engineer

water resources engineer

shift leader

civil engineer

field technician

PROS
It's a lot nicer office than most you'll come by. An automatic coffee machine with 8+ varieties of coffee including multiple Starbucks (not as good as the real stuff). They are big on Wellness so the Waterloo office has fresh fruit everywhere (apples/bananas/oranges), a gym with free classes, and a great benefits package for wellness. Rest of the benefits are pretty darn decent - unlimited sick days, 2 weeks vacation (3 once you hit a year), wellness benefit (up to $250). Parental leave they don't cover anything past what the government gives you (55% of pay). Depending on the position (hourly vs salary) you can get paid OT. They have tons of events and lunches in the summer. Generally great atmosphere of people. Nice location, close to a Tims and a bunch of small business lunches. Desks are adjustable height and you can request ergonomic equipment. Very accessible building for those who need it. 

CONS
Advancement is tough. You'll bust yourself but the PM or your manager will just take the credit pretty well. They are super competitive and all the PMs are ruthless. Not nice people. They take up all the budget and don't keep track of the budget so they will just put your hours to overhead without telling you so your billable hours are lowers and so you don't get a raise or are given a "talking to" in your performance review. It's true that most of the PMs have their position because they're friends with other PMs or their parent is one. There are multiple PMs or Principals who have gotten their children jobs here, some barely have the credentials and are already being groomed for being a PM with < 1 year in the field. Absolutely ridiculous. Their kids get the co-ops, or are given a co-op when their kid isn't even in a program that requires a co-op term. 

Raises are max 3% but usually like 1%. Pay is pretty good otherwise, but you have to fight tooth and nail to get an increase or a pay jump. 

There are layoffs all over the place at times. 

Overall - like others, would say it's a great place to start your career or end your career. Lots of work (usually) for the new people, you can buy in to the company when you're later down the line. But in between, no one is really happy where they are.

Hands down my favourite job and I’ve managed a facility where I got to use all my language skills and engineering traits in the past so to state that working as a civil engineer in the lab was far more exciting is an understatement.  I get to exercise every day I go there lifting bags  up to 25kg.  You have to be strong and  smart to do this job safely and continuously sometimes.  Performing the labs I grew up with at school with an additional hands on experience to more sophisticated lab equipment just made this job so much more interesting.

The work culture is very safety oriented and work friendly.  I have nothing but respect for my engineering colleagues and personally feel right at home.

The only drawback to applying for a position like mine is that you need to be enrolled in a civil engineering program or have graduated from own which in its own is not easy to accomplish.  

The great thing about GHD is that there s always something to do whether it s an extra lab in a different department or training or even cleaning..

If you want to get your career as an engineer started this is the perfect place to be !!

I worked for GHD for a little over 2 years. There is little to no recognition for going above and beyond the very mundane tasks given to jr staff. Because of this, advancement within the company feels unlikely. There is extremely little to no interaction with upper level managment, resulting in employees feeling secluded and under appreciated. The workplace environment would be ideal for someone who enjoys working independently while being around other people. My time at the Missassuaga, Ontario Office was overwhelmingly difficult due to the constant language barriers. My direct superiors didnt know my name and called me the wrong name for the first 3 months. It was very difficult to have pride in your work and show pride of ownership in this atmosphere. The entire lab space was consistently a mess and unsafe; a result of poor management and zero sense of ownership and pride felt among staff. I do not recommend this company to anyone. My experience led me to leave industry.

I joined GHD with high hopes of utilizing my civil engineering skills to coordinate projects and contribute to the design process. However, my experience fell far short of expectations.

From mindlessly sampling soil for entire days to the mind-numbing task of monitoring concrete trucks, my days were filled with tasks that did nothing to utilize my skills or further my career. It felt like a slap in the face to my education and aspirations.

Furthermore, there were significant periods where there were no projects available, resulting in minimal hours on my timesheet. Despite reaching out to multiple superiors for more work, my requests were consistently ignored (leaving the message on read), leaving me feeling undervalued and underutilized.

In hindsight, my time at GHD was nothing short of a waste. I urge anyone considering employment with this company to think twice and carefully weigh their options. Unless you enjoy feeling undervalued and underutilized, look elsewhere for opportunities that actually respect and nurture your talents.

I was hired for this job straight out of school. The training was fairly thorough and the coworkers around my level were extremely eager to communicate and help me and others learn. Your work schedule fluctuates a lot, work/life balance is poor because you're constantly attached to your phone being asked to go to different sites with very little notice, and are expected to reply right away. Poor planning by PMs often put myself and others in situations where the proposed scope of work was impractical/impossible. Overall I found the unpredictability/impracticality of the work to be extremely stressful and frustrating. The PM I worked for was also unhelpful and inflexible, which increased my dissatisfaction. 

What is the best part of working at the company?
You don’t need to abide by their in office requirements as everyone routinely flaunted them by staying at home and working remotely

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
You are yourself responsible for networking in the company to find your next assignment while the management team spends their time being “strategic” and congratulating themselves

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Individualistic and international. Find a niche and make it your brand so you don’t have to do much work.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Show up in the office, sit at an unassigned generic workstation in a half empty open space plan and then get about doing the work that none of these so called experts seem able or willing to do

What is the best part of working at the company?
An unhealthy working environment. New employees are not welcomed in a friendly way as groups have already been established.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The work in the finance team was not very stressful. They older employees were not open to try newer improved methods of doing the work.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Established employees are not very friendly. The mangers have their favorite employees. You are always made to feel like an outsider.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Use you were watched all day. It was stressful not being able to take a tea break or just step away to clear your head when working with numbers all day.

Fast paced environment where 80% of your work week must be billable time. Typical that management will push their work on you expecting you to complete their work amongst your already full plate even if you tell them you are too busy. Management won't think for a second before throwing you under the bus - even when it was them that made the mistake. You don't get very many opportunities to connect with co-workers and majority of time spent talking to people is with clients. It feels like the company has rebranded so many times and can't decide what route they want to take.

GHD is a design and consulting firm specializing in electrical and civil engineering. 
Working as an Engineering Assistant has exposed me to the various experiences associated with the design of hydro systems and streetlight distribution. 
The employees at GHD are highly motivated and eager to help. Everyone has an idea of what their responsibilities are, and disputes are handled in a civil manner. 
Since this is a consulting firm, our team will have to win contracts for design projects. There are times when there is a lack of work to do since there are no pending tasks from the clients, and sometimes the workload will be difficult to handle. 
The most enjoyable part of this work experience was interacting and learning from employees, and table tennis

Seems like a great place to work at first. But gradually you start seeing that it’s not that great.
Lack of work a lot of the time, you just sit in front of your computer with nothing to do. And reaching out to your superiors for projects doesn’t help as they just ignore your emails and teams messages. It ends up affecting your utilization rate which is the time you spend working on project, and they put all the responsibility on you as if you were responsible for bringing in business. It ends up being frustrating. Colleagues are nice, and social club organizes a lot of different and fun activities.


Top Job Titles	Average salary
Engineer 10 salaries reported	$84,377 per year
Water resources engineer 4 salaries reported	$99,090 per year
Shift leader 4 salaries reported	$161,625 per year
Civil engineer 10 salaries reported	$97,612 per year
Field technician 9 salaries reported	$24.28 per hour

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