Golder Associates Employee Reviews for Project Manager

Golder Associates Ltd. is no longer the company it once was. The company use to be client oriented and our main focus was to provide excellent services to our clients. Now the company's focus is to only obtain clients with deep pockets and have people with poor management skills run the offices. The first half of my career was great, however, the last half was mentally draining and sad watching a once great company crash and burn.

Pros

Benefits

Cons

Pay, Management

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Billable Hours

Project Manager (Former Employee) - Vancouver, BC - 25 May 2018

The last three years have seen Golder go from nearly 10,000 employees to less than 6,000. Part of this is due to the downturn in the resource sector - but part of it is also because they used to be bloated and now they have cut to the absolute bone. Tough times. A large group of talented and professional geotechs/environmental scientists are still here. Spending five years under one of these folks would be great for a young grad's career. Alternatively, you could become a cog in the machine where your longevity and success is measured purely and solely by chargeability. If you're considering working here, you should be interviewing your supervisor and asking which one it will be. Stock program looks great on paper - but dividends only compensate you for the interest you pay to borrow the money to buy the shares. You can't sell any stock or realize any supposed gains in share value until you depart the company. So it becomes a bit of a pyramid scheme.

Pros

Industry leader in geotechnical & environmental, some really talented senior professionals

Cons

Hours billed to client - salary = your value to company

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Insights into Golder Associates

Based on 18 survey responses

What people like

Supportive environment
Clear sense of purpose
Ability to learn new things

Good experience and lots of learning

Project Manager, Environment Impact Assessment (Former Employee) - Calgary, AB - 30 March 2017

Very professional organization with lots of professionals who are good at what they do. Interpersonal relationship not too good. Took time for me to integrate into the my department, not sure why. Poor team work. Coming from a participatory work environment I felt a lot of indivdualistic efforts. May just be my section though!

Pros

professional organization

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career development

PROJECT MANAGER (Former Employee) - Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada - 28 March 2017

excellent environment great experience great knowledge friend people to work with career development the hardest part in this job will be the work pressure one will experience during the busy season

Pros

career development

Cons

Long hours

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Going through some pains at the moment

Project Manager (Former Employee) - Edmonton, AB - 23 October 2015

Good company overall and generally good people to work with, but going through the pains of a downturn in the economy means job security is tenuous at the moment.

Pros

Pretty open and flexible work schedules

Cons

Going through a reorganization so job security is not great at the moment

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Used to be a great company to work for, but no longer is

Project Manager (Former Employee) - Calgary - 17 September 2015

The culture has really changed within the company. Employees have literally become numbers, which goes against what the company preaches and the values they advertise and stand 'behind'. Also layoffs have been ongoing since the fall of 2014, and half the company is no longer there. Company spirit has disappeared and staff are just waiting for the 'axe to fall' sort of speak, until they're called and laid off. Very discouraging place to work.

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Excellent and hard working staff

Project Manager (Former Employee) - Yellowknife - 8 July 2015

Through my career progression, I received many training opportunities and was able to travel to other offices in Canada as well as to remote northern mine sites. Our staff were all easy to get along with and no matter our backgrounds, we all helped each other get the job done. The hardest part of the position was going through slow times when we did not have enough clients/contracts to work on. The best part of the job is I enjoyed the fast paced environment when I was busy, the travel and working with a great team.

Pros

Travel and training opportunities

Cons

Small workloads when there was a limited amount of contracts

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Excellent culture; difficult to move and make changes

Leader - Project Management Office (Current Employee) - Vancouver, BC - 5 April 2014

Golder is an employee owned company. This has the incentive-benefit of in essence working for yourself, as shares in the company provide an annual return. The major shareholders are the Principals and Associates, who act as a "shadow management". This makes it difficult to keep the company nimble and enable changes. As Leader - Project Management Office, I am responsible to develop the project management skills within Golder, globally. This includes training and development for our PMs, Organisational Support, developing knowledge, tools and systems and developing global hubs of expertise. The most enjoyable part of my job is interacting wiht my teams and co-workers, a truly splendid group of people committed to the future of the company. The hardest part of my job is to maintain focussed and positive in an increasingly difficult work environment where project management is seen as periphery to the main technical thrust of the company.