A boutique consultancy with a self-fulfilling prophecy of decreasing market share and company size.
Pros
Elder Research has a number of senior members that have been in the field for decades. They are open to sharing their experiences and offering advice to those in need. There is a shared sense of community and goals amongst the lower employees across the offices; that is, there is no sense of competition amongst employees. As such, most people are willing to assist in any way possible. Really, the people are great. Can obtain a high-level exposure to a wide range of analytics projects that occur company-wide. Employment will act as a spring-board to greater opportunities as data science will continue to be an expanding field.
Cons
The same technical leaders (from the “Pros” above) that help define the company often don’t get hands-on with technical projects anymore yet still often retain tight control over projects and decision making while avoiding responsibility of any negative effects of their decisions. Often you are pigeon-holed to a narrow problem set, so your exposure to other projects is very high level. There is (still!) a better chance of employment if you are a member of one of their churches or a son of one of the senior leadership. This is okay when you are qualified, but that is not always the case and those that are qualified are often turned away. There has been lots of turnover since a CEO (not John Elder as listed on glassdoor) was appointed about a year or so ago. Certainly some of those lost were starting to look before the CEO took over. However, the exodus appears to be ongoing and how long do you give before you claim that the CEO is ultimately responsible? CEO appears to let each office run independently to some extent and there is absolutely no feedback channels from the lower office members to the senior management that might be able to affect change. In other words, the Director at each office has just enough rope to hang everyone below. Pay is significantly reduced across all offices compared to other companies.