Booz Allen Hamilton Reviews

I worked at Booz Allen Hamilton full-time for more than a year

Pros – Smart people that work hard

Cons – Awful management decisions on over hiring, over spending on lavish foods at company events, too many corporate emails, too many login interfaces to do anything, terrible corporate communication amongst the leadership, disrespectful "lack of work" policies, even for long term employees that gave many years to the company...as soon as you don't have a "B" number to charge to the customer, you are out of there!

Advice to Senior Management – Instead of spending a ton of money on food and new hire training that no one cares about or remembers once they start working on their client site, work to land contracts and retain the talent you hire instead of dropping them once they can no longer charge to a "B" number. You are more cut throat than some major engineering firms but the choices you make will guarantee you will not last as long as these engineering firms you wish to compete against. Also, don't force your employees to work for free an additional 40 hours so they can do training. Training makes your employees better for them and better for you! I should have known to be worried when the line of new hires wrapped around the building on my first day. Even though I won awards for a job well done, in the end you dumped me because you had no where to put me (because you haven't won any contracts) and you didn't even provide a severance package to lessen the blow. Don't pretend you are something you are not- you definitely impressed me my first day with the nice coffee machines around One Dulles that were free to employees but as I got to know your culture forcing people to use their own computers, work from home, spending money in wasteful places, I realized I was in a terrible place. My only redeeming grace was the client I worked for. What a shame you have ruined the reputation of BAH with such poor decisions in the recent years. Every person I have worked with since I started has been let go- including my managers. Kind of pathetic.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

I have been working at Booz Allen Hamilton full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Decent benefits and compensation (although the "firm" has recently reduced the education benefit by half to $2,500 (isn't that tax deductible?))
Great people to work with (for the most part and on the lower levels, anyway)

Cons – Bottom-line ($$$) centered (publicly traded company (NYSE: BAH)).
Training is only available if you're willing to eat the additional hours.
You're expected to 'make up' hours for everything (no overtime).
Extremely top-heavy, and managers only seem to look out for themselves and their cliques.
Incompetent first-line management.
Has lost its competitive edge and prestige in the consulting business.
It's all about 'butts-in-seats', and if you can't find billable work immediately, you'll be shown the door.
Little, if any, opportunity to grow into other aspects of the business, especially on the government side.
You are required to interface with incompetent government bureaucrats.
Work/life balance virtually non-existent.
Corporate culture is vaguely defined with no specific guidance.

Advice to Senior Management – Dispose of the current CEO, Ralph Schrader, and make management more competitive and fair.
Roll back to a privately held firm before you lose complete stature in the consulting industry.
If you're looking to remain competitive in the government contracting business, cut your overhead by reducing top-level management who eat up admin hours having perpetual, useless meetings.
Do more to invest into, and recognize your employees.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

I have been working at Booz Allen Hamilton full-time for less than a year

Pros – I recently turned in my letter of resignation to the firm. Telework is a dream and there are amny opportunities for work-life balance; the salary was pretty good for someone at my level; informal training opportunities abound

Cons – Strong leadership is lacking- I found that the most incompetent people are being promoted to positions of authority but they lack the skills to lead a technical effort. The team/project I was on was poorly managed because of personality and technical skills mismatching. I feel this is definitely a "butts-in-seats" firm. I felt m importance was tied to a billability percentage.

I worked with and later under someone who was the definition of incompetent, BUT because he knew the right senior associate he was given opportunities that people with skills should have been given. It was sickening. However, people are leaving for a reason.

Advice to Senior Management – Be careful, the employees leaving for good reasons will more than likely become your clients. My first day at the firm (after orientation), I knew it was a culture mismatch. I feel that, although Booz gives lip-service to innovation, they really do not do it. I feel other firms Deloitte, IBM, etc. provide more stable innovation.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I worked at Booz Allen Hamilton as a contractor for more than a year

Pros – Post BAH, the firm maintains a strong point in my resume, despite seeing the way the sausage is made.

