BearingPoint Reviews in Chicago, IL Area

Pros

Strong Public Services sector. Clients unwavering support regardless of Chapter 11 filing.

Cons

Currently filing Chapter 11. On a project level there are signs of favoritism amongst PM and particular team members.

Advice to Senior Management

Schedule more face time with teams and clients, become more accessible to Senior Business Consultants and below - there should be an open door policy, especially when dealing with particular issues.

Pros

You get a chance to work with some highly talented people

Cons

Pay for performance is a complete myth; Most of the profits are eaten by senior leadership leaving peanuts to staff who are the actual people generating revenues to the firm.

Advice to Senior Management

Bonus, salary increases should be linked to utilization and this metric/scale should be communicated up front to all the employees.

Pros

Diverse client base and projects spaning broad industries. BearingPoint is a large, global consulting firm with over 15,000 employees in NA, EMEA and APAC that covers about every industry, it's conceivable that you can get to work on projects that have different flavors if you stick around long enough and are lucky. However, you need to manage it proactively, because you don't want to get piegon-holed to do one thing over and over again.

Cons

Because the P&L is managed by the industry group, the management consulting usually doesn't get the first pick on project staffing. Thus, when plum projectsare scarce, you may end up in an unpleasant situation if you're in management consulting.

Advice to Senior Management

Get the act together. Tell people what you intended to do and do it. Don't tell us one thing and do something else.

Pros

It was a great company once upon a time. One of the former Big Six consulting firms. It was a great place to build your resume and then move on to industry. Managing Directors were good and the Oracle ERP practice was the best in the industry. Great Federal government practice. If you were in a growing practice, pay was great and you were promoted fairly fast. . . . . .

It still may be a great place to work for new graduates just starting off. You will learn all the good and bad of management and Information technology consulting .

Cons

Oh ... the days when it was KPMG. Those were the days of great projects and great experience. It was a great place to build your resume. Not sure what happened. But now it is a crappy place. . . . .

With the economy being what it is and Bearing Point having far greater internal problems, it looks like it may not even survive as a business concern. That is sad .. considering its legacy of being a former Big 6 consulting firm . Travel is ridiculous and they do not have a system of assigning people to local projects.

Advice to Senior Management

The ship is sinking .... what are you doing ?

Pros

Good place to work to gain basic consulting and learn soft skills. If you get on a team that tends to have short projects, you can gain a lot of experience in different sectors, teams, and personalities. Also, working with all different types of managers have exposed me to a varienty of different management and leadership styles which has helped me determine my style.

Cons

The downside of being on so many different teams is the inconsistent method of being placed on teams or types of projects that you would like to do or getting the opportunity to develop a skill you would like to develop. Performance managers change constantly so develping a relationship is very difficult and having mentor/coach is even more difficult. And no matter what management says or how HR tries to manage reviews, they are always subjective and getting promoted or getting a raise can be difficult. Employee morale is low because so many people have left.

Advice to Senior Management

Treat people with fairness and respect regardless of their position in the company. Create an environment of inclusivity and don't let people get away with being lazy, egotistical or non-communicative.

Pros

You can make your own destiny - if you are a self sufficient go-getter, you can exercise your spirit and at the same time leverage all the resources available from the entire firm. This is a fantastic place for someone who wants to be on a team of highly intellegent people and thoughtful leadership. The leadership is very open and will tell you exactly how it is, not just what you want to hear. The training provided at Yale is world class - haven't found one person who disagrees.

Cons

The individual practices (FS, CS and PS) are very segemented - we don't always leverage eachothers resources as well as we could. Because we spend a lot of time on engagements we don't always have time to attend the fantastic training available.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep showing the street that we are excellent at delivery and strategy - our clients are consistently very satisfied with our work and people.

Pros

Experience and good learning environment.

Cons

Clients don't get our value proposition; not as well respected in the marketplace as the other Big 4.

Advice to Senior Management

Develop a better go-to-market strategy and quit running the business with short-term mindset.

Pros

Exciting work with exciting clients. Strong client loyalty opens unique strategic opportunities with client firms as does repeat business and repeat projects.
Very broad variety of solution specialists help provide great breadth of client service opportunities as well as learning opportunities for team members.

Cons

Turnover reduces institutional memory.
Very now focused - not enough long term strategic focus.
Need better bench support.
Need to invest in more thought leadership and solutions approaches.

Advice to Senior Management

Better consistent messaging.
Clear explanation of strategic approach and linkage between strategy and operations.
Better communication of solutions throughout the organization.
Examine all levels of leadership for consistent representation of values and leadership ability.
Reposition leaders with transactional mentality.

Pros

Great people - very entrepreneurial. With a positive attitude and a willingness to go the extra mile you can make a great carrer for yourself.

Cons

Tough operating environment - mgt is too internally focused. Very numbers driven as you would expect from a public company

Advice to Senior Management

Pay less attention to monthly and quarterly results - take the company private. A public co is not the right structure for a consultancy

Pros

If you are in Public services or manage to get on a good engagement you can develop additional skills.

Cons

Operating within BearingPoint requires tolerance for an incredible amount of bureaucracy (administrative processes and restrictions). Even doing a timesheet can take hours. very little training on how to manage engagements (and the particular nuances specific to "the BE way") because there are things that just don't make sense; No overall organizational culture or message - there is still too much emphasis on the MD reporting tree; The organization is still experiencing high turnover; finally, there is no stability (executives, MDs etc.)

Advice to Senior Management

Ed is in a tough place. Everything is wrong about the way the organization operates. Seems like there are some directionally correct steps being taken, but the question is whether it is too little too late. Too many years of anarchy while Harry and others dabbled.