project manager

engineer

project engineer

designer

building consultant

For most business lines, pay is well under that of the local competition and has fallen behind cost of living for those who have stuck around. Even while knowing what inflation has been, they budget significantly less for raises. Benefits are your standard 'lowest common denominator' amongst consulting companies with nothing to positively differentiate. Mental health is claimed to be 'important' to them, but only to the extent that it doesn't cost them anything. Autonomy and career growth into management is virtually nonexistent since nearly all authority has been centralized in Ontario and Quebec, or handed over to Golder personnel through the recent acquisition. Local leadership is being run through with demotions, seemingly to push them out, with many opting to leave voluntarily for greener pastures.

Morale is very poor as WSP’s true colours have shown throughout the pandemic in the form of widespread layoffs, reduced hours, reduced wages, deferred wage increases, cancelled bonuses, and significant neglect for those and other impacts to employee mental health that have led to high levels of voluntary turnover. It was claimed that the decisions were for business continuity, but then a large amount of cash reserves were used to purchase Golder. Take that as you may.

Senior management has vision lying solely on short term shareholder benefits and hitting utilization targets, and they regularly make high level decisions of detriment to the employees while ignoring red flags along the way. While there is an almost nauseating level of corporate virtue signaling and claims of “unlimited possibilities”, what they won't tell you is that your role is fundamentally to be a cog in the billable hours machine, and not hitting their unreachable objectives can easily become the theme of a utilization horror novel featuring you as the main character, never knowing whether or not you'll be laid off even if the larger business line is doing well. If your billable hours are low, expect to be treated like a contractor and sent home or put on reduced hours, or forced to deplete your vacation time. Just when you think you’re starting to get a feel for things, there’s yet another restructure and/or reclassification that flips everything on its head and makes you further question those at the helm (restructuring has been happening yearly). If you raise concerns, you can expect to be gaslit by HR/senior leadership and ultimately labeled as a detractor, which will further chip away at your ability to advance in your career. There is a 'pass the buck' perception that employees are causing toxicity, but it doesn't just happen on its own, and no accountability is being taken by senior leadership.

In the end, WSP is really becoming a dirty bus stop along one’s career travels. Some will use it in a pinch when there are no other options, but they won’t want to stick around for too long. Most still here are anxiously waiting for their next bus to arrive. It's time for WSP to glance away from the share price for a minute and take a good hard look in the mirror.

This is a company that sells technical expertise, but is severely and critically hobbled by a bloated and relatively uneducated corporate structure that doesn't understand what technical products they sell, and that sacrifices quality for weekly, monthly, and quarterly margins, and do not care about staff except for weekly percentages.  Non-technical people with MBAs, limited licensees, and others with no technical background call the shots, and try to do engineering by proxy, often forcing the professionals into sticky situations and ethical dilemmas.  Most egregious is when technical staff explain why something is not possible or comes with huge risk, yet managers will make a "business decision" to proceed, and put all responsibility back onto the professional...!

Many good coworkers can be found, but management destroys any pride in your work, as even managers will try to dictate technical reporting in order to please "important" clients.  Anyone experienced in consulting at all will know that monstrous chargeabilities come at a cost, cannot be maintained except for very short periods, and that they ebb and flow with the market and economy... but apparently, nobody told corporate that!  The result is horrible attrition of experienced technical staff (a must in a technical company), replaced by low-level and under-experienced newbies.

Money is decent, IF you push hard for it... but simply not worth it.

Avoid at all costs.

WSP is a large organization that has grown up through acquisitions. 

As a result, the organization has changed dramatically over the past few years. The current executive team are aggressive in their approach and micro-manage at every opportunity.

Team work and Caring are embedded within their values, while they talk at length about it they certainly do not display these through the actions of their management and leadership teams.

Successes are rarely celebrated, failures are picked over in tiny detail. Everyone is looking over their shoulder wondering who will be walked out next. 

The benefits are average, the vacation policy is dismal and any perks that employees once had have been ripped away.

The integration of acquired companies has been average at best with little communication or change management. 

Pre-WSP acquisition there were good, effective people at all levels in the company. Sadly the majority of those have left and those that remain are constantly scared of being next on the list to leave.

If nothing else, WSP has taught me how to navigate relationships with those that are self-serving and not team players.

If you are considering a role at WSP, look carefully through the job description; all is not what it seems. Make sure you truly understand the culture and what you're getting yourself into.

A typical day at work
A typical day was almost entirely field-based work, even though the role was described as a blend of office and field tasks. The work often did not match what was originally outlined.

What I believe I learned
They did not provide anything that was genuinely useful or worth learning. I did not walk away with skills or experience that added real value.

Management
Management was not capable or organized. Expectations were unclear, support was limited, and communication from management was often unprofessional. Serious work-related questions or tasks were sometimes met with emojis, including inappropriate ones like tongue-out faces, which made the environment feel disrespectful and not workplace appropriate.

