Bain & Company Reviews in San Francisco, CA Area

Pros

There's an incredible amount of attention given to professional development, level of satisfaction with your work, your own personal and professional goals, and so on. But there's also a huge emphasis on company and office culture - the partners work hard to make this a place you *want* to be, because you actually enjoy it.

Cons

The hours can be daunting, and some of the actual day-to-day work (read: the work of consultants) is not hugely inspiring. Running surveys and mining data for insights is exciting for some people.. but not all people. Also, while the culture is fantastic in some offices, it is still in development stages in others - especially the newer ones.

Advice to Senior Management

Experience sharing across offices to make Bain a *universally* enjoyable environment

Pros

Work alongside clients on critical issues
Interesting problems
Opportunity to build your own experience
Strong, collaborative culture that is sustained and valued
Lack of arrogance, far more concerned with getting stuff done that having a sense of elitism

Cons

I can be upredictable in terms of schedule
The culture demands a high level of participation which can put some stress on one's own personal life

Pros

-Intense focus on professional development, for both a future in and outside of Bain
-Amazing friendly and social atmosphere/culture
-Opportunity to work on the most challenging questions and most leveraged issues companies face
-Office transfer and externship program make it easy to explore other opportunities geographically or in other industries
-Focus on sustainable work/life balance (doesn't always work out, but the effort and processes in place clearly show that it's a priority)
-Accessibility of partner group
-Travel limited to situations/cases where it's useful (not every case requires travel)
-Generalist approach allows for diversity of experiences, but still opportunities to specialize

Cons

Not your normal 9-5 job - can be intense at times
Like other consulting firms, relatively high turnover compared to industry
Some of the bigger offices have reached size where it's difficult to know everyone in the office

Advice to Senior Management

Continue focusing on culture

Pros

Bain takes its training very seriously, and I could not imagine having a better group of colleagues than the people with whom I worked at Bain.

Cons

You have no control over the industry in which you work, and, often, it seems that senior management has little concern for team sustainability.

Advice to Senior Management

Target recruiting such that you are not looking for the "best" people as you have defined it, but the people whose interest most closely with the work they'll doing at Bain, to reduce burnout.

Pros

Collegial and driven with great exit opportunities. The social atmosphere allowed for by Bain and Co is unsurpassed. The quality of work genuine in its intents.

Cons

Like all entry level jobs, most of the intellectual work is done at the higher levels

Advice to Senior Management

Allow for more knowledge sharing and capability development in intellectual problem solving at the junior levels by encouraging collaboration across cases and teams.

Pros

Fun and very smart people - everybody is an "A" player.
Excellent pay and benefits
Flexibility around transfers, sabbatical time off, maternity, etc.
Beautiful offices
Chance to work with very senior clients intimately

Cons

Very rigid roles - partner does the client relationship, manager does the thinking, CTL makes the workplan, then the worker bees execute.
You don't have time to become a real expert in the industry, the company or the problem, so the solutions are often formulaic - a reproduction of the same frameworks.

Advice to Senior Management

Review process, while very rigorous, is not always fair. Instead of forcing everyone into the same boxes and buckets, actively advocate and promote people who are not exactly in "the Bain mold". Homogeneity will kill the great culture and hinder ability to drive differential results.

Pros

Great people, great hours, great atmosphere, great learning opportunity, where else is a better place to start my career as a business major? I have five words. Correct?

Cons

Too many weird people, too annoying, ask too many questions related to fraternities and making the weirdest calculations I have ever seen before? as s s dew I have five words. Correct?

Advice to Senior Management

Be less weird and concentrate on not BSing for 100000 hours a day because it is the worst kind of road kill for all associate’s brain

Pros

There are great people and a great culture in general. Able to work with top client teams on the most pressing client issues. The overall way they treat employees is extremely fair and you get the sense that they actually care about your career development. I have met some of my best friends at Bain, because the quality of people is so high, and they are almost all very interesting, fun, social people. This definitely adds to the work environment and is a big selling point for Bain. Also, it's worldwide reach allows it to offer transfers to employees who want to work in other offices.

Cons

Work-life balance can be tough at times. As with any professional services firm, you are at the mercy of your clients, and when they want something on a short deadline, you have to hunker down and get it down in a short amount of time. There is also the question of not feeling ownership of your work, since you usually only work on it for a few months and then it is passed on to the client who may or may not actually implement it. but this is true with all consulting firms, not just Bain. Overall, there are few downsides vs other firms.

Advice to Senior Management

Don't slow down hiring in the downturn.

Pros

This job pays very well - compensation is great at the beginning and ramps up significantly. It can be a bit of a trick though, as because it pays well, nothing will compare well against it.

Cons

work life balance is a frustrating problem....hours can be unmanageable and hard to control

Advice to Senior Management

Make things more manageable

Pros

Challenging, fascinating business problems to tackle with fun colleagues.

Cons

The lifestyle is not for the timid.

Advice to Senior Management

Stay flexible and keep pushing the envelope.