Bainbridge Reviews

Pros

Get to consult for big Fortune 1000 companies and private equity companies. Good range of technologies and industries. Emphasis on my professional development was really good. Felt like it was really great exposoure to front line corporate challenges. Learned a ton. Good senior analysts and project managers, very involved and focused on the team's goals. Company very diverse, does venture capital, has commercial development arm for MetLife, and does one off venture projects.

Cons

San Diego location is a plus but also far removed from city life in LA or Bay area. Office has lots of interns. Late night global consulting directly for projects is a plus and a minus. Couldn't do any domestic projects then. Didn't get to do any of the VC projects, reserved just for more senior people

Advice to Senior Management

Time spent on my professional development plan helped me get into a top grad school. Make this a formal process. Keep weekly learning forums, invite interns too. Have more formal introduction for interns. No more pizza on Friday's, switch it out with mexican.

Pros

The other anlysts and team are great people. Diverse acquisition projects. Good culture and open doors throuhhout company. Nice office in Lajolla. Emphasis on growth and professional development strong.

Cons

Our industry has long hours and lots to read. If people can't hack that they shouldn't work here. Recruiting process is thorough enough to ID that.

Advice to Senior Management

Thanks for the hands-on work with PM's and senior analysts. Keep the flat structure as is.

Pros

Great people, challenging thought provoking work, learned a lot of industries and businesses, caring managers, lots of people from UCSD and good international focus. They valued my Chinese language skills and I enjoyed the project work and camraderie. They have a good professional development every other week strategy lab. One occasion they invited me to watch their Wharton program. I was paid extra bonus for my hard work.

Cons

Projects are very short compared to my job at Booz Allen in LA. I was not in direct contact with clients.

Advice to Senior Management

Thanks for the pizza on Friday, please put more emphasis on the weekly strategy labs you did. Stop ordering pizza every time. I gained 10 lbs.

Pros

The projects were very strategic oriented not just number crunching. Did international research for several months in Asian market. Manager was very hands on and helped my training and research.
New managers from Ivy League schools much better. Replaced professor I worked with.

Cons

Lots of focus on business strategy, not financials, except M&A people who only do acquisitions. Need more balance exposure to both consulting and M&A for people in just one side of company.

Advice to Senior Management

Offer option to do M&A for management consulting employees. Bring in outside training not just in house. Offer international researchers chance to work on U.S. projects.

Pros

Boutique firm so you get to work on lots of projects.
High learning curve for interns.
Projects are interesting.
Research-intensive.
Get to work with very smart people.

Cons

Very little culture. For the most part, people keep to themselves or to those they're comfortable with. It's a small firm but people hardly know each other's names.

Advice to Senior Management

Show more care in retaining your talent and creating a corporate culture. Show more transparency to lower-level employees about the direction of the company and its growth.

Pros

Smart people
Interesting projects.
Good training for internship. Didn't just make copies.
My manager cared about my success.
Good recruiting at UCSD jobfair.
Lunches for interns nice way to meet everyone.
Learned a ton.

Cons

Fast paced on some project teams I was on. Lots of international research.
Better benefits for part time positions
More databases for specialty research

Advice to Senior Management

Great sense of community. Felt my manager and project team manager really cared about my role in company and project. Quality of what we finished was great. Really nice people. Smart group.

Pros

Only southern california strategy boutique, has a small close to the client practice. You learn on the job with a mentor analyst, not in a classroom. Projects are international so you'll pick up country specific learning. Now doing venture projects and acquisitions. Covers range of industries. Little chance to be bored. Good office environment and new people brought in last year by new director much improved. Company now moves people to roles based on merit, not years or degree. New benefits and perks based on employee feedback. Turnover low, only one analyst, leftover from past, left to work in accounting career. Dumb move, but ended transition to new culture and environment.

Cons

A Professor ran company until last summer. Morale was bad I heard and people were unhappy. New director replaced professor, last summer and cleaned up changed recruiting, new structure, and live training. Some people who worked in here in the past were unqualified from what I've seen. No longer. If you need spoon feeding and classroom teaching then this is not for you.

Advice to Senior Management

Changes in 2011 good. Projects and people much better. Move out remaining under achiever. Keep hiring accomplishment oriented, team players. Make training more formal, create a full time HR position, plus never hire accounting wannabes again. It's a great place to work, everyone motivated to want it to be even better. Lunches and newsletter were good additions.

Pros

Autonomy.
Fast-paced.
Satisfactory compensation.
Employees from various background.

Cons

High turnover rate.
Vague information in terms of opportunities and promotions.
The company is so lean that no formal training will be provided.
Majority of consultancy work are done by cold-calling competitors and trying to pry information from them.

Advice to Senior Management

Pay attention to your employees' capabilities and work ethics instead of which school they graduated from.

Pros

Good start if you are new to the consulting business.
You will learn a lot about many different industries during projects.

Cons

Not much grow opportunity unless you come in with an MBS.
Praise and promotions come from 1-2 decision makers, so pleasing them is at the top of the list.

Advice to Senior Management

Business Analysts are as much as the team as Senior Analysts and Principals.
So stop treating them like doggie doo doo.

Pros

If you're good at networking and using your resources, Bainbridge could be a great place for opening up opportunities elsewhere or within the company.

Cons

Despite the small size, it's easy to scoot by unnoticed. Turnover is very high, and it may not be as sexy as some larger firms.

Advice to Senior Management

Focus on retaining talent