Pros

Arup has a talented and friendly staff, provides good career opportunities, has interesting projects and good knowledge sharing. The company is committed to quality and the is staff treated well.

Cons

Salaries are average and not very competitive compared to other engineering firms. Hours can be long at times.

Advice to Senior Management

Review employee compensation in order to continue to attract and maintain talented staff. Promote better work-life balance in the workplace.

Pros

Travel and great work experience. Global organisation with excellent engineering knowledge base.

Cons

Salary is lower than some alternatives.

Advice to Senior Management

Often, Engineers do not automatically become great project managers - some should remain in technical field.

Pros

Arup's reputation and the projects.

Cons

Becoming 'corporate' and sterile and moving away from core values.

Pros

Young environment, get to work on very cool projects.

Cons

Underpaid. A lot of people there had graduate degrees from top schools but making on the lower end of industry standard.

Pros

people, projects, atmosphere, friendliness, challenging

Cons

pay, management issues, deadlines, opportunites for growth within

Advice to Senior Management

keep up the good work, loved my time there