Boston Consulting Group Reviews in Boston, MA Area

Pros

The people are the best you will work with - smart, committed, and nice. You can be yourself - there isn't a whole lot of pressure to act a certain way to fit in. The job is interesting - you're not taking a cookie cutter approach. You are constantly given opportunities to develop new skills so life never gets boring. There is a strong culture of apprenticeship and everyone has access to the partners.

Cons

The hours can be long or unpredictable on some projects. There is no doubt it is demanding - the hours, the travel. You'll need to make choices and tradeoffs.

Advice to Senior Management

Continue doing what you are doing.

Pros

Best post-school training to start a career in management / business

Cons

Life at BCG can be very demanding

Advice to Senior Management

Don't forget where you come from ....

Pros

A great training ground. Teaches you early in your career to distill most business problems to the essential issues. In theory it can give you exposure to a variety of industries, although people often get pigeonholed in industries they happen to have worked in before.
Very nice salary, bright and committed colleagues.

Cons

Grueling travel commitments as in all big consulting firms.
Projects are sometimes ill-conceived and poorly planned (a partner basically sold (oversold) a project wihout having any idea of what we were getting into or even whether this was really necessary.

Advice to Senior Management

Only sell what you can truly fulfill and beware of the Peter Principle when it comes to Managers and Partners.

Pros

Excellