Booz Allen Hamilton Reviews in San Diego, CA Area

Pros

Firm reputation, resources available (especially in the areas of education and training), and flexibility. The firm has allowed me to move to various teams and to different areas of the country.

Cons

Promotion potential is low, in-fighting between various teams for resources is frequent, lots of internal politics that are very draining.

Advice to Senior Management

The recent change in how promotions are conducted (especially from L1 to L2) is very frustrating. If you don't have a manager who is looking out for you, it is easy to get lost in the shuffle.

Pros

Steady and not too demanding. I have worked in Silicon Valley and working for BAH is like working for the gov't slow and steady. Things move at a glacial pace comparatively. Good balance of work and life. Many people have complained about the balance yet most of them have not worked in the real world.

Very secure.... Salary is not that great compared to others but you have to really screw up to get fired.

Cons

Alot of overhead and deadwood. Need to create better accountability for Profit and Loss. Too many level 5's that don't truly have a business case.

This year's pay pool is joke. If wasn't for the bad economy people would walk. But I guess we need to pay Carlisle back their money.

In CA if your program is killed you have 2 weeks to find a job and then you are terminated. Other BAH offices are very good keeping people employed.

Advice to Senior Management

Empower your people more!!! Be more aggressive. The future IPO is going to require you to be more aggressive. Hire less former SES and FOGO levels. Get people who actually know how to get something done and pay them well.

Don't be so afraid of OCI that it prevents you from competing on more lucrative governent contracts. Suggest to the client to do more FFP. We need to have be able to take on more risk.

I also don't see how going public will not change the culture. Unlike most BAH people I have worked for a Fortune 100 public company and managed a P&L. Meeting a quarterly number vice annual number is going to put alot of stress on people who have never had to meet this expectation.

Branch out into commercial ASAP. Staying on the gov't mammary gland is safe but you won't be able to meet your wall street financial targets at 8% margins.

Get out of sustainment business. By staying in the sustainment portion of programs we are diluting the value of thought leadership. Thought leadership you can charge a premium for. When you get into sustainment/daily service operations you can't charge the same rates and before long the client asks why should I continue to pay $250K for someone when the same person in a sustainment role will only be charged at $200K. or less. This is a dangerous situation to be in as it devalues the thought leadership efforts of the firm.

Pros

Booz Allen Hamilton provides numerous resources for training and networking. The reachback is also an added benefit. Management is willing to be flexible and allow you to try different areas of expertise until you find the area you like best.

Cons

Most of the staff work on client site and don't really feel connected to the Booz Allen culture and miss out on all the brown bags and other networking activities that take place onsite. If you begin your career at Booz Allen on the bottom of the salary scale, it is difficult to make the jump to compensate.

Advice to Senior Management

Reward employees more.

Pros

The positive, collaborative environment with significant access to resources. The total compensation package is very good, especially the retirement contribution. A lot of opportunities for career specific training.

Cons

It is a very political atmosphere where promotions are based on who you know and "playing the game" more than merit. Depending on your job function within the company (there are a lot), it can be very specific and, therefore, difficult to transition to another job. Lower salaries than competitors. As an employee, you have responsibilities to both the client and Booz Allen. When you're expected to support the client 40-50 hours a week, it is exhausting to have to have the Booz Allen business side work that is piled on top.

Advice to Senior Management

Define the promotion criteria, because there are no set guidelines right now.

Pros

Great company to break into the consulting industry. Internal training is second to none. Likelihood of layoffs allow for an opportunity to focus on life and less on preparing for layoffs. Good 401k and health insurance benefits.

Cons

Difficult to break out of low starting salary. Company policies encourage talent to leave and return at a later date to earn comparable salaries. It can be difficult to migrate from unpopular or routine tasking to more desired roles.

Advice to Senior Management

Split the associate position into different positions. Provide framework to reward high flying talent.

Pros

#1: Flexibility and work/life balance - as long as you are not tied to a project requiring 100% on-client-site work, you daily schedule and work location are very flexible. It is normal for many folks to work several hours a day from home in the mornings/evenings to either avoid traffic or take their kids to/from school. While the minimum work week is technically 40 hours, the firm business model requests employees average 42 hours/week -- far less than the average consulting firm.
#2: High quality co-workers - BAH has a fine tradition of recruiting top-notch individuals. There is a great sense of corporate pride.
#3: Training and professional growth benefits - employees get 40 hours per year for training.

