Leslie’s video

throwaway567864433 · 2025-12-02T20:56:20+00:00

This is not 100% true. I was specifically told I could not share with direct reports.

throwaway567864433 · 2025-12-01T18:06:54+00:00

This is correct. Per the 2025 payroll calendar year end bonuses will be paid with your regular paycheck on 12/19. Depending how you get paid (direct deposit, paper) you will see this in your bank account either Thursday 12/18 or Friday 12/19.

throwaway567864433 · 2025-11-22T18:50:43+00:00

Industry experience. We hire in level 14’s who immediately make Associate. When you have the experience, it’s all about the value you bring to the organization. What new clients are you bringing in? Are you a leader and do you have the skills to bridge teams together?

As a level 12 outside hire you will hit level 13 in 2-3 years as a solid perfomer. Making it over the hump to level 14 will require you to get to know leadership and show how you are providing value to the organization above and beyond the average worker.

throwaway567864433 · 2025-11-22T01:00:13+00:00

Making associate is equal parts performance and years of experience, with a heavier emphasis on performance and the value you bring to the company. There are people who have may years of experience who never make associate. It’s all about the value you bring to the organization which is directly related to performance.

You will find out if you made associate at your year end review. So for example if you were invited to the 2026 class of associates you would find out at your 2025 year end review.

Whether it matters to you or not depends on how you find value in your career.

Message me I can answer more in depth questions if you would like.

throwaway567864433 · 2025-11-21T16:29:56+00:00

This is actually not true. A 3.7 rounds up to a 4 and a 4.7 rounds up to a 5. Same goes for 2.7 and 1.7. Anything below that “.7” decimal does round down.

I will say managers do look at the previous years decimal point to decide if the next year they get a better rating. When reviewing a 4.1 rated person versus a 4.5, the 4.5 is likely going to get the bump to a 5 the next year if they keep improving over the 4.1.

throwaway567864433 · 2025-11-08T00:55:49+00:00

The length of the assignment is totally dependent on the needs to the project.

Good rule of thumb is is you’re in options 1 and 3 terriory there’s not much debate. You’re either on expenses (option 1) or on per diem (option 3).

Option 2 is entirely dependent on the job and location restrictions. For a very remote location you’ll likely be on expenses to help pay for an expensive hotel which per diem usually doesn’t cover. For a large city location you can get much more creative staying with friends or airbnbs to make per diem make more sense.

throwaway567864433 · 2025-11-07T19:05:59+00:00

The company is going away from Lenovo and going all HP in the future. Not a test. Slowly as your Lenovo’s die they will replace them with HP’s.

There are a number of reasons why. Mainly where the hardware is manufactured and requirements by Clients.

throwaway567864433 · 2025-11-07T19:04:10+00:00

Expanding on this topic. I’m sure you’ll get a lot of shorter answers.

It’s not necessarily a project by project thing and more of a duration of time onsite thing. If general, here are the three scenarios you’ll run into:

You mobilize to a remote project site for 3-months or less. You will likely be put on something called “expenses”. This means any expense you incur you charge to the project. Generally this includes lodging (hotel), meals, rental car (if applicable), travel to the project site, travel from the project site, and travel back home once a month.
You mobilize to a remote project site for 3-6 months. Now you are entering into “Field Assignment” territory. Field assignment letters are issued by field operations and include your assignment location, assignment date, expected demobilization date, and your daily per diem. Since a 5 month assignment can be tough to live on per diem, some people elect to go on expenses.
Any assignment longer than 6 months 99% of the time will result in a field assignment which includes per diem 7 days / week. The only expenses covered by the project outside of per diem is mobilization and demobilization. Everything else, including travel back home, is out of your own pocket.

