Decent overall firm with pretty good culture and benefits. The MultiFamily Residential Studio based out of Alpharetta, GA - while some good projects and nice people, is an absolute MESS. In my 20 plus years in the industry, I have never seen a more inefficient studio - honestly. I have been here for years now and saw the studio begin to fall apart in early 2023. The former studio leader was efficient and loved by all but moved onto corporate/national practice leader and really is not involved often anymore. The new studio leader has not been a studio favorite. Im frequently on calls with senior level employees who talk non-stop trash about the new studio leader, but when she appears on a zoom call - everyone acts like everything is sunshine and rainbows - honestly a bad way for any studio to be run. Studio leader is not involved and leaves everything to the project managers with zero guidance and you can’t really reach her without her seeming annoyed.
LAYOFFS - in my time I’ve seen layoffs after layoffs. Like many have said in the reviews here - I saw them in late 2023 announce to the studio that they had to do some layoffs but that there would be no more layoffs for the rest of the year (they announced this on a MF/mixed-use zoom call with every single employee on the call) - 2 and half weeks later, i watched them lay off TONS of people right before the holidays (even people who had recently returned from maternity and paternity leave). No one wants to work for a company like that. In my time in the architecture field - I have seen project managers and project architects feel “safe” if they are on a long term project. NOPE not here, they will lay you off even if you are a PA or PM right in the middle of a project. They just need to hit their quarterly quota. The MultiFamily studio has ZERO drawing standards..no one can tell you what a drawing set should look like. The studio still doesn’t have a solid Revit template to use…I have never seen so many professionals spin their wheels and complain about templates. This studio spends more time complaining and figuring out what’s a good template to use, than actually working. Have never seen a team complete a a deadline on time…if it is - it’s a poor drawing set just to hit a deadline for a client. Have also seen many clients turn to other architects in my time here because of the poor execution. And sorry to say it - but the studio is in legal battles with clients over projects and poor dwgs.
The bonus structure is a joke as many have wrote on here (and then I see Nelson respond to try to defend themselves). No bonuses. For example, they announced the end of year bonus for 2022 would be paid out sometime early in the 1st quarter of 2023. Employees kept reaching out to find out when the bonus would be sent out. Finally in like April 2023, they announced that they don’t make enough money to give out bonuses for 2022 lol.
The pay raises are a joke, so if you do work here - try to negotiate a good starting salary because you may get a 3% yearly pay increase AT MOST.
Honestly from everyone I talk to at the company, no one feels safe and feels like there could be more layoffs at any moment.
