Bain & Company Reviews

Former Employee – worked at Bain & Company

Pros – great learning, great people, excellent career path

Cons – long hours, limited ability to separate personal and work life

Advice to Senior Management – more meritocracy!

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Bain & Company

Pros – Tremendous learning opportunitites and really smart people to work with. You get to work on some of the most difficult business problems at significant clients and you get interaction with senior management at clients - people you would not get to work with at an early career stage outside the strategy consulting world. The environemtn is almost an apprenticeship - you get a tremendous amount of learning and coaching from those above you - if you are lucky to work with a good consultant/manager/partner you elarn a tremendous amount.

Cons – There really is little work/balance in the job. You are putting in tremendous amounts of work in order to get rewards (better jobs and income) down the road.

Advice to Senior Management – Senior management at Bain was great - great role models for succeeding in business.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Bain & Company

Pros – Amazing learning experiences.
Lots of prestige.
Sense of accomplishment when completing work.
Dynamic environment,
Relatively manageable lifestyle
Better hours than ibanking and competitor Mckinsey
Great exit opps into Private Equity, Hedge Funds and F500 companies
Amazing culture led by young and driven people
Focus is on implementation and data, which has delivered superior results over the year
Our clients outperform their market 4 to 1

Cons – Long hours
Smaller company, and perhaps less name recognition than McKinsey.
Very quantatively driven which can become tedious at times
Perhaps too much focus on PE which could limit exit opps into F500
Too much time spent on mindless-tasks and powerpoint presentations

Advice to Senior Management – Faster promotions would be awesome.
Travel became tiresome during my last year at the office

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Bain & Company

Pros – Bain has an amazing culture. The office atmosphere is friendly and social, and there are many friendships between consultants in the office. The opportunities for professional growth are unparalleled. Bain consultants have an incredible success rate at getting into top 3 business schools (Harvard, Stanford, Wharton.)

Cons – The hours can be long. Hours depend on the particular case you're on. However, even when you have long hours, it helps foster camaraderie and you make the closest relationships with your team.

Advice to Senior Management – I admire the Senior Management for being so energetic and young at heart. At social events, it is often the managers and partners who are the life of the party.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Bain & Company

Pros – Bain & Company has a great brand name in the market. You work on some of the most high profile deals out there. But in some cases the hours can be a little daunting but the nature of the work and the pay make the job worth it. For a person straight out of any undergrad school that has an eye for business school this is one of the best places to be.

Cons – The hours can be challenging to deal with sometimes, but the perks definitely make the job worth it. It's a fabulous place to work when you're young.

Advice to Senior Management – I wouldn't change much.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Bain & Company

Pros – Tons of smart and interesting people working alongside you.

Cons – No matter what, you're always an advisor, not the person making the hard decisions about a company.

Advice to Senior Management – None

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Bain & Company

Pros – If you want to build the true fundamental skills that one needs to succeed in business, Bain is the best. Unlike McKinsey, we dont work on studies. We focus on data driven analysis to solve strategic issues facing senior executives.

Cons – As with all consulting firms, if you happen to work with a difficult and self-serving manager, it will make for a horrible experience. Unfortunately, there are some bad apples out there. Overall, I found those to be in the minority.

Advice to Senior Management – Some people like to work on multiple cases whereas others prefer to focus on one client at a time. There shouldnt be a one size fits all approach. As long as the person is delivering results and learning, there should be more flexibility.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Bain & Company

Pros – A great working environment, very supporte and collaborative peers.
Bain can offer various opportunities to develop one's skills, such as individualized training as well as international and regional training with ofer fellows.
As much as case work is quite demanding and challening (I.e: long hours..) there is a strong work-life balance emphasis and time-off is given when necessary (if you need to attend family reunions etc... )
Feedback happens on a constant informal and formal ways. You are always encourage to seek advice on ways to improve all skills and resources will be found to help you advance.
In all, Bain is a great place to work in consulting as a career or as a career booster.

Cons – Very rigid in terms of advancement, sometimes way too structured.
Benefits change from one office to the other

Advice to Senior Management – N/A

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Bain & Company

Pros – Career acceleration relative to working in industry directly out of MBA program. Based on the people I have talked to, spending time as a consultant puts you in a position to be hired at a more senior position in industry than if you had entered directly. The consenesus on the amount of time to spend in consulting is 1 year after you make manager.

Cons – Lifestyle and travel can be difficult if you have a family, although Bain is very good about discussing the family commitments with employees and helping to arrange engagements that allow the employee to meet those commitments

Advice to Senior Management – Give employees flexibility in 1 of the 3 dimensions -- type of project, industry, and travel.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Bain & Company

Pros – Bain offers numerous opportunities for personal and professional growth that are hard to find at other companies, even other consulting firms. The people their are great, I made so many life long friends during my time there -- smart, confident and driven yet enjoy life and don't take themselves too seriously. Finally, Bain is remarkably well-run for such a large oranization. They do a good job of keeping career development and promotions transparent and making sure the staff gets the training and feedback they need to grow and develop.

Cons – It's consulting firm. Bain is a world-class organization and without a doubt the best company I've ever worked for, but if you want to be something other than an adviser, eventually you have to move on.

Advice to Senior Management – Don't let Bain's success cause it to become McKinsey.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend