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Working as an architect at a large engineering firm like Jacobs, AECOM or WSP has its own advantages and disadvantages:
### Advantages:
1. **Large and prestigious projects**: These companies usually work on large and international projects, which gives you the opportunity to collaborate on important infrastructure and architectural projects.
2. **Extensive Resources**: Big companies have more financial and technical resources, which gives you access to advanced technologies, software and expert teams.
3. **job security**: These companies often have more stability and therefore offer more job security.
4. **Learning and Growth Opportunities**: By working in a large team, you can learn from other professionals and improve your skills.
5. **Benefits and Bonuses**: Large companies usually offer attractive benefits packages, insurance, and bonuses.
### Disadvantages:
1. **Bureaucracy**: In large companies, decision making may be time-consuming and you will face different layers of management.
2. **Limited creativity**: In large projects, you may have less room for personal creativity and must adhere to the standards and requirements of larger clients.
3. **Reduced individual role**: You may function as a component of a larger team and your individual impact on projects may be less evident.
4. **Internal Competition**: In such companies, you may compete with a large number of talented and experienced colleagues for advancement.
5. **Work-Life Balance**: Due to work pressure in big projects, your work-life balance may be affected and you may have longer working hours.
Thanks ChatGPT
Lots of buraceacy and worry about "the bottom line", very much profit over people, siloed work and lack of opportunity for growth while being told none of this is happening constantly. I left one of these after 7 years and never looked back. Might be good for a beginner to get exposure to they types of work but unless you are in the "in" group you might end up feeling like a single ant in the colony.
Benefits -
1. You get to work on the big bad projects for example skyscrapers, fancy offices for law offices and big tech firms, big government projects in some case.
2. You get to work with some legends of the game professionals - you know the ones with 25 years of experience. This could be a pro or con depending on how your team is structured, sometimes super seniors do not fare well with newer talent unless there is some mid level senior person delegating between you who is slightly in touch with the time when they were junior.
3. Resources are obviously abundant for the giants.
Before I layout cons - fair disclosure that I have worked for Jacobs and WSP and as far as I know AECOM is more similar to Jacobs.
Cons -
1. Big companies in tech pay more, big companies in Arch/ construction pay less. In WSP's case shillings. Having moved on from WSP 5 years ago, I am currently making considerably more than my seniors (in one case some one 8 years more experienced than me) there. They have very rigid salary structure and will confuse you with their own terminology.
2. Moving up in these companies is 10x harder than small size companies and 8x harder than mid size companies. If you notice you will see a lot of middle management missing in these teams - it's because they choose to pay only for either the highest rated talent to crush them with work or the bottom of the pan (due to compensation offered) to overwork them or leverage them on visa stuff if international.
3. Contrary to chat gpt's response above. - big companies actually have the same if not more chance of layoffs. Unless you are a decade old employee you should never feel safe. I have seen numerous chops at both the companies with WSP being notorious for panicking in a slight dip of work and immediately laying off good talent at high salaries and then replace again with cheaper talent.
4, Another note on big companies - they buy other companies, merge with other departments so there is a lot of movement which also leaves some employees kinda guessing the air as there are no consistent teams and building rapport isn't easy in a fast paced high pressure work enviroment they generally set up.
5. Jacobs has a very good work life balance. AECOM people seem content as I see a lot of job retention there. WSP is a corporate sweatshop.
second this " In WSP's case shillings. Having moved on from WSP 5 years ago, I am currently making considerably more than my seniors (in one case some one 8 years more experienced than me) there. They have very rigid salary structure and will confuse you with their own terminology."