Great atmosphere but limited long-term career opportunities - Anonymous employee Urban Science Employee Review

4.0
27 Feb 2015
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The office had a great working atmosphere with many after-work socials, group lunches and a lot of friendly buzz during the workday. They also put a lot of effort into training their employees, with both internal certification courses and external trainers brought in to keep skills current. Graduate starting salaries were good and early progression/promotion is swift, however this does tail off quickly and you find yourself at the top of a salary bracket with no opportunity for a raise early on. Employees are regularly given the opportunity to go on client visits and there's no "keeping the production staff in the back room" - you'll regularly see the people whose projects you work on. Also, they have some great people - I worked for some managers in the UK office whose skills and ability to manage people were truly inspiring.

Cons

If you are good at your job you will rapidly find yourself in a Catch-22 situation where you can't be promoted because you haven't done a particular certification course, but you can't go on the internal certification course because your work is too important for the time off to be approved. This leads to a situation where good employees regularly leave for other opportunities while sub-par "lifers" slowly work their way up the ladder and compound the problem by treating new talent as a threat. Some of the career paths are extremely limited because there's a prevailing attitude of, "that is done in the Detroit office, and can only be done in the Detroit office" - even if there are talented people capable of opening up huge amounts of new business in the branches, the head office is very closed-minded and sees this as a threat more than an opportunity.

Explore other reviews about Urban Science

5.0
23 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Great Team, Work Life Balance, Interesting work.

Cons

Can feel a bit stagnating

4.0
26 May 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

With the exception of some teams, company culture is great. Opportunity to work on some cool stuff

Cons

Super strict on in office attendance and recently culture has taken a hit because of it. Also compensation and career progression aren’t very good past year 1.

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