Atkins Employee Reviews

Atkins have a lot of good work and can be great place to learn new skills quickly. They have a great holiday scheme which is probably the biggest benefit they offer.The work you get dependant on speaking to the right people and getting lucky when work comes in. There are also a lot of budget freezes on big projects linked to the government and I have seen many colleagues be left without work at the drop of a hat.If thinking of joining I wouldn’t be expect to be doing anything that useful for at least 6 weeks - you seem to need build momentum before projects start coming your way.

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No job security, poor communication

Associate Director (Former Employee) - South West - 12 September 2023

Some great projects and great client accounts with really interesting opportunities and challenges. Very poor or non-existent communication between different environmental disciplines, between management team and fee earners and between teams in different offices.Limited visibility or work pipeline and low engagement with clients. You have to know the right client manager (which is a process of luck with no guidance on how to achieve this) to get a chance of a steady or engaging work load coming your way. Technical staff will have minimal contact with clients, its all handled by client managers who seem quite protective about this. As a result and despite promises at interview stage I had no involvement in any BD activities, strategies or initiatives for the first time in my 20yrs+ career. Good ideas die a death in committee and rarely progress. Everything is driven by a top-down approach so don't bother coming up with any good ideas or innovation.Inter-discipline communication in the environmental team, especially on complex bids/tenders, is appalling and feels like some teams are actively working against the companies interests or are not interested in supporting large bids. Too many staff are content to sit back and wait for work to land in their lap and cannot be bothered to more fully support bids even at the £million+ level.No job security at all. When key large contracts are cancelled or delayed then cuts are made by some very arbitrary criteria and without consideration for any less tangible non-fee earning issues or benefits. Very cumbersome project -

Pros

some very interesting projects and clients

Cons

poor communication, no security, very poor inter discipline integration

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Insights into Atkins

Based on 25 survey responses

What people like

Clear sense of purpose
Ability to meet personal goals
Time and location flexibility

Areas for improvement

Support from manager

Large and cool projects

Fire Engineer (Former Employee) - London - 28 August 2023

Hectic place but with very cool projects. Long hours, and management team is hit and miss on a project by project basis. Some really smart people you can learn from.

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Good workplace, and flexible working hours

Consultant (Current Employee) - Aldershot, Hampshire - 24 July 2023

Interesting projects, lots of investment in ED&I and retention. Pay is average for the industry, your experience depends on the team you are in and the projects you get put on.

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Superb

Principal Engineer (Current Employee) - Belfast, County Antrim - 24 July 2023

this is an excellent company with excellent management. Brand new office in the city centre which gives you all the tools to perform. the management is amazing and friendly.

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Great projects, great people, great place to work

Client Director (Current Employee) - London, Greater London - 10 June 2023

The company has a good brand and so tends to win interesting and inspiring projects. Atkins puts a lot of focus on people retention so you work with great people.ESG is an important theme.We work around the globe so opportunities for travel and different career paths

Pros

Interesting and inspiring work

Cons

None

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Placement Student. Great experience.

Mechanical Engineering Technician (Former Employee) - Derby, Derbyshire - 9 June 2023

Placement student. They give you actual work to do once they've found a project to put you on. I may have been lucky being put on a project I enjoyed but a good culture there, so they will do their best to make sure you're satisfied.

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Perfect Job

Management Consultant (Former Employee) - Bristol - 1 June 2023

Everything is perfect, the entire working space is very "human". You learn in a supportive, friendly, encouraging environment in which you could be comfortable being yourself.

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Ok place to eork

Assistant Engineer (Former Employee) - Croydon, Greater London - 23 April 2023

Good training opps but you have to drive it yourself. There is a grad scheme but again you get more from it if you put effort in it. Pay not great. Better off contracting.

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Beurocratic Management, lack on ambition on bigger picture

Senior Consultant (Current Employee) - Birmingham, West Midlands - 29 March 2023

Good company to learn basic skills, but really unethusiastic mid management. Slow progressing and below average pay. Sometimes work can be really boring and repetative. Not very diverse senior leadership and not supporting either to purse broad minded growth. It can be all about revenue and numbers.

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Jobs at Atkins

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Sizewell C Opportunities

Epsom

30+ days ago

Assistant Project Manager

Assistant Project Manager

Bristol

7 days ago

Returners Programme - Human Factors and Behavioural Science

West Midlands

12 days ago

Lovely people and culture

Principal Consultant (Former Employee) - Bristol - 16 March 2023

Everyone at Atkins is incredibly kind, supportive and warm. If anything people are too nice, generally people are shy with the constructive feedback. I'd like to think everyone feels included and supported. Working hours are also fantastic. There is a healthy training budget and promotions happen regularly. That said pay in consulting is lower than competitors. Overall, it's a fantastic place to work.