Cons

The continuous increase in hiring of former military members seems to be turning BAH into a quasi-government organization, where rank is still worn and recognized. So many military retirees in senior leadership positions is turning BAH from a meritocracy into a time-in-grade / time-in-service seniority-based system. This not only impedes professional growth opportunities for high-speed young professionals, but will serve to dilute the firm's corporate intellectual capital as young, energetic problem-solvers leave the firm to find more fair advancement opportunities at competitor firms who value ingenuity and performance over how long they've been around the firm. Quality folks will not stay long when told that they "exceed competencies for their level but are too young to be promoted."

Advice to Senior Management

Value merit and competence over age / time in service.

Pros

Flexibility of work schedule to balance work and life

Cons

Like all companies the politics of the company and employee heirarchy are fairly evident--the practice of calling everyone by first name does little to alleviate this and foster a team environment.

Promotion opportunities above associate may be more diffucult than expected.

MBAs are viewed by many as more important than work experience or other advanced degrees.

Advice to Senior Management

Don't let your subordinates get mis-treated by a client

Pros

Great people to work with, even with high turnover rates. Planned career path. Opportunities for promotion. Bonuses available at the Senior Associate level and up. Great coffee machines in the San Diego office. Consulting in general is a great job.

Cons

Salaries are low for this area. Leadership does not always communicate effectively with staff. Booz Allen is not always competitive on proposals because of high overhead costs. Too much focused on Defense industry, firm's client portfolio is not well diversified. This situation is made even worse with the split of the commercial from the public sector focused sides of the firm.

Advice to Senior Management

Increase salaries to attract/retain good employees. Too much money is hemmoraged through high turnover. Need to diversify our client base more and not rely so heavily on Defense spending. It may dry up one day.

Pros

Flexible working arrangements, bonus money at the end of the year and extremely helpful information sharing. Working at the Mission Valley office is a great location. With brownbag lunches that have food supplied to after work happy hours and events my management team makes an active effort to keep us all happy off hours as well as on hours.

Cons

Sometimes promotion path is not always clear. Working at the SPAWAR location really has many downsides and prevents you from participating in many of the positives of the company. The secrecy associated with salaries and promotion actions is discouraging at times. It seems as if you sometimes have to leave the compnay and come back to get a higher pay scale.

Advice to Senior Management

With record profits every year, employees should be seeing larger returns

Pros

Booz Allen is a great place to start a career. For a fresh out of college student this is fantastic place. Depending on which office you join, you'll have rapid advancement in the beginning from Researcher up to Senior Consultant. There are some perks like travel if you want it, and for those who don't you can request to be on projects that don't have travel. Management is typically pretty good, but occasionally you'll find the politics of Booz Allen raise their ugly head occassionally.

Cons

The current demerger between the Government Business (which will retain the name Booz Allen Hamilton) and the Commercial Business has left some people confused. There is a general sense that the Government side will be fine, but the Commercial side is probably going to be in trouble financially. Also, the biggest recruiting draw for Booz Allen was it's strong Management Consulting Business (competing against McKinsey, Bain, and BCG), which will be gone. Nobody knows how this demerge will impact both companies, and that uncertainty is can't be felt among the staff during the "town halls." Career mobility is often preached by Senior Management, but a very tricky thing to execute. You'll find sometimes that transition plans extend beyond reasonableness, which often causes the transfers to fall through due to delay in transfering. Also, once you reach Senior Consultant there is a bit of a plateau to Associate, it is a bit of "black box" where you don't really know if you are going to get promoted or not.

Advice to Senior Management

Senior Management needs to give the straight scoop to the staff as much as possible. The staff can see through the smoke and mirrors of the "satistifaction/people surveys" so be honest with them. Also, examine what other companies are paying, because we have seen retention issues lately with people leaving for much better paid jobs. Senior Associates need to stop Empire building, that only impacts career mobility and causes employees to get frustrated with limited opportunities. Knowledge transference, which is only gained through many different projects is key, and should be embraced.