Golder Associates Inc. Reviews

Current Employee – been working at Golder Associates Inc. full-time for less than a year

Pros – Knowledgeable and supportive management: Very approachable, understands the issues you may have (they were in your shoes once), you have the freedom to approach your work the way you want to.

Friendly coworkers and superb company culture: Everyone is super friendly, fun-loving, lots of opportunities to get to know your coworkers better.

Cons – None worth mentioning, a bit of office politics but nothing out of the ordinary,

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Golder Associates Inc. full-time for more than a year

Pros – Excellent treatment of its staff. Career opportunities within the company abound and the ability to choose your own path with the company

Cons – The company ca be slightly bureaucratic in its approach

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Golder Associates Inc. full-time for more than a year

Pros – Caring culture. Diverse projects. Intelligent people. Great opportunity for overtime pay, especially when doing field work.

Cons – Little balance between field work and office work. Almost no formal training opportunities.

Advice to Senior Management – More opportunities for training.

Former Employee – worked at Golder Associates Inc. full-time for more than a year

Pros – Best and brightest scientists and engineers I've ever worked with - It was easy to work with everyone and there's a level of respect that is genuine.
I felt right at home - There's a feeling of empowerment so employees truly value what they do.
Employee-owned structure helps with motivation.
Onboarding process is excellent, hiring process is also structured.
Golder is "choosy" about hiring the best candidates.
Employees are appreciated and good work is recognized by principals and associates.

Cons – The negative side of flat management is that it fuels territorial behavior.
Some departments do not have good leaders and intend to run in silos. Business Operations group needs re-structuring - badly... particularly clueless marketing heads who refuse to understand the needs of the growing business lines and seem to have their own agenda/direction regardless of what's being communicated to them.
Not all principals and associates are team players and would rather cut out anyone who they see as a threat to their posts, unfortunately.
At the end of the day, you can get along with everyone and receive constant recognition for your work, but if your boss doesn't like you or sees you as a threat, there's not much you can do...

Advice to Senior Management – Everything you preach to your employees become lip service when you let injustices continue within the organization... glad to see some P&As making decisions to absorb other talents from failing departments. You have good people, just make sure they have good leaders. Time to clean the closet and get rid of principals and associates who abuse power and produce no results for an excellent company.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Golder Associates Inc. full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – I joined Golder immediatly after completing my M.Sc in Biology. I had relatively few skills and no exeperience, but they took me on. I've been given numerous attempts to prove myself and been given room to excel. I started out as a junior biologist I've been promoted 3 times in six years and have roles and responsibilities that I could not have dreamed of when I started. Also a great company to buy shares in, and the returns have far exeeded any of my other RRSPs/investments.

Cons – Like all companies, there are some problems, but that comes anytime you work with people. I came close to leaving a year ago simply because I was being given too much work and I wasn't able to succeed at anything I did. However, honest conversations with managers and a little bit of patience resolved these issues. Consulting sometimes can mean hard work, but most times I quite enjoy it because I'm an owner of the company and I get to see the fruits of my labour.

Advice to Senior Management – none

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Golder Associates Inc. full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Great office culture in the local office, good health and safety policies, very technically capable people.

Cons – Hard to achieve work/life balance (one colleague lamented that the company were 'slave drivers'), pay was below average, career progress in local office was limited, limited external training opportunities including attending conferences.

Advice to Senior Management – Start looking after your employees better, especially the good ones.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Golder Associates Inc. full-time

Pros – Since the company is employee-owned, many more of us "little people" got spared the sword during the bad economy. There is good work/life flexibility.

Cons – Expensive benefits, slow promotions, horrible pay increases.

Advice to Senior Management – Stop letting the dinosaurs dictate direction.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Golder Associates Inc. full-time for more than a year

Pros – share ownership, profit share, atmosphere

Cons – time it takes to make decisions

Advice to Senior Management – increase communication to employees at the end of the line

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Golder Associates Inc. full-time

Pros – Great culture, although the company has over 8000 employees, it mantains a "family" type of environment.
Flexible
Great benefits
Work life balance
Company genuinely cares about its employees

Cons – Need to get more organized in terms of how it develops employees outside of engineering

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Golder Associates Inc. full-time for less than a year

Pros – Great working atmosphere and great working experience. Upgrading of employees, great experience, flexibility, international projects. Company owned by employees.

Cons – Salaries are ok but can be better

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company