September 14, 2015

Mr. Cody Kaser

North Dakota State University
Minard 318
Fargo, ND 58102
Subject: Company Profiles for My Job Search
Dear Instructor Kaser:

I profiled Black & Veatch and Dewberry, both large firms that offer many different engineering services.
After spending the majority of my free nights researching both companies, I have discovered the two
companies are very similar; however, they do differ in important, albeit small, ways.
For starters, both Black & Veatch and Dewberry are large companies with over 1,000 employees
spanning a large geographical area. Both companies share and promote common values, such as
integrity, respect, and commitment to their clients. The difference between the two here seems to be
that Black & Veatch is more focused on its employees. The company is employee owned and wants to
do well by both its clients and employees. Many reviewers on glassdoor.com express the companys
positive work environment, teamwork, and good work/life balance. On the other hand, Dewberry
focuses much more on its clients than on its workers. It advertises a low value for potential clients, but
its workers pay the price with fewer promotions and delayed benefits.
These differences will influence my application materials for these jobs, but not to a great amount.
Since both companies are first and foremost interested in hiring hard-working, and knowledgeable
engineers, I will make sure to properly highlight organizational and technical skills on my resume,
including a short two sentence summary at the top listing my top three qualifications for the position.
Since Dewberry seems to be more concerned with the end result, my application letter should
emphasize my technical abilities and efficiency. I will list each desired qualification for the position and
then list how I meet that qualification, using projects I have completed for class and during internships.
Since Black & Veatch puts a larger emphasis on people and values, I will emphasize my character and my
ability to work with a team, using my experience as a member of Engineers Without Borders, an
international philanthropic engineering organization.

Sincerely,

Brett Hultgren

Enclosures (2)

Black & Veatch Profile

Company Profiled: Black & Veatch
Company Website: http://bv.com/
Location: Kansas City, MO (World Headquarters), Bloomington, MN (closest office), Toronto, Canada
(job location)
Size: 10,000+ employees, $3.6 Billion in revenue
Position Applying for: Civil/Environmental Engineering Intern
Description of Position: Provide engineering support as needed, develop design specifications and
drawings, collect and analyze data, organize and file project materials.
Introductory Narrative: I am very interested in improving the worlds water resources, and I am
developing the skills and knowledge to do just that upon graduating from North Dakota State University
in 2017. While I am in school, I want to learn as much as I can, and the best way to do that is by gaining
experience with one of the top engineering and consulting firms in the world, Black & Veatch.
Resume Highlights: Coursework: Fluid Mechanics, Differential Equations, Organic Chemistry, Process
Engineering for Food and Biofuels, Skills: Programming with Visual Basic in Microsoft Excel, Professional
and Technical Communication, Creating Engineering Calculators in Excel, Data Collection, Organization,
and Analysis, AutoCAD, Basic Surveying
Type of Business: Engineering, consulting, and construction company specializing in energy, water,
telecommunications, and management consulting.
Business Objective: Provide superior engineering, consulting, and construction services to clients, and
create value for the companys stakeholders.
Company History: The company was founded in 1915 by Ernest Bateman Black and Nathan Thomas
Veatch. It quickly built a reputation in the water and power industries, and formed a very good
relationship with the US government, completing many government-sponsored civil and utility projects.
The company has worked internationally since the early 1960s and has been employee-owned since
1999.
Customers: Being an international company, Black & Veatch has customers located across the globe. Its
customers range from local, state, and federal governments, to other corporations and businesses.
Customers do not seem to be private individuals.
People:
President/CEO Steven L. Edwards has been at Black & Veatch since 1978 and is a licensed professional
engineer with a degree in electrical engineering. Based on an article by Austin Alonzo in the Kansas City
Business Journal, Steven Edwards seems professional, extremely intelligent, employee-friendly, and
focused on growing the company. He said he expects Black & Veatch to double in size in the next 5
years, adding over 7,000 new employees.
Project Manager John Morris is a civil engineer with 25 years of experience in water and wastewater
design and construction. Judging by his LinkedIn profile, he takes pride in being a well-rounded

engineer, knowing a little bit about everything. He also has a spelling mistake on his LinkedIn summary,
telling me he is not a perfectionist. Judging by his Facebook page, he likes to spend his free time riding
his motorcycle.
Engineering Manager Germana Nunes was previously a project engineer with the company. During
that time she spent almost two years stationed in Santiago, Chile working on the design and
construction of a desalination plant. Her Facebook page does not have much, but she does appreciate
creativity, as she is a member of an interior decorating group.
Human Resources Reading recaps of interviews on glassdoor.com, an HR representative will do a
preliminary phone interview, and then there will an in-person, on-site interview process with project
managers, engineering managers, and other engineers around the target office. Since Black & Veatch
has many different HR representatives, it is very difficult to pin down one individual.
Company Values: Integrity, shared ownership, common purpose, stewardship, respect, accountability,
entrepreneurship. Judging by the companys reviews on glassdoor.com, Black & Veatch holds true to
these values by doing quality work, growing consistently, and respecting employee work-life balance. In
general, the company aims to work for its employees by being really good at what it does, and in turn,
creating more career development opportunities. Basically, the company wants to make money for
everyone involved.
Company Culture: Everything I have seen on social networks, glassdoor.com, and in news articles
suggests Black & Veatch practices what it preaches about doing business professionally and fairly. An
ex-employee I talked to only had positive things to say about the company as a whole; although, the
companys sheer size and growth rate seem to have their pros and cons. As a positive, glassdoor.com
reviews consistently say career advancement and the ability to move within the company are both
above average. As a negative, the company seems to be conservative and bureaucratic, and
communication from upper management down can be clouded or nonexistent.
Communication Style: The company favors professionalism and efficiency. Its website is very userfriendly and direct with lots of easily-accessible information.
Source of Revenue: Contracts for large-scale projects.

