Jacobs Reviews

4.0

81% would recommend to a friend

(7,755 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 7,755 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 Construction, repair and maintenance industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

8K reviews
3.0
5 Nov 2018
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.

2.0
11 Nov 2021
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Flexible work environment Some great colleagues Good benefits

Cons

A global company now run out of Denver (due to tax reasons). The NZ business is a subsidiary of the Australian business and it shows. NZ management do as they are told by the Aussies and gun toting Texan exiles. Consequently, this means the operational leadership (e.g. Section Managers) are weak and ineffective to deal with local issues due to their puppet status. There is no mentoring for Junior Staff and no efforts to train and retain local staff. There is a massive effort to offshore design work to cheap labour markets in India. In future only project managers will be present and all technical work done elsewhere evident by the fact Jacobs now pits its sharemarket performance again the likes of Deloitte, PWC. Section managers talk the talk but don't walk the walk. It is impossible to be inspired by so called 'leaders' who are incapable of leading. Management is an old boys club and those there are simply there because everyone else with technical skills have left the company, so that the least capable people have been promoted! Staff are treated as a 'resource'. There is no sense of project ownership with the same project being passed around multiple people who have a couple of hours to spare to increase productivity and billability. Senior staff don't share work around as they are simply in survival mode to ensure their own billability. The company places heavy emphasis on staff mental health. No wonder. Working here is enough to send anyone into a spiral of depression and anxiety. Actually they don't care about mental health really - only the fact that good mental health has been shown to boost productivity of staff (aka company profits), or so management tell us. Alot of smoke and mirrors from senior management. For instance, we were told Jacobs is investing in a digital future, making a number of strategic takeover bids for technology led companies in the USA. These companies make AI software for the US military drone program so targets can be identified and dealt with remotely by AI. They are also in bed with other ethical companies such as Exxon-Mobil. Think about the overall ethics of the company you want to work for. Diversity is shoved down your throat here. In reality this means that the company employs 10 different shades of the same robot. Neuro-diversity, the true basis of company creativity is non-existent. Also most people are too depressed to be creative after 12 months here. The company is more bureaucratic than a cold-war communist state. I routinely worked on projects that cost more to set-up than the revenue gained from them. The result is they overcharge clients for poor quality work.

2.0
8 Oct 2019
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Highly skilled individuals. Potential to work on international projects. Focus on diversity.

Cons

Blame culture from the top down. Treated like a number not a person. Protective management who micromanage and not lead nor empower, and only interested in impressing the Australian leadership. No trust in their staff, creating a risk adverse bitter workforce. Constant restructuring and new strategies that dont align properly with talent and the market. Mass name and shame emails for non performing projects.

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