Boston Consulting Reviews

Pros

Great brand
High level work
Extremely smart colleagues

Cons

No predictability in schedule (my record was 95+ hours 6 weeks straight, was not flagged by red zone report)
Experience largely depends on the teams you've been on
Very hard to specialize before the Principal level (staffing needs will always trump your wants)

Advice to Senior Management

Staffing and Development are problem areas.

Pros

4 characteristics drive a very satisfactory career at BCG:
* Personal development focused on individuality over standard mould
* Positive internal collaborative culture that shuns internal competition
* Consistent firm strategy focused on people, balanced growth and client service philosophy
* One of the only firms left that foster a truly generalist staffing model (specialize by year 4 or 5)

Cons

2 down sides to a consulting career in general
* high travel, depending on which office you are serving out of (although BCG's regional staffing model greatly minimizes this compared to peers)
* challenge of balancing bureaucracy as firm grows in size

Advice to Senior Management

Globally some offices are culturally less sensitive to work life balance and personal development focus compared to others. We should enforce a universal bar and push capable local management to try harder in enforcing better employee experience in offices globally where gaps are known relative to best practice.

Pros

- Best opportunity to work on "pure" strategy cases (especially growth strategy)
- Customized approach to each project / client keeps work fresh and interesting
- Management trust and high expectations from the start helped me develop quickly
- Innovative / breakthrough approach to balancing work-life (led to an HBS-published case)
- Wonderful international work opportunities

Cons

High business growth, mixed with our customized approach, means little time to sit back and take a rest
Internal knowledge sharing leads to great international conversations, but could be made more efficient

Advice to Senior Management

The immediate impact that is expected of new hires can be very beneficial, but more time could be spent on training & formalized development

Pros

Smart people
All the tools you need to do a great work
Exposure to senior clients at a young age
Loads of feedback and getting to know yourself
Strong partner involvment in content

Cons

Unpredictable workload
Weak internal management skills (this is a partnership, not a "real" company

Pros

Super-smart colleagues, challenging work, access to top management at Fortune 500 companies. You will not find another job that offers the same opportunities for development and that has a real focus on your personal well-being.

Cons

Travel, travel, travel! Don't think you can count on local case. That being said, there is a real focus on making the job sustainable.

Pros

Learn a ton, work with extremely smart people, high pay

Cons

Work life balance is a constant stuggle: long hours, lots of travel, high stress

Pros

B.C.G. is a very creative firm to work for

Cons

Lot of work required to advance in firm

Advice to Senior Management

Dont euqalizie all employess on one level

Pros

Excellent learning opportunity and working environment

Cons

Extremely long working hours. 80 hours above.

Pros

Clients are the best companies in the world, colleagues are the smartest people I've ever met.

Cons

This is not an easy job. You work long hours, it's intense and you are constantly being evaluated - which is good and bad: it pushes you to do your best and to improve (and you get plenty of feedback to improve), but sometimes you just want a pat on the back or a high five without someone also saying "...but these are your areas for development."

Pros

Lots of learning with a bunch of smart people

Cons

Work can be boring -- more and more process and operations work in the mix