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Nice place to work

Degree Apprentice (Current Employee) - Warrington, Cheshire - 3 January 2023

Currently an apprentice of 5 years and enjoying every minute! Would highly recommend for competitive pay and a broad range of experience. Look forward to progressing.

Pros

Flex time, usual benefits

Cons

None

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Fun workplace and lot of training opportunities

Engineer (Former Employee) - Derby, Derbyshire - 31 December 2022

Great workplace and many experts/cross team members would help you if needed. Besides, there are lot of CPD/webminars available, you could enroll the internal courses you are interested in.

Pros

Flexible on work hours

Cons

Many projects to be followed

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Great employees - bad management

Designer (Former Employee) - Bristol - 1 September 2022

As a multi-disciplinary engineering firm, you'd have thought there would be good collaboration between various teams - this isn't always evident and can lead to a haphazard way of delivering projects.It was felt that upper management ie. those that are "invisible", don't respect the employees who are doing the grunt work. This was certainly the case when it came to redundancies during 2020 when the "bean counters" appeared to take no consideration of how well employees performed or their loyalty to the company. On the whole though, the employees who you'll see and work with day to day, are the nicest people who manage to deliver good projects, sometimes under huge time and project budget pressures... although this is the way of the construction industry these days.

Pros

Good salary and benefits.... to start with.

Cons

Poor to recognise (with pay rises) good employees. You're just a number.

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Excellent place to work

Engineer (Current Employee) - Glasgow, Glasgow - 30 August 2022

Atkins Ireland is an excellent place to work with many interest projects, great work culture and work life balance. I will strongly recommend anyone who would like to advance their career to join Atkins

Pros

interesting projects

Cons

Pay

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You're there to protect company's profit

designer (Current Employee) - london - 25 July 2022

It's a massive show off about the government project they win, but in reality the managers only think about their bonus and company's profit. On the paper, they ask you not to work late but in reality you're buried with work and not even allowed to take day in lieu. You'll be blamed of not having a good time management when you have to work late to deliver the project. All your manager thinks is your "productivity". you should be 100% productive even if you're computer is not working or you're line manager drags you to the meetings. You're not able to do any training unless you book your time to the project or your "own time". You need to really show yourself by talking to get promoted, your skills have nothing to do with your promotion.

Pros

Nice people to meet, but they will eventually leave. Able to buy 2 weeks holiday.

Cons

Not having work-life balance despite what they promote.

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Stressful environment

Senior Transport Planner (Former Employee) - London, Greater London - 24 June 2022

If you join Atkins you will have a very poor experience. There is little or no nurture of junior staff. The head of the profession only cares about billability. There is little or no opportunity for training. What training that there is available must be booked to job codes, meaning that the client and not the company is paying for training. There is a practice of seniors bidding for work without enough hours to complete tasks and then you are asked to deliver, using your evenings and weekends to make up the difference. The only way to survive Atkins is to become a senior and then play a reviewing role on projects. Don’t come here if you want to deliver work for clients. You will be used.

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Good colleagues, terrible management

Engineer (Former Employee) - Bristol - 1 May 2022

Learnt a lot in the years I was there, developed my skillset (from the few remaining skilled & experienced staff, the majority having left or been laid off). Salary progression / pay rises were awful, was being paid £10,000 a year less than people with the same qualification and fewer years experience than someone who joined the company later on in their career in the same role! SNC senior management and directors seemed happy to give themselves million pound bonuses whilst asking staff to take a 16-20% pay cut!

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Poor Management & Lack Of Team Culture

Data Analyst (Former Employee) - Bristol - 18 March 2022

A complete shambles from day one. Management is clueless, no team culture, structure or a pleasant working environment. Management only care about delivery rather than staffs well-being and development. Very little support or training on offer. If you are thinking of joining.. DONT!

Pros

Flexible to work remote

Cons

No team culture, structure and poor management

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Good place to learn and develop

Graduate Civil Engineer (Former Employee) - Birmingham, West Midlands - 4 March 2022

Excellent place to start your career and progress in the industry. Management varies depending on team and office. Good social aspect for graduates starting out

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Good experience overall; slow career progress due to lack of opportunities

Senior Engineer (Former Employee) - London, Greater London - 20 February 2022

Very high levels of stress due to lack of major projects in specific sectors. A day's work can be broken down to 3-4 projects making it extremely difficult to prioritize. Decent life/work balance. Average salary, good flexible leave plan.

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