While I've never worked in the Atlanta office of Gensler, I know some folks who do and I have been in a position to observe the office fairly closely for the past 10-15 years.

The office went through some serious management turmoil for a number of years due to weak leadership at the very top. Those people are now gone. It appears to me that the office has stabilized under the current managing principal and seems to be doing very well.

Sorry, but I really can't provide any more information.

I work at the Big Red G but not in the Atlanta office (although it is within our same "region" in terms of the firms structural organization.

I can speak for my experiences in just this office and I only recently joined as they've been on a massived hiring spree.  I was only of 80 people to have been hired in the last 5 months in just our office.

It has this interesting culture where they are trying to empower their employees and particularly the younger generation.  You will be paid less at Gensler than some of their competitors but the culture and the way you are treated more than makes up for it in my opinion.  Overall the compensation is competitive though when you consider their structured bonus system and their overtime that they insist on paying people who are non-exempt.  If you are more senior level it might be different - most of the senior level PA or PMs at our office have been there for ages which is a good sign.  It has a firmwide CORPORATE structure to which they try to shed in terms of overall image as the identity of each office is completely different.  But the advantage is that if there is not enough work in one office, they will try to transfer you to another office.  It is an employee-owned firm so there are no competitive politics between partner silos in terms of pursuing work.  It is a very unique culture and they really treat their employees very well (this is my fourth firm I've worked in and I've never seen such nice and accomplished proffesionals)  It seems like a great place for people starting out too.  It has its foundations as an Interior design firm - this is still evident. and only about 35-40% of Genslerites are licensed professionals which can translate into less critical experience.  Gensler is a service based firm where account relationships are highly valued so you can be doing shit work that would surprise you just to maintain that account and the client relationship.

Hope this helps!

Thanks both stone and medi for taking time to write this.  This helps out a lot.  I am actually interviewing for a more senior PM position.  I have a small follow up question about the bonus structured compensation.  I had that in one of my previous firms, it was tied to the company's profits and since the bonus represented a good percentage of my compensation, when the economy turned sour i got a shaft.  Basically it meant taking a substantial pay cut. 

How has Gensler weathered the crisis in terms of bonuses.

I heard that people in this office still got bonuses during the recession but not too high obviously.  There were still a lot of layoffs.

There are two bonuses per year.  One is the big June bonus where there is a huge celebration and everyone gets something even if you are like a day into being employed!  I even got one after only being here for a month - I was happy.  That is the one that is significantly tied to the overall performance of the firm - I heard this year's was good as the firm recorded a pretty stellar year.  The other bonus is the Holiday one which is two weeks of pay.

I've heard senior-level PMs joining the firm (especially if they are licensed) get payed pretty well - but I don;t have any idea what it is like in comparison to other firms.

Also - it is a nice feeling to be treated like a professional.

My last firm treated the architects like shit.