Pros
During my 2.5 years with BluePrint, I learned numerous market research techniques and found the quality of our deliverables to be significantly better than other vendors. I was afforded opportunities to lead discussions and presentations with top tier clients from early on in my career. I also managed many associates and was able to develop my management style when engaging with various personalities and working styles. My hours usually stayed between 50-60 hours/week after I learned to manage my workload while traveling 1-3 weeks/month. The biggest pro to working at BluePrint is your fellow consulting team – I enjoyed working alongside so many sharp, ambitious and kind colleagues who have your back and want to help you succeed. I look forward to maintaining my talented network as we move around the healthcare industry and find employers that actually value us.
Cons
Senior leadership has little grasp of how to retain their employees – with the abandonment of Chicago office and 6 departures in 4 months in SF, it’s clear that they cannot maintain the growth they’ve been striving towards. The founders let their ego dictate how to run the business – from punishing or pushing out employees who voice their concerns / own opinions to rewarding lazy employees who remind them of themselves. There is no recognition for the extensive emotional labor performed by a select few Consultants / Managers and minimal calibration of workloads across offices / pods, which sets unfair expectations for promotion. Training includes a set of recorded sessions to learn the basics, but most of the consultants who knew the business have left, so now it’s the blind leading the blind in many ways. When they bother to come in to the office, many Partners are condescending and demotivating to their undertrained Associates, leaving all project responsibilities and hands-on training to the Consultants. Most Partners also shy away from providing constructive feedback directly during projects, but instead complain to your development manager after the fact - hindering promotions when nothing can be done to course-correct. The worst part of the job was the clear disregard for the well-being of their employees. Leadership continues to just slot in the next employee on a project with no regard for their background or experience level in performing the task / project at hand. Each employee is piled on and pushed until s/he breaks and then that failure is held against them. Numerous coworkers experienced panic attacks or took time off for mental / physical health recovery after brutal project timelines and extensive travel – just to be held back from promotion when they returned.