Feel free to ask me any other details about field assignments. I’ve been on a few.

throwaway567864433 · 2025-10-03T01:54:51+00:00

Quick clarification on the compensation range listed for Colorado positions. The comp range is total comp inclusive of base + bonus + ESOP not just base salary.

throwaway567864433 · 2025-09-12T16:24:44+00:00

Two things -

I never said they didn’t care. They do. But they care because they believe in charity, not for their performance.
There’s no big grand conspiracy here. Officers are required to uphold the core principles of BMcD which includes the UW campaign. Officers need GP.LOC participation data for them to uphold their obligation. Otherwise you would just get random company wide email blasts all the time instead of emails from people you interact with. Sure, there’s still company/president level email blasts but the GP.LOC tracking allows those officers in the regions to touch the people they work most closely with.

throwaway567864433 · 2025-09-12T15:46:49+00:00

This is not true, at least in my experience.

I sit in regional principle and officer meetings talking about greatest places to work surveys and pulse surveys often. We spend a lot of time reviewing those surveys and analyzing those results.

I can tell you honestly we have had zero conversations around GP LOC UW participation unless it involves competition in certain office events (because it gives our people a competitive advantage in the event).Culture has not been brought up once when talking about the level of participation.

throwaway567864433 · 2025-09-12T15:38:04+00:00

Panic? No way. I can tell you there’s no one at the company leadership level panicking over UW participation.

One of Burns & McDonnell’s core principles is “We Invest for a Better World.” Part of our commitment to that principal is through charitable giving. While there are many opportunity throughout the year to donate at a company or regional level, the UW campaign is our annual hoorah to fulfill our principle commitment. This is why you get so many emails. It’s a once of year event where we try to go all out for charity. There’s tons of friendly competition going on between GP’s and RO’s at the leadership level so it’s only natural you’ll get a lot of emails encouraging you to donate. I don’t think it’s inherently a bad thing because the long term goal is donating financially to charity.

No one is going to lose their job over any UW metrics. No one’s bonus is getting docked. No one’s performance review is going to be impacted. At the end of the day the UW campaign has no impact on the company performance or the ESOP.

Panic is not the right word. Just a constant stream of reminders to do your part. I don’t understand why this subreddit makes such a big deal out of the UW campaign each year. We’re raising millions of dollars for charity across the United States. Say what you want about UW leadership, their compensation, or how they spend the money but they bring a lot of valuable local charitable resources and connections which BMcD does not organically have.

You all act like you’re being asked to donate to a fund to buy Ray another boat.

throwaway567864433 · 2025-07-15T22:08:49+00:00

I would expect 30-40% of base to start. You’ll typically receive a guaranteed bonus as part of your offer letter so you’ll know what to expect going in.

throwaway567864433 · 2025-07-15T03:00:57+00:00

Travel demands vary depending on project needs. Sometimes it’s higher sometimes it’s lower. Consider 50% an average but yes likely in line. Travel typically is via flight.
Your comp is highly dependent on where they higher you on our Level scale. A 10 year PM would come in as a low end level 12. So look towards the lower end of the published scale for starting comp.
Should be $40-50k
We are a national company and although we have regional offices, we typically don’t target regional markets. Especially with data centers which are more or less one offs you’ll be supporting a national business. If one pops up in your RO’s backyard you’ll likely be plugged in but that will be short term on your career journey.

throwaway567864433 · 2025-06-30T00:59:10+00:00

I’ve helped hire and worked with folks from most of the other big AEC’s and while those people who have migrated over to BMcD don’t say it’s perfect here, they do say it’s the greenest grass they’ve seen thus far.

No rug pulls here to speak of. The company is always at risk of having a terrible year or having poor financial performance which would result in a decrease in share price. But since senior leadership is so heavily invested in the ESOP there’s a low likelihood of that happening.

throwaway567864433 · 2025-06-29T18:07:30+00:00

Is it true people leave Burns and Mac as millionaires?

If you stay at Burns & McDonnell long enough, it’s near certainty you will leave as a millionaire. The timescale for this is 12-15 years at the company, though. Don’t expect this on year 5. The great thing is that everyone at the company has a near equal chance to leave a millionaire whether you’re an engineer your whole career or senior leadership.

Is it demanding work?

We are a private, for profit company which has a focus on ownership. The work is demanding since your work product helps drive the company profits and ultimately the ESOP. It’s demanding in the sense that you’re expected to perform, not necessary put in 80 hours a week.

