DB&A Reviews

You are probably looking at this page because you want to move on from your current job and a recruiter from a company you've never heard of called you with a management consulting job making way more money than you do now even though you have little or no consulting experience. It is indeed too good to be true. You will talk to a very nice recruiter who will get back to you promptly. How often does that happen?? You will talk to a very nice man who reminds you of family. He probably won't be able to remember anything you talked about over the phone when you meet him in person because, while his objective is to make you feel special and "chosen" he is interviewing anyone who can breathe because they are running through people like you everyday. When a company of this size lets you know every week that 1-4 people have left - that isn't just because of the travel as they would have you believe. You will be told a story of how wonderful the company is and how they want to grow their employees the DB&A way. Maybe others have had this experience, but just remember that the people out in the field have a differing agenda from all the others you will have contact with during the recruiting and orientation process. I'm not sure if this is a case of the old guard running a passive/aggressive fight against the new, but something isn't right. Everyone gets graded out at the end of every project. Your grade is based on your individual performance as well as the overall project. This is what the Project Manager's bonus is based off of. Same situation for his boss, as well as your possible promotion. That means that if you are new, and placed on a project on a tight budget, you may not make it very long. Your manager and peers have a vested interest in seeing you fail because you are a cost to the project. Your airfare, hotel, etc are all charged to the project which is the majority of the project cost. If this is a project with a 9 person budget and you, as an on-boarder are dropped in their laps as #10....good luck. The disgusting nature of this is something you should not overlook. The only person out in the field you will talk to during recruitment is a Project Manager, Listen carefully. If something sounds off, trust your instincts. This person could wind up being your first boss. Look, if you think you can survive as the new person in a kill or be killed workplace, give it a try. Just remember that you might get put on a project with team members and managers who take no prisoners (there's a good deal of money at stake) and are not necessarily as friendly or helpful as the people you encountered previously. Either the home office is blissfully unaware of this, or they don't care. I'm not sure which is worse. None of this review even includes the brutal travel schedule or possible terrible project environments you'll deal with. Keep that in mind. Before you accept the offer from DB&A (don't worry, you'll get one), think long and hard about it because to call this a risky career move is an understatement.

Where to start.... the company culture is awful and the senior management should be ashamed of the way they treat people and the culture they create for the projects. Senior management can be best described as having a draconian and authoritarian leadership style while the project managers spend too much time trying undo the emotional effects of these guys. The senior management is never wrong, even if data or common sense dictates otherwise. The next biggest issue is the notion of feedback. They will tell you they are a company of feedback and that it is gift. Except they do not understand the difference between feedback and criticism. Feedback is meant to benefit the receiver of the feedback not the sender and that if it harsh, it should be applied strategically. This companies notion of feedback is to criticize at every opportunity warranted, at every opportunity to make the sender feel better about them self at the expense of the receiver, in front of their peers, in front of clients and at many times so heavy that they degrade the self esteem of their teams. This is prevalent at every level of the management team. Much of this "feedback" comes as the management is shifting blame for what they should have done to making it their subordinate's fault. The management at this company does not understand that the buck stops with them. Senior Management hides and lies about the truth among themselves and they all know they do it. So rather than call each other out, they find the scapegoats from their projects. The financial outlook looking forward is dismal which prompted layoffs recently. The last five years have seen sales drop year over year. Most everyone under the most senior leadership has been changed out while those most responsible are the ones still making the decisions. Lastly, the company recruits passive candidates with jobs. They bring them in for orientation where some are let go right away while others are let go shortly after. This left many in worst positions than before they received a call from the company recruiter. Many people leave because of the "travel" but everyone who works there knows they just say that so they don't have to hassled when trying to leave during their exit interview.