Pros
My colleagues at Q5 are fantastic, I have worked in 5 other organisations before coming to Q5 and the people here are brilliant, smart, intelligent, quick thinking and really care about one another. I moved from large corporate roles and have found a home in a far more dynamic, interesting and far less hierarchical organisation in Q5. The work is hard, long hours and often having to travel and be at client sites across the UK and into Europe, but I 've found it mentally stretching and I've been able to be involved in so many interesting business at the most senior level when I know had I worked in a much larger consultancy these opportunities would not have been possible. Love it, though it's full on. Client access: I've worked in other businesses where its always a glass ceiling or very political to get access to Exco members and decision makers, I have been amazed at the breadth of clients at Q5 and the access people are given to key stakeholders from being consultants. Pay: Basic Pay in terms of Salary is Market average/ in line with other consultancies, but bonuses are very strong and are way above what you get in industry, in in house roles and other consultancies from what I have been told. I have been here over 5 years and had a strong bonus each year, its completely based on performance, which means you can do really well. I was in another company before and they said they paid their Snr mangers 40% bonus. they paid out once in 5 years and had 3 rounds of redundancies' and restructuring during that time. Culture: I love the culture, the people are amazing, I have some really great friends at Q5 and I know that I have multiple people I can reach out to and who support me or I just care about. It's great, its been a real point of difference for me. Global Away days: once a year we have a Global away day, where the whole team from the EMEA region and some members of the other global offices come together for 2 days and you can stay for the weekend after. Its been amazing last year we went to Croatia, the year before Portugal. It's fantastic to spend time away with over 250 of my colleagues, I 've not seen many other businesses still do things like this, its the first place I have worked where they have still managed to keep to something like this in spite of the company growing so fast.
Cons
Some of the work is super challenging and ensuring you get the balance between the client work and things at home is something I've had to learn. You need to create space for both.