Pros
Some great people at Jacobs that try hard to make the office an enjoyable place. Morning tea get togethers once a month Possibility of job transfers
Cons
Jacobs is a big company that is constantly evolving by buying other companies or selling off sections of their own. They value profit above all else. If your project makes money for them you are gold but if your project makes a loss you are in trouble. The company has alot of overheads especially on small projects as you need to factor in safety officer, quality audits and also any internal project reporting (approx. 2-10hrs+) a month and profit gets eaten up by this. Being a US company there's a disconnect as business systems and culture don't really mesh with an Australian office. You might see a US senior staff maybe once a year but get daily US updates by email. Jacobs bangs on about safety but in my office the safety person was made redundant and his role replaced by an excel worksheet on safety/ risks which is fairly ironic. Managers are hired on their sales man talk, sometimes they don't even understand the work people in their sections do. Jacobs is happiest if they can send you out on secondment at 3x your salary and never see you - so really just like a job shop. If you are office based you need to be 70% billable to projects at least and if you are not it's your fault...not your mangers as they expect staff to find your own projects for the company.