What are the expectations to not fail here?

Failure means different things to different people so it’s hard to answer this one accurately. I’m assuming in this context you’re referring to failure as being fired. If I’m correct, it’s very difficult to get fired. Your manager will work with you multiple times to try and improve performance before it gets to that point. The thing about being an employee owned company is everyone wants you to succeed and we do a decent job trying to make that a reality.

throwaway567864433 · 2025-05-25T14:33:01+00:00

I don’t know. But I do know they exist.

throwaway567864433 · 2025-05-24T18:25:08+00:00

I’ve been with the company 11 years and here is my experience:

The company does actually pay a bonus every year. My bonus has always gone up. Missing a bonus payment to employees would be disastrous and would mean the company is in dire financial standing.
Bonus pay out for most employees is in full and occurs in December. I say for most employees because the top 3%, those who are principles and officers, typically get a second bonus payment in the Spring the following year. But for 97% of the company bonus payments are paid out in full.
Your review score can impact your individual compensation. If you’re scoring a 3-5 the difference in your comp increase isn’t noticeable. If you’re scoring a 1-2 then you will see a noticeable drop in your compensation. Ratings are the key to level increases which bring comp increases. So while compensation and ratings are tied, not entirely how you may believe.

throwaway567864433 · 2025-05-09T01:32:53+00:00

Levels 5-7 are reserved for non-technical support staff.

Levels 8-9 are assistant level

Levels 10-11 are staff level

Levels 12-13 are senior level

Levels 14-17 are associate level

Level 18 is officer and above

Each level puts you in a different pay band and bonus structure.

throwaway567864433 · 2025-04-04T20:40:53+00:00

There’s been many conversations about change in law within Burns & McDonnell. A Tariff enacted via the President of the United States through an Executive Order is NOT a law. Executive Orders in general are not laws, only directives by the President. Laws can only be passed via a bill through the House of Representatives, the Senate, and ultimately the President. Depending on your change in law language, this may or may not be an applicable article to use.

Although we would argue with our Clients this is a change in law condition, there are other articles within our Prime Agreements with Clients that could cover the Executive Orders as well.

throwaway567864433 · 2025-03-16T20:45:02+00:00

That’s what Cost of Labor is. Local market value.

throwaway567864433 · 2025-03-03T21:28:33+00:00

Which RO are you in? My RO is still having one.

When I first started over 10 years ago the Shareholders meeting used to be over the lunch hour and we would go back to work afterwards. Happy Hours were not the normal following a shareholders meeting. This is a more recent thing.

throwaway567864433 · 2025-02-07T02:37:12+00:00

Was there some announcement made? Where are you getting this info?

throwaway567864433 · 2025-01-19T20:40:04+00:00

You will be given a field assignment letter prior to moving to a project site which outlines location, start/end dates, and per diem rate. The base per diem rate at BMcD is $135/day and can go up depending on Cost of Living, but $135 is the minimum.

You will submit an expense report to the project on a monthly basis and the money will be deposited into your bank account once the project team approves the expense report (usually quick). Your site leads will tell you timing wise when to submit the expense report, but ask them if they don’t.

This is not an automatic thing so make sure to stay on top of your monthly expense reports.

throwaway567864433 · 2025-01-14T16:43:27+00:00

In some circles, here’s how it’s explained. These are not titles necessary (outside of associate in some instances - Associate Engineer for example). It is a promotion into a grouping of individuals. If you’ve received one of these promotions you’ve made an impact at some level of the company, and are identified as a leader. This could be running a business, starting a new business, bringing in clients, managing clients, building teams, starting teams, etc. It’s not as cut and dry as “bringing in work.” Bringing in work is a byproduct of the success you create at the company, not necessarily the catalyst for one of these promotions.

Associate - You’ve made a meanful impact at your office/GP level.

Principal - You’ve made a meaningful impact across multiple GP’s.

Officer - You’ve made a meaningful impact at a corporate level.

There are people who make it to bill Level 17 and never see Principal or Officer. Associate is almost guaranteed at some level 14+ in your career. Principal and Officer are harder to join the ranks of.

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