Boutique Consumer Lending Consulting Firm with Data Science
Pros
* Work with interesting clients, ranging from private equity firms, top-10 banks, big-3 consulting firms, credit bureaus, credit card networks, to other lending institutions. * Projects span the gamut of the lending lifecycle (marketing, acquisitions, fraud, customer management, through to collections and recoveries), and across a range of conusmer products (credit cards, lines of credit, secured and unsecured loans, and personal loans) * The hiring process is fairly stringent, so you get to work with smart people * The CEO makes himself accessible and takes lower-level employee feedback seriously * Most engagements staff just a single data scientist, so you’ll be responsible for all the analysis * The office environment/dress code is casual. * Work-life balance is solid. I rarely worked >40 hours a week and only once on a weekend (this is client-dependent though). * Flexible work schedule. Enter and leave when you want as long as your work gets done. People are free during the day to go to doctor’s appointments and take care of emergencies. * Solid vacation as well so long as you clear it in advance * The kitchen is well-stocked with snacks like yogurt and La Croix * For a consulting firm, the travel is refreshingly light. There are no Monday-Thursday projects, typically just kickoffs and close-outs. * Big emphasis on getting immediate hands-on experience. Most people are staffed on projects almost immediately and are making substantive contributions from the start * The firm will pay for employees to attend conferences each year
Cons
* In my experience, work for a data scientist has a roughly 50-50 data science vs business split. Advancement is based largely on slide-building and communications which varies heavily project-to-project. * People can be a bit too nice and not correct mistakes when they are made, often sacrificing an opportunity for a learning experience. * Most of management has a non-data science background, making it hard to get feedback on data science work. * Utilization is typically great as consulting firms go, but project timelines can be jumpy and lead to periods where you are unstaffed on a project * More personal to myself, but the firm operates an open-office environment and it can be very loud at times