1. Leadership does not care about preserving a professional environment and culture of wellbeing. For instance, I was informed that a member of senior leadership had yelled at the administrative staff regarding a minor formatting issue on a deliverable after our client call. The client had not noticed this issue on or after the call and it had zero implications on the work product. While quality of work is understandably important, screaming at anyone should never be appropriate. Instances like this were always laughed off or just seen by middle management and leadership as part of the intense work environment. The truth is a small firm can get away with normalizing these situations (and worse situations which I only heard of through other analysts after I left the firm) if its leadership does not care.
2. Leadership does not care about retaining you as an analyst - you are a workhorse and you should be available to respond 24/7. You, as an analyst, will most probably be required to work all of your holidays and miss important family events. The sad thing is so many of this firm's new hires are fresh from undergrad and this is their first experience working a full-time job. They think these work hours and this work ethic are normal until they reach a period of burn-out. And then once the former class of analysts is purged...a new class, fresh-out-of undergrad, comes in and the painful cycle begins again.
3. Communication is important, but leadership takes it to a whole new level of paranoia if you do not respond to them on your personal time on a weekend without telling them the exact times you will be out of pocket.
4. Be prepared to never know when is an appropriate time to "log off" over the course of your full-time.
5. There is a much smaller amount of "brand equity" in working at this firm relative to working at other larger, more established firms, which may be important if you are unsure if you want to stay at BVA long term. Larger firms in consulting/financial services may be equally as challenging in work-life balance but may also have safe measures in place/easier ways to either report or navigate away from people whom you may not be compatible with in work style. In other words, if you are willing to put in the intense work hours and work hard after college anyway, there may be better options for job placement than this firm that position you in a better place for career advancement.
I highly recommend talking to people at the firm AND people who have left the firm to get a sense of if this is the right place for you.