Dewberry Profile
Company Profiled: Dewberry
Company Website: http://www.dewberry.com/
Location: Fairfax, VA (Headquarters), Denton, TX (Job Location)
Size: 2,000 employees, 40+ locations in 19 states
Position Applying for: Entry Level Water Resource/Environmental Engineer
Description of Position: Create and analyze hydrologic/hydraulic models. Use GIS-based engineering
and mapping tools to model floodplain delineations and other surface water resource issues.
Introductory Narrative: I have always had a deep-rooted interest on the management and control of the
worlds natural resources, especially water. After graduating with an Agricultural & Biosystems
Engineering degree and taking courses in wetland management and watershed modeling, I now have
the skills and knowledge to make a difference by helping to responsibly control our countrys water
supply. Working for Dewberry as an entry-level engineer would provide a great platform to do just that,
as well as provide opportunities to grow professionally and make a larger impact on the world in the
future.
Resume Highlights: Coursework: Open Channel Flow, Watershed Modeling, Drainage and Wetland
Engineering, Water and Wastewater Engineering, Skills: Programming with VBA in Microsoft Excel, GIS,
AutoCAD, Data Collection, Organization, and Analysis, Basic Surveying
Type of Business: Provides comprehensive architectural, engineering, and consulting services in a wide
range of markets, from infrastructure to healthcare. The company is family-owned.
Business Objective: Complete projects with speed and efficiency while keeping clients needs first.
Company History: The company was founded in 1956 with the name of Greenhorne, OMara, Dewberry
& Nealon. It made it big in the 1960s during the suburban housing boom, completing large-scale
residential design and development. In the 1970s, the firm added environmental engineering to its
growing list of services that included landscape architecture and infrastructure projects. After the land
development and building market took a dive in the 80s and 90s, Dewberry was forced to diversify
even more and offer the wide range of services it provides today.
Customers: Dewberry serves both public and private clients. The companys list of recent projects
includes hospitals, public facilities, university buildings, bridges, and environmental restorations.
People:
CEO Don Stone graduated with a civil engineering degree in 1980 and served in the United States Army
until 1983. He is currently working to consolidate and align the companys engineering, architectural,
and consulting services. Judging by a couple of YouTube videos created by Dewberry, Don Stone seems
to possess innate curiosity and an internal drive to better himself and his career.
Recruiter Tiffany Chou handles all of the college recruiting, including all internship and entry-level
hires. She has been with Dewberry for six months, but she is also a licensed realtor, having worked for
New Century Realty for six months. Her Facebook page is filled with pictures of her two little kids and

her friends. According to her LinkedIn recommendations, she is full of energy, personable, professional,
and very good at what she does. Many of her colleagues have also commented on her confidence and
caring attitude towards her fellow employees.
Company Values: Dewberry promotes The Dewberry Way as the way it does business. This includes
practicing simple values such as honesty, loyalty, professional ethics, dedication, hard work, and respect.
The company also advertises a clients first approach, as do most consulting and construction firms.
Value is another part of The Dewberry Way as the company advertises lower design fees because of
our efficiency and low overhead on its website.
Company Culture: As a whole, people seem to generally like the work environment at Dewberry, at least
in entry-level positions. According to many reviews on glassdoor.com, the company offers good
professional development opportunities, but upper management does not seem to care as much about
individual employees. The company advertises value for its clients, but it ends up taking that money out
of its employees pockets. This excerpt from a current civil engineers review on glassdoor.com echoes
what many other reviewers say about Dewberry.
If there's a natural disaster that forces an office to close, you will be asked to use accrued vacation days
or personal leave to make up the hours. That pretty much sums up how out of touch upper
management is. The bottom line rules everything. Engineers at all skill levels are seen as commodities
and are easily replaceable, even though the company says otherwise.
Communication Style: Dewberrys website is very professional with lots of useful information. The
company seems to be focused on transparency and letting its clients know exactly what kind of
company it is. As with most nation-wide engineering firms, Dewberry as a whole communicates
efficiently and professionally in the public sphere.
Source of Revenue: Contracts for large-scale projects.