Prós
The people and senior management are great to work with and RDA has an excellent reputation in the industry. RDA is hired on large projects (over a billion in construction costs or tens of millions in engineering fees) that typically a firm of RDA’s size would not be able to handle or trusted with by clients. With many years of successful projects many developers, contractors, and agencies will seek out RDA for even super projects in Virginia and Maryland. Also with partnering with the Trilon Group the opportunities to grow in your career and make advancements are significantly better. Previously many younger engineers felt “pigeon holed” into lower level positions without pathways to growth. There is now a clear career development process to take on more responsibilities with higher salaries. Salaries are very competitive with peers and given the performance and growth the company there should be good profit sharing. With the resources available as part of the Trilon Group there will be opportunities to grow and win more for work in the mid Atlantic region as well as work sharing with partner firms throughout all of North America.
Contras
The options for health insurance benefits were previously very poor. With RDA joining the Trilon Group that has drastically improved. The annual bonus moved from December to March/April after financial evaluations are complete. It was nice to have that bonus for Christmas.