Kimley-Horn and Associates Reviews

Pros

Lots of work. Lots of responsibility. Awesome training Program. Lots of work.

Cons

TOO MUCH WORK. Kimley Horn OWNS you and expects you to work EXTRA EFFort for them. If you are not putting in 10 hours a day, you are frowned upon. You will be just a cog in the gears!

Advice to Senior Management

There is too much Management. Too top heavy.

Pros

You will gain a lot of experience in CAD while an E.I.T.

Cons

From 2008-2011 they kept senior PM's who did not bring in work, and worked E.I.T.'s into the ground. The E.I.T.'s did not learn how to be a successful engineer, just really good CAD techs. If you are not part of the popular crowd watch out. They claim a desire for good work/life balance but anyone who has worked there can tell you that is a joke. They have a self image of near perfection in engineering and not one other firm can touch their knowledge and success. News flash, you are pretentious and smug with dwindling skills in your junior/mid level ranks. I actually heard a PM explaining the rational method to a new grad. Enjoy future mediocrity.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep chugging along in blind vanity sitting high in a white tower. I can't wait to see the fall.

Pros

Hardworking people who are willing to sacrifice themselves for a goal.

Cons

Hardworking people who are treated like sweatshop workers. This company is nothing like they say they are. All about the numbers and don not care about their employees. Numbers prove it all.

Advice to Senior Management

Become more involved with what is going one in your sweat shop.

Pros

opportunity to transfer and move around, travel, etc. they claim to pay well, but not really I found. bonuses are based on who you suck up to, so don't expect to be rewarded for hardwork, but only for the inroads you make wiht management.

Cons

horrible leadership throughout the company. elitist without being able to back it up. politics and butt kissing galore. not recommended to anyone with a personality

Advice to Senior Management

do everyone a favor and find another profession. you aren't special. you look for the wrong things in your recruitment of employees, which has lead to a company of 2000 pricks

Pros

Good pay, great benefits, large company with great technical resources and help, half day Friday schedule, profit sharing, good training programs

Cons

Easy to get lost in the fold with so many employees, difficult to differentiate yourself, long hours expected of you, effective hourly pay rate is low.

Advice to Senior Management

Allow more decision making and hiring and firing to be done on a local basis, by local management. Make it feel like a "small company".

Pros

When I started, KHA still had a good reputation in the industry for the quality of work. Sadly that was on its way out as I left. There was still a good mix or project types and great national clients. The benefits package (excluding pay) were average for the industry.

Cons

Hard work and conscience will get you used and abused, brown-nosing will get you promoted. I was in high demand from project managers for my knowledge, ability and work ethic and received great bonuses from them (spot and annual bonuses). When review time came around though, the folks who drank, partied and played poker with the higher ups got the promotions and perks while those of us who worked hard but didn't socialize at work were railroaded. The pay itself was low by industry standards. If not for my performance based bonuses, my pay would have been totally unacceptable. KHA learned to hire kids straight out of school b/c those of us with experience didn't buy the lies we were fed. We were routinely told how good we had it there b/c most other firms did not provide benefits or that the lower pay rates were b/c KHA didn't layoff like other firms do in hard times (bet they quit telling that one in the last few years). The office I was in grew so rapidly that we were hiring employees for whom we didn't have work. The existing employees were asked to "shift" to other offices so new employees could stay busy. Newhires fresh from school were often assigned projects with little or no supervision or direction. This was one of the main reasons the company's reputation dropped so quickly. The local management's role was often mostly damage control b/c they failed to provide good leadership. As stated in other reviews, UT is king at KHA. Although production level employees cannot go out and gain work, we were the ones to pay the price by being held to a UT goal despite there not being enough work available to meet the goal. One manager there told me when I expressed concerns about the staff growing and the workload not growing that it was not my job to worry about such things as people far smarter than I were running things and knew what they were doing. He must not have been one of them as he was relieved of duty and shown the door. A good 2/3 of the staff has since been let go.

Advice to Senior Management

I hear that many of the bad management level staff are still there. They are totally disconnected from their production staff and even the product that goes out the door. They ran the company's reputation both with clients and in the engineering field into the ground. They may well be past the point of no return. Advice to those seeking employment here would be RUN the other way. The office politics, poor compensation and heavy workloads (no doubt even worse with all the layoffs) make a job with KHA undesirable even in this tough job market.

Pros

During KHA's hay-day they had great benefits and the bonuses were very good---even for secretarial staff. There are a lot of talented people and young professionals can learn a whole bunch.

Cons

The CULTure is ruthless. KHA's culture is oppressive, excessive, and annoying. The senior management cabal dicates and enforces a culture that is not in touch with the reality of today's working world. In short, the CULTure is Orwellian: All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others....and you had better not forget it!

Advice to Senior Management

Get rid of the senior management that doesn't bring anything to the table and walk-the-walk instead of just talking-the-talk.

Pros

KHA has a very good bonus program

Cons

The company is too quick to lay off

Pros

opportunities for advancement, fairly transparent management, great staff

Cons

mandated 46+ hours per week regardless of demands of workload, expect lots of pressure if your utilization hours goal isn't met on a weekly basis

Advice to Senior Management

Drop extra effort goals, which makes staff focus on logging hours rather than focusing on efficiency and quality. Ease UT goals for senior staff that bring in jobstarts; we need them to win jobs to keep their teams busy.

Pros

Great Staff
Very technologically up to date
Great information resources
Great place for first job
Great benefits and pay

Cons

UT,UT,UT!!!
Long hours
High expectations with little training

Advice to Senior Management

Understand that people need direction to grow.