Jacobs reviews

4.0

81% would recommend to a friend

(7,757 total reviews)
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Bob Pragada

90% approve of CEO

69% positive business outlook

Jacobs has an employee rating of 4.0 out of 5 stars, based on 7,757 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Jacobs employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Servicios de construcción, reparación y mantenimiento industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

8K reviews
2.0
Mar 12, 2019

Cloak and dagger practices

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Well established, multi national company with a solid standing. Well located offices. Excellent social side. Employee options for benefits are decent as is the graduate training programme. Some - sadly not all - managers will go out of their way to help members of their team

Cons

Massive company with a very American approach, you are a tiny spec of paint in a very big picture. Plenty of work but no real variety, it's all very repetitive, and you have to fight for external training if you want to branch out into another discipline. It's easier to climb the ladder if you join as a graduate. When it comes to pay and promotion unfortunately Jacobs is not a transparent company. Forget hard work, experience, and loyalty, just make sure your manager likes you and your career and pay packet will flourish. They preach but sadly don't practice true equality especially when it comes to career and salaries. They will try to get away with paying as little as possible and will try to keep it that way by not handing out pay increases. Profit and billabilty mean more to Jacobs than people. Lots of problems with staff retention. Salaries are average, less than other large Companies but more than some. Best advice is to make sure you get a decent salary when you join and be prepared not to see any decent salary increases- if any.

3.0
Nov 5, 2018

Too big to be efficient

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Health and safety and flexible working policies are good, and most of the people on the ground are smart and hardworking.

Cons

NZ Management have no clue. They're too busy "positioning" themselves for the role they want rather than doing the job they have. I found project directors had very little value to add to projects. The number of corporate emails is ridiculous and the level of reportind and paperwork took up far too much time. I dont believe staff are truly valued.

1.0
Nov 5, 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Good teammates who are talented and fun to work with, but all of them are resigning leaving only the employees who couldn't do any better behind. There used to be other pros like large annual training budget and bonuses for certifications, but Jacobs took those away when they acquired Blue Canopy. Since the acquisition employees are no longer forced to hear the previous owner hold them as a captive audience at company events where she offers surprise performances of herself genuinely trying to sing rock songs well but sounding more like Gilbert Godfrey playing Iago in Aladdin; though it was a welcome relief from her maniacally laughing at her on jokes. This and am improved 401k with 1:1 matching up the 6% with immediate 100% vesting are the only two good things to come with the acquisition.

Cons

Incompetent management chases employees out the door while incompetent recruiting fails to attract new talent, all while Jacobs is taking away benefits and forcing all to endure their clunky transition from Blue Canopy to Jacobs. With all of the clashes and distractions between management and employees, the customers are the ones who really pay the price. Management puts employees second to last and customers dead last. They would rather deliver nothing and spend their time creating reports that show how valuable their work is than actually give the customer what they're asking for, even when their employees want to deliver it. Managers undermine their employees ability to be effective, and rather than giving clients what they're asking for they want their employees to give them what the managers think they need, often against client wishes, which puts the employees in an awkward position. Meanwhile the only thing management really wants of employees is for them to shut up, keep seats warm, and bill...even when they're not at work. When a problematic employee is hired, often against the recommendation of all of that employees interviewers, rather than management managing the employees performance and leading them to improvement, they lash out at any employee who speaks out with issues about them doing things like damaging client systems or fraudulently billing the client. While they protect the problematic employees expecting nothing of them, they ride heavily on the employees who are willing to do work to compensate for their problematic teammates. They employ incompetent management at the cost of employees well-being until they can't anymore. In one such case they protected a manager who had countless complaints against him from employees and other managers. In the end they only fired him after they found out he was violating his non-compete and possibly stealing proprietary information. It's a pattern of protecting the people who aren't performing at the cost of the well-being of those employees who are, the client, and even the company for that matter. I would have said their PTO plan lagged behind competitors in the Cyber Security space, but that was when they offered 15 days PTO annually for the first three years and then 20 days annually after that. With the Jacobs acquisition though, they've moved that from 3 years to 5 years, and made it not only effective for new hires but also for current employees who had been there for years.

Viewing 55 - 57 of 7,757 Reviews

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