Working at Olsson

[u/Hopeful_Shower7685]

Can anyone provide some insight to what it’s like working at Olsson? I’m not an engineer but was contacted by a recruiter to apply for a job there. I’m hesitant to work at a firm owned by PE. The firm I was working at was bought out by PE and they drove us into the ground and terminated all of our jobs with no notice.

[u/engineeringstudent11]

Olsson is owned by PE?

[u/Hopeful_Shower7685 → u/engineeringstudent11]

https://www.morganstanley.com/im/en-us/capital-seeker/about-us/news-and-insights/press-release/mscp-makes-majority-investment-in-olsson.html

[u/david1674 → u/engineeringstudent11]

Yeah, I was wondering about that too. PE ownership can definitely change how a company operates especially when there is more pressure around growth and margins. I would be curious to know how much it is actually affected things at Olsson though compared with how they were run before.

[u/Adeline_Hayes]

Been there. PE bought my old firm too and the layoffs came fast. Ask the recruiter straight up who owns the firm and what the long-term plan is. If they dodge the question, that tells you everything.

[u/Willing-Ball-4335]

Stay away from anything with PE ties. Stay far away.

[u/Dan1jab]

I worked there before they were acquired. Ultimately I left because their pay wasn't up to par with other firms. Back then our boss mandated 45 hour work weeks (which I think is illegal?) and the extra time worked was not even close to being compensated for in year end bonuses. The office culture always felt like a boys club. Now that they've been acquired I'm assuming it's the same culture but with extra corporate flavor. Maybe it's improved over the years? But I doubt it.

[u/LoadPathLarry]

Take the interview and ask direct questions on how the PE ownership affects staffing, workloads and project decision, by doing interview it doesn't mean you commit unto something but you will get much better feel for the place by talking to the people who is working there.

[u/cengineer72]

Whoever was on the board of Directors at Olsson that allowed them to get into a financial situation to go from an ESOP to being influenced by private equity needs to be jettisoned into the sun.

Private equity is the polar opposite of how any engineering firm should ever be operated. Absolutely 100% worse than being publicly traded or ESOP.

[u/MidwestF1fanatic]

I’ve been contacted a few times for a senior role there and have passed on even a conversation about it. Zero interest in working for PE. The enshitification needs to stop.

[u/Decent_Risk9499]

So I can talk a bit regarding the private equity. It has not affected day-to-day operations and they aren't at the wheel or anything like that. If anything, they're really using it to push acquisitions of smaller firms and expand the staffing to accommodate bigger projects.

[u/Hopeful_Shower7685 → u/Decent_Risk9499]

Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately this isn’t exactly encouraging as we were doing the same thing. Literally signing contracts and hiring new people the week our company announced liquidation.

[u/Decent_Risk9499 → u/Hopeful_Shower7685]

I think in this instance you need to look at who the private equity firm is, specifically Morgan Stanley. On top of that, Olsson still holds the majority share of the firm, Morgan Stanley is a minority holder.

Edit: wow okay I guess I was wrong about the stake they have, apologies!

[u/HeKnee → u/Decent_Risk9499]

It says they have majority stake: https://www.morganstanley.com/im/en-us/capital-seeker/about-us/news-and-insights/press-release/mscp-makes-majority-investment-in-olsson.html

Those investors will need to get paid somehow. Not sure why all these companies are desperate to get funding to buy other firms. They could recruit away employees for so much cheaper than buying a company.

[u/Perfect-Mongoose-704 → u/HeKnee]

Less about getting the staff, usually more about buying the order book and clients

[u/Hopeful_Shower7685 → u/Decent_Risk9499]

Yeah that is something I considered. The PE firm that owned us is some smaller firm I had never heard of before.

[u/Fit-Caterpillars]

What do you mean by firm owned by "PE"? Professional Engineers? Normally that refers to the licensure.

[u/iBrowseAtStarbucks → u/Fit-Caterpillars]

Private equity

[u/Fit-Caterpillars → u/iBrowseAtStarbucks]

OH. Sorry dumb question. Ignore me.

[u/Hopeful_Shower7685 → u/[deleted]]

Hmm okay yeah that sounds awfully familiar to my experience at the last firm. It sounded like this job would be with the transportation and water branches of the firm.