BearingPoint Reviews in Atlanta, GA Area

Pros

Like all consulting firms, BearingPoint offered fantastic experience to interact with many different clients. I worked for 15-20 Fortune 500 clients during my 4 years at BearingPoint.

Cons

BearingPoint unfortunately struggled with poor management communication as it worked through multiple CEOs, internal reorgs, etc. At times you worked very long hours and were under high stress conditions. The nonstop travel definitely got a little tedious at times.

Advice to Senior Management

The one thing I wish BearingPoint did more of was work to make it a fun work environment like Deloitte and other consulting firms. There were very few activities, social events, etc. in our office and I only really got to know people on my specific projects.

Pros

Enjoyed my team, compensation and work environment while at BearingPoint. Had the opportunity to work with great professionals and enjoyable clients.

Cons

Leadership lacked proper vision to enable the firm to prosper. Went through restructuring every six months which constantly distracted from execution.

Advice to Senior Management

At this stage I hope that management can unwind the company with minimal impact on the remaining staff and clients.

Pros

Some of the best reasons to work for BearingPoint are getting to work for a lot of Fortune 500 Companies. The work life balance is good with lots of vacation. The Per diem is also very nice when you're on the road. The salaries are also quite competitive considering they have to overcompensate people to not leave the company.

Cons

The job stability and overall health of the company is very much a reason for concern. There has also been quite a talent flight to the competitors over the past year. There is basically zero job stability for anyone on the bench

Advice to Senior Management

Sell off the business units as quickly as possible

Pros

variety of different projects to work on, challenging opportunities with diddifcult clients that help you build patience and tolerance

Cons

the company is floundering and the high talent in management has left for other companies. That leave teh good old boys to run the accounts, engagement teams, sectors, etc.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop managing presence and start managing productivity.

Pros

If you can land the right assignment, it is a good place to start. Make sure that you work closely with your resource manager to get great assignments that will advance your career.

Cons

Poor senior leadership. Most know the consulting business, but have no clue as to how to manage an organization. For a company that its major asset is human capital, they have no understanding of basic human resource management.
Make sure that you work closely with your resource manager to get the right assignments to advance your career. You will really have to apply yourself to make this happen. Leadership is not likely to move you to an assignment that will advance your career if you are working at another client. Try to avoid being bounced around from PM's or MD's as much as possible. You can very easily fall through the cracks and not get noticed for salary reviews and promotions.

Advice to Senior Management

Establish a discipline within the organization, and execute on your plans.

Pros

It's strong presence in the public services sector. BearingPoint has good opportunities in the government sector and has had a strong track-record with public sector organizations.

Cons

it's disintegrated structure, particularly of its delivery personnel.

Advice to Senior Management

Do not wait for others to set the conversation tone about your message; be the first to define and communicate your message. Fire incompetent senior management, icebergs, and any other individuals who are roadblocks to progressive thinking and delivery at BearingPoint. Take organizational communication more seriously than it is currently.

Pros

In my view, with present economic conditions and current status of BE's, there are still a few reasons to work for BearingPoint. One reasonable reason to work for Bearingpoint at this time would be that if you believe you can help make a difference in turning the company around. Ed, the present CEO, has a difficult task at hand, and can use the help. Another reasonable reason to work for BE at the time of crisis would be to help lead the change and execute on the strategy brought forth by Ed. If you have researched the company, understand the risks ahead, and believe in Ed, then BE will not disappoint you and provide you opportunities to get engaged on projects, possibly aligned with your strengths. I entered BE to strengthen my knowledge of various industries in a short timeframe. As other consulting firms and inherent nature of the business, I was pleased with presented opportunities.

Cons

In my opinion and personal experience with BE, it lacks a fair/complete performance evaluation process. In addition, I do not agree with metrics used to evaluate performance of employees at all level. E.g. Sustaining growth number during declining economy, while addressing increasing attrition is an unrealistic expectation. By no means, is it an easy task to provide a fair career progression model for 17000+ employees but fixing fundamental issues with the model and communicating reasons for the chosen metrics is an equitable request.

