Conestoga-Rovers & Associates Reviews

Pros

-Fair Salary
-Great People (in my work group anyways)
-Enjoyable social events (box hockey seats - free food and drinks)
-Fast Paced Leading Edge Work

Cons

-Overwhelming to start without knowing any CRA work standards (aka very difficult to be comparably productive as co-workers)
-Constant work to do, have to charge every 30 minutes of your time to a project code (but hey, that is why they call it work)
-4% vacation pay, too little IMO

Advice to Senior Management

-Restrict the amount of repetitive work given to certain people (often people who are just really good at one thing, so find it difficult to find the time to learn something else)

Pros

- Good people to work with (excluding managers) the people who you work with in the trenches
- Satisfactory extra activities

Cons

- Not willing to get with the times and improve technology that is being used; very old school in approach
- People are over worked and very underpaid (very low end of OSPE salary survey, and they participate in the survey!)
- Morale is low because people are tired of wokring 50+/week
- Absolutely no work/life balance

Advice to Senior Management

When your boss asks you to come and work on the weekend, or take your work with you on vacation without any compensation or benefit, well, you figure out the rest...

Pros

Free to pursue business opportunties i indentify
Reconition for sucess
Great people - I get along with very well with managment & staff
Flexibility for family - kids ball games, etc.

Cons

Slow to upgrde technology. Getting the latest software / hardware can be a challenge.
Difficult ot hire people. On-boarding process takes forever. First week is all training.

Pros

The office manager of the Denver office is the reason I have stayed.

Cons

The leadership above the office manager is very poor. Salary adjustments for promotions are non-existent.

Pros

- Fellow employees are generally good to work with
- Friendly work environment, relatively small offices
- Mid-level management is decent

Cons

- Low employee moral
- Little opportunity for professional growth
- Long working hours that are not worth the salary that employees are paid

Advice to Senior Management

Increase salaries for employees. If you want to attract and keep good employees you need to offer decent salaries. Shareholders at the company should share more of the profits with their employees. Corporate culture is cult like. Not everyone wants to make Conestoga-Rovers & Associates the focal point of their life.

Pros

1. The people are nice and friendly.
2. The social committee tries to have out-of-work activities for the staff.
3. Casual environment.

Cons

1. Every move you make is monitored.
2. It is hard to take time off.
3. Too much work for the pay.

Pros

Good place to work in a poorly compensated industry as a whole
Steady employment for some sectors

Cons

Way, way, way too much work/responsibilities heaped on project managers
Canadian/east coast company - almost no opportunity for advancement in other offices.

Advice to Senior Management

Get off of the billability/drumming up more work bandwagon and pay attention to the quality of the product (knowledge work.) Truly integrate skill sets across offices - right now it's managed like GM was, with different companies (offices) under one umbrella. As a consequence Office A, which may require specialized expertise from Office B, is not treated as a member of the same team,, but as an opportunity for Office B staff to bill the heck out of your project - with no consequences.

Pros

Extensive social events, faced paced work

Cons

Lack of work/life balance, lack of recognition to employees who deserve it, promotion of those employees that don't deserve it.

Advice to Senior Management

Look to recognize and reward the employees that are truly putting in the work rather than those who are part of the 'old boys' club.'

Pros

somewhat relaxed environment

family oriented (if that is important to you)

decent amount of social functions

Cons

pay is always on the low end of the scale

advancement opportunities depend more on sucking up to senior management rather than performance

completely opaque and outdated business model that has no place in this day and age, especially with a company of its size

wanna make shareholder? yeah, good luck with that.....it might happen after 20 years of service if you bust your ass.

Advice to Senior Management

This company has been exposed with their pants down big time since the 2008 economic meltdown and is slowly starting crumble under its own inverse pyramid business model that they have ridden for 30+ years. The business model is stagnant as is innovation within the company.

CRA will need to seriously take a good long look in the mirror and make some MAJOR changes if it hopes to have any success in the future.

Pros

Overall a good consulting company with Sr.Management taking the time to consider how to properly grow the company while cutting out business lines that have stalled. Salaries and benefits are fair compared to its equals in the industry. Flexible hours with relaxed atmosphere.
Solid technical personnel.

Cons

Sr.Management recognizes under performers but takes a long time to act. Since everyone is looking for billlable hours it is tough to determine who has the right experience (and attitude) to take on a job. Salaries do not always reflect employees contribution to the company.

Advice to Senior Management

Weed out the bad apples that bring down company moral. Identify who the high achievers are throughout the company (no matter where they are located) and award them. Build off succesful teams (rather than developing a competing one).