Pros
I have joined TOLSON for my end of studies internship then I stayed with them for 3 years.
My experience was great at TOLSON, here are the top 3 pros for me:
- As it is a small consulting firms without a rigid hierarchy, I was given very important responsibilities since my internship, leading entire workstreams/projects, meeting top executives of leading companies, etc. You are given responsibilities based on the competencies you demonstrate instead of consulting firms hierarchy titles.
- Innovation is at the heart of TOLSON, they do not do consulting the traditional way. In addition to classic consulting projects with single firms, they have built structured benchmarking projects with executives from many leading companies to do consulting through a collective intelligence system. Through these benchmarking projects, you get to tackle many different business and tech topics, with many companies at the same time, which are a great learning and networking opportunity. Also, TOLSON is very open to exploring new business models and opportunities if you want to propose them and lead them.
- Great culture and people. It feels more like working at a startup than a traditional firm, with a big room for initiatives, you feel like you have an important role in building and running the firm itself. Very diverse team of passionate and friendly individuals. The CEO is a great person, very close to his team and at their service, you also get to work closely with him and learn a lot.
I left TOLSON because I needed to relocate abroad. Since then I have joined leading big consulting firms but I was not able to find again these particular elements that matter a lot to me.
Cons
If you want to do just traditional consulting projects with one firm for a given period of time then move on to other similar projects this might not be a good opportunity for you. As explained above, on top of traditional consulting projects, you will get to work on benchmarking groups projects with many firms at the same time, may need to work on different and new business models, contribute to the development of the firm, etc.
Also, even though there is a good work/life balance compared to other consulting firms, it is a fast-paced and demanding work environment, so people lacking good skills, not willing to learn quickly and give their best may not thrive there.