"Our philosophy is to satisfy the client first and everything else will take care of itself."

SME knows that good enough is not enough when it comes to client service. Ask our project managers what makes them good at their jobs and they'll answer: "I'm a client advocate." Doing what's right and appropriate for the project, not selling a service, comes first.

"Clients know who to call day in and day out. They don't get a different name or different face every time. That results in a better understanding of the client's goals and projects."

A lot of firms churn through people and projects. We don't. SME's turnover is low because we take care of our people and recognize potential. We also put a premium on developing one-on-one relationships with clients. Our team members follow clients throughout the course of their careers. Our goal is to keep clients for life; once our clients know us, they don't leave us.

"We give clients practical, cost-saving solutions, not textbook solutions."

The quality of the solution counts. You know that and so do we. We want our solutions to serve clients over the long haul, not the short term. And, our solutions have to be economical, not out of the realm of real dollars. That's why when a project is challenging — a brownfield development, a bridge embankment, a building restoration, a deteriorating roadway — clients call SME first.

"The wider the variety of problems we solve, the better engineers we become."

Clients come to us because we understand their business and their issues. There's a comfort level. They know we have the depth of experience and diversity of services to handle all their needs. Clients come to SME because they believe we can solve their problems. Period. They have the right idea.

"We're there from start to finish. Clients know they can count on us from project conception to occupancy and operation to rehabilitation and even redevelopment. We don't stop when the environmental portion ends. We carry the project all the way through construction."

Our services have evolved over time to meet the needs of our clients. For many of our clients, one-stop shopping is essential. By providing geotechnical, environmental, construction quality control, pavement and roofing design, and materials evaluation services, we can support our clients at every stage of the building cycle, from site assessment, acquisition and design through construction and maintenance/restoration.

"We value entrepreneurial spirit."

If you have the drive and business savvy to uncover opportunities — and the talent to act on them — you can carve a niche for yourself within SME. Many people turn their life's passion into a viable business plan and grow new services, new markets and new benefits for SME and our clients.

"We look for decent human beings first, people with a strong work ethic and sense of integrity. We like to hire people for the long run."

We're not just looking for technical excellence, we're looking for people who love helping clients and co-workers succeed. That means we are there for you, no matter how small or difficult the request. If we don't know the answer, we'll find someone who does. People flourish at SME — for 20 years or more. A number of our co-op students come back to work full-time for us; so do employees who leave to work for another company for a while. After they test the water across town or across country, they're even more committed to SME and our way of doing business when they return.

"Every employee embraces our performance principles — ownership; responsibility; attention to detail; setting priorities; knowing what's going on; hard work; checking up; facing the facts."

It's called lead by example. We weren't the first to invent performance principles, but our team members know if something goes awry, it's because they probably forgot (temporarily) to follow one of our eight principles.

"Family values."

Yes, the words are overused. But we're proud that SME is a family-run and employee-owned business. Founder Ken Kramer passed the reins to son Mark in early 2002 and SME didn't skip a beat. We're small enough to treat each other like family and hold each other accountable. And we're large enough at 200-plus employees to carry the legacy — the expertise and excellent service clients have counted on for 46 years — to future generations.