Furthermore, most practice leaders I have worked with rather show profitability in the responsible area with less concern to companies outlook as a whole. Some in my opinion do not understand what it means to be a publically traded companies much less the associated responsibilities. Sr. Mgmt lacks the enthusiasm and devotion to harness and grow younger talent to help make a better future for BE.

Advice to Senior Management

Executives of BE: I have no interaction at this level but would advice ED to ensure he has a strong team to lead us through these tough times. The chosen team must validate that how business is being performed which is more than evaluating numbers provided on dashboards. At this time, one must evaluate qualitative measures as well as quantitative. Numbers are a good indication but poor mgmt at various levels may not provide a clear picture. E.g. Pro-active monitoring of projects with frequent evaluations can help avoid\control loss apparent at later stages due to mismanagements.

VP's/MD's: Let's realize that we all must work together to withstand this storm. We must bring issues that need attention to light so Exec mgmt can address them. E.g. Let's ensure BE internals employee are of a better value on fixed engagements than a SUB. Processes and policies must change to accommodate needs of company. Finally, all of us must realize that we are not a private company and begin owning responsibility of a publically traded company. Corporate office has realized this but unfortunately the consulting practice needs to catchup.

Pros

Work and life balance is one of the most positive things at BE. Time off is easily granted for family emergencies as well as planned vacation. ANother great reason to work at BE is the Performance managers and Managing Directors have an open door to discuss any topics. I would have to admit there are a lot of opportunities at BE that allow employees to gain knowledge and expirence with different and new clients and projects. Many BearingPoint Engagement managers allow employees on a project to drive their own hours, as long as the complete their deliverables while staying focused on their other responsibilities.

Cons

It's hard to receive big raises even though you performed at a very high level. Reviews are only completed once a year and raises have been minimal the past couple of years. Bonues are hard to come by unless you have senior management in corner. As for projects, it's tough to be on a project that you really want to be on. Currently, bench time is considered taboo and many employees have to find a project to jump on wether it would help their career or not. Needless to say, there are many people staffed on projects that would not benefit one's career.

Advice to Senior Management

You need to intrust responsibility to lower level workers. Executive management needs to be more up front with employees abou the financial situation and other copany issues.

Pros

BearingPoint has great training programs, especially for new hires. Within my first year as a BE employee, I attended a 3-day orientation in Washington DC, a five day training on general consulting skills (also in Washington), and a 5 day technical training offered by an outside vendor for a technology we were looking to implement internally and for the client. For the first year, I think you would be hard pressed to find a company willing to invest as much training time and money in employees. I also enjoy working with the people I work with on a day-to-day basis. They also offer great vacation for new hires (4 weeks, straight out of school is not too shabby). They make you set annual goals, which can involve a lot of effort, but it's good for keeping you focused on what you need to be doing to advance.

Cons

LAME 401K! The matching (especially compared with my girlfriend's 401K (she will be working for KPMG) is weak (25% of contributions of up to 5% of pretax), especially coupled with a five year vesting period (KPMG, fully vested from day one). They claim to be a company that supports work-from-home programs, but my senior manager was not willing to even consider it. There is a lot of BS admin work, even for people working billable hours on the client.

Advice to Senior Management

Communicate more with employees and be more present. In the past several weeks we've been facing a turbulant stock price and rumors of acquisition, but communications from the executive group are mostly "dont worry, keep working".

Pros

In my group, there is lots of interesting work and great people. Travel isn't too onerous, and base comp is good. Experience levels of the people are substantially higher than other consulting organizations I have worked for (or with).

Cons

In the time I've been here there have been small or no bonuses and raises. There are many terrible internal processes and procedures, and poor company performance makes for distractions, low morale, and difficulties dealing with some clients.

Advice to Senior Management

Focus on getting the financials fixed and the stock price up, or instead position the company for acquisition. One other option might be to take BearingPoint private. At any rate, the current financial condition of the company is a huge distraction and is the root cause of many of the other problems. "Job one" is to get those fixed, post-haste.