Cons – Overall, there's tremendous infighting amongst the middle to upper leadership that leads to staff confusion, missed opportunities to serve clients, and overall staff development. Also, retains a very militaristic hierarchy even in the healthcare practice. Also - the title "Senior Associate" for folks with 20 years of experience? Seriously?

Advice to Senior Management – Create a healthier culture, stop the infighting and listen to your associates and senior associates more

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

I worked at Booz Allen Hamilton full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – 10% salary to 401k and one class per year is free

Cons – Pick up the Management Consulting scraps from Delloitte

Advice to Senior Management – Not as advertised

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

I have been working at Booz Allen Hamilton full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – - Work is interesting
- Minor availability of thought-provoking projects

Cons – - Quality of staff has been declining with focus shifting to bringing in cheap labor while cutting experienced staff ranking from Associate to Partner
- Quality of work has declined due to lack of loyalty from firm to its staff and clients catching on and cutting funding
- No work available due to govt. budget cuts and funding cuts from clients, all while losing out on several projects to competitors

Advice to Senior Management – Going public has severely tarnished the brand and resulted in loss of funding on several projects. The work has been impacted due to several cost cutting measures which have resulted in reduction of highly eligible staff who have all jumped ship to competitive firms.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

I have been working at Booz Allen Hamilton full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – Telework for most staff
Some interesting work, but the amount is overwhelming
Good people (but many of the good ones are gone)

Cons – Once great culture is failing
Still clinging to 'diversity' as a differientiator - yet the company is still driven by the middle-aged white guy
Benefits are being slashed - holidays, ECAP
Hoteling has destroyed the cutlure
Constant threat of layoffs
Required to pick up the work left by people who are being laid off or who resign; the workload is overwhelming with no relief in sight

Advice to Senior Management – Recognize that the changes aren't working -- in fact, they are driving good people away. STOP with the hatchet job on benefits. There needs to be new senior leadership. Quickly, if this beast is to survive.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

I have been working at Booz Allen Hamilton full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – PTO, Benefits, ability to tele-work.

Cons – ECAP/401K just got slashed to 7.5% next year, and 6% after that. I would expect that trend to continue. We also just lost our floating holidays and the claim was it gave us "more flexibility". Raises greatly reduced over the past few years.

We just lost several managers, and the process lacked any formal communication from leadership until days later. In many cases, clients and direct reports were unaware of the change outside of the rumor mill.

Most of the good people at the firm have left now, and the few that remaining are all looking after the past week. What will remain, as is much of the new employees is suits with nothing inside. (Can we say lipstick on pigs?!)

Advice to Senior Management – Get your heads out of your butts. It's clear to all the employees that the changes are all negative and just a money grab at our benefits and pay. To the CEO-- you personally need to go away. You are responsible for the demise of a once great company. You are incompetent at best and all your choices have led to this -- the IPO, the split of the company, the Carlyle group buyout. Admit responsibility and quit now so the sliver of competent people can fix your mistakes.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

I have been working at Booz Allen Hamilton full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – When you say you work at Booz, people think you work at Booz and Co, the strategy consulting firm, which was spun out of Booz Allen Hamilton in 2008. I often sigh (in my head) as I have to sadly tell them it is not Booz & Co, but rather Booz Allen Hamilton. Dunno if this actually a pro or a con, but it is the truth.

Cons – Not enough space here to give advice, but have you ever seen that movie called "Titanic"? Well then, you know how it ends.

Advice to Senior Management – Please devise a comprehensive strategy to grow the firm, attain new business, and attract intelligent staff from top schools! My previous team manager was a telephone operator before coming to BAH, and I only found that out when one of our competitors on client side made a snide remark about this little fact in front of me. Seriously.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

I worked at Booz Allen Hamilton full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Interesting work; above average salary

Cons – Tough to advance into the bonus-pool positions

Advice to Senior Management – Less drama in annual assessments; more cooperative environment.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company