Workplace culture
There was no real workplace culture. Communication was inconsistent and often insincere. It did not feel like a collaborative or supportive environment.

The hardest part of the job
The hardest part was communication. It should have been the easiest part, but the combination of unclear direction, unprofessional responses, and insincere teamwork made even simple tasks more difficult than they needed to be.

The most enjoyable part of the job
The only positive aspect was having a friend there. Beyond that, I did not find any meaningful pros.

Depends on the department, in my case was the QAQC for construction. A typical day of work included calculations of piles, foundations, pedestals, drafting topographic surface, prepared underground scan reports, and various other reports, volume calculations. I learned to use many AutoCAD tools, and improved my knowledge of MS Office, and the various processes of plant site constructions.
The upper level management at WSP are top notch professional people. 
The department management is a different story.
My co-workers were just like any other job places...you have all sorts from the brown-nosers, fakes, manipulative, whiny, self-serving, self-promoting, to ambitious young and eager to learn.
The hardest part of the job for me was having to deal with the politics.
The most enjoyable part of the job is the drafting where you just work on the one particular project until it's complete.

I did not find them appreciative of  the my ideas as an employee about their mentor-ship.
I did not find the management trust worthy with my concerns talks about my career future.
I did not see  much of space for progress and learning for an EIT engineer like myself.
I found them the least willing to appreciate my  thriving and ambitious opinions and dreams for my career.
I did not find them supportive on my career progress plans like taking extra related certificates and extend my ability to be a professional engineer in the near future.
most of my work as an EIT engineer was involved with plan drawings and auto cad drawings from the scratch and not with engineering simulations and calculations.
There was not a clear agenda  on helping me with understanding the company work and projects and how to conduct a project from the start point.
About HR, It had been 2 weeks that I was working there and they had not asked for my direct deposit information yet or my SIN. I had to call and email myself several times to provide them with those information.
I did not find my job position secured.

WSP, depending on the office, does have a lot to offer. Most great reviews are from those who have worked there less than 2 years and are still in the honeymoon period of employment however as time passes you see the huge cracks within the company structure.  How management seems to thrive on intimidation of loyal hardworking employees all the while flying the banner of “We are a team”  Unfortunately there are so many games within management, don’t expect them to be really fair to you.  When it was EXH no one wanted to go home because it was an awesome place to work but as it grew it has taken a turn, which is beyond disappointing.   When I first started it was a dream job, now I’m open to new opportunities. To be completely fair- it is a good place to start if you are out of school looking for a first job but not a good place to finish. Keep it strictly professional if you are looking to apply and don’t spoil the bread by getting too personable.

Worked here for about two years. During that time span I have had three department manager. Directors and Leadership group is questionable. They are very cliquey when at the end of the day you're just a number to them. 

For technical work, it was good and my group was good but there is no recognition so it feels like a grind. Sometimes upper management walks around pretending and everyone goes quiet. 

When work from home started you work full time plus extra hours to get work done for deadlines. But you get paid part time cause there's never enough chargeable hours. 

Unprofessional lay off. Was scheduled a mandatory meeting with an upper management director I did not know and an HR from Toronto that was not even listed as HR. Must be easier to lay off someone you don't know. Blind sided me with the layoff. Was texted the night before for a mandatory meeting for next day. Was not given sufficient time to review their package (4 business days), requested more time and they did not even answer. 

WSP, through its acquisition of Genivar, Focus and Parsons Brinckerhoff, is one of the world's leading professional services firms in its industry, working with governments, businesses, architects and planners and providing integrated solutions across many disciplines.

Enjoy working with colleague on the Cenovus Narrows Lake Phase 1 project in 2013. The plant predicted to have a production capacity of approximately 130,000 barrels per day, up to three phases and an estimated life span of up to 40 years. This project will encompass what may be the first-ever commercial-scale combined application of steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) and solvent-aided process (SAP).

Very supportive supervisor as well multiple engineers including Piping management.

As an engineer-in-training, expect to be 110% utilized but underpaid, well below the market average. When you request compensation based on your proven work ethic of 2 years, you are told to wait whereas new hires come in at rates higher than you. Loyalty is never rewarded and job hoping is the most feasible solution for the millienial working force at the bottom of the food chain. I would strong suggest EITs stay away from multi-national firms such as WSP as it'll destroy your passion. The management talks a lot about intangible things but does too little. If you're an EIT, expect management to take advantage of you as you are a cheap resource to them. Project Managers will continue padding up their stats and taking bonuses while coming down on you about hours/budget. 

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Project manager 7 salaries reported	$108,143 per year
Engineer 10 salaries reported	$92,100 per year
Project engineer 4 salaries reported	$92,000 per year
Designer 3 salaries reported	$77,667 per year
Building consultant 4 salaries reported	$77,000 per year

Working at WSP: company overview and reviews

WSP

WSP ratings

Popular jobs at WSP

Salary satisfaction

Job seeker tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected