Pros
- Somehow manages to hire great, intelligent ppl from top business schools and undergrad programs (typically top 15-20 programs, e.g,. Kellogg, Fuqua, Stern, Gozuetta) that makes it a collegial environment - Smaller arm of the org, so you get to know a lot of people and can build good relationships with leadership depending on how well you network or which office you're in - Ability to own workstreams and directly interface w/clients from day 1 (sink or swim). Worked with other top strategy consulting firms where post-MBA consultants are behind the scenes, while a lot of post-undergrad Staff Consultants (analysts) may own client relationships here. - Some cool projects on occasion. Consulting is often falsely glorified as "sexy" work, while a majority of it is not. There are, on occasion, some sexy projects if you work with the right VPs and right client
Cons
- Poor leadership: leadership is scattered across offices, and being int he wrong office can hurt you depending on what you want to do (i.e. industry and functional work). Each VP will pick 1 or 2 consultants at each level to back, then horse trade when it comes to performance reviews and promos. They also care little about employee satisfaction and happiness. if you're on a bad project, don't expect sympathy. You'll get stranded and sometimes forced to quit before you can get off the project. Most of top strategy firms will rotate you off after 3-5 months to prevent this. Top performers are not exempt here...If you're lucky, a few leaders in your local office might have your back and help you (as I did), but thats not common throughout the org. - No strategy or identify:Leadership chases "shiny objects" and will sell anything they can, regardless of it is is aligned with our strategy and what we want to be known for. This makes it difficult to impossible to benchmark ourselves or identify with a peer group. Sometimes its E&Y, PWC or Accenture, while sometimes it's Deloitte or other pure S&O firms. - Below average compensation (compared to industry). Leadership claims we are on par with other firms in our peer group, but that's if we compare ourselves to E&Y, Accenture, KPMG. Even then, post-MBA compensation is ~$15-20k/year, with bonuses being 50% less than most peers. Year over year and promotional comp increases are minimal. Managers will often get paid the same (sometimes less) than post-MBA consultants a level below. DOn't even start - No power to choose projects - you get what you get. Turning down projects is a quick way to build a bad reputation, and there isn't a robust pipeline of projects to choose from. This means getting stuck on horrible year-long projects bc you rolled off your last project at the wrong time... - Internal projects/strategic planning is done everytime we get a new CEO (3 times in 3 years), and it never goes anywhere. Don't expect change here.