Lags peers in caring for its international (non-US) employees - Consultant Bain & Company Employee Review

3.0
11 Nov 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

You get to work together with the smartest people around. Your managers will care about your development and will support you in whatever you hope to achieve.

Cons

They hire non-US citizens out of undergrad or MBA but their sponsorship policy is the worst when compared to McKinsey/BCG or do largest banks they compete with most of the time. Bain only applies for H1B visa once, and if you don't get it they will not re-apply, while most other consulting firms will offer to re-apply. Bain's policy is to send you to an office abroad (you have no choice in selecting it, it's rather selected on demand) and then you are brought back on L1 which ties you to the company for as long as you stay in the country. This means that if you don't get promoted or want to leave, you need to leave the US. Although they could apply for H1B which gives you the optionality to work at other companies in the future in the US, they won't do it. This means that as an international you are not allowed to use opportunities such as externships that your other peers are able to do.

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Bain & Company Response
7y
As we’ve done in the past, and plan to be in the future, we do all we can to support our employees as they navigate a very anxious time in their careers. If we cannot get them a visa for the office that extended the offer, which is where we both want them to be, we do all we can to get a great outcome. While each situation is different, the belief that employees have no input into their destination is inaccurate. Furthermore, the diversity of national origin in all of our offices, especially those in the US, is proof that we work hard to get great outcomes. In fact, over 20% of our US consulting staff has citizenship in another country. –- Keith B, Partner, Global head of consultant recruiting

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Cons

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5.0
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Pros

Welcome to Bain. I'm going to give you a problem that neither the CEO nor his entire management team could solve. And I'm probably going to give you lots of different opinions and imperfect data sources. And then I'll ask you to focus in on where the most value is and convince all those people with different opinions that you're right. But don't worry, I'm also going to give you a Bain team. Those associates and consultants are going to be tenacious in coming up with creative approaches. Those managers and partners are going to knock down barriers for you, connect you where you need to be connected, guide, support, direct and re-direct you. The office support staff is going to fix your computer after you spilled coffee on it for the third time, find you the unfindable data source, and smile and hand you a baked good after you ask for help re-doing dozens of slides. You are empowered and accountable but you are not alone. And the best part is you can't fail. Because after all, what all those people are reinforcing is that a Bainie never lets another Bainie fail.

Cons

Here's how you know you've made it at Bain. The reward for doing a good job is getting a bigger, tougher problem next time. Meaning, you are always solving the easiest problem you will ever solve again. This takes a lot of resilience and active managing of self-expectations to remember that you are not actually getting worse, the problems are just getting harder. So my advice is to remember that. And then take a second to realize that it would be a lot less fun if the reverse were true. And isn't that precisely why you wanted this job in the first place anyway? It sure was for me.

790
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Bain & Company Response
9y
You have captured the essence of what it means to work here! Thanks for sharing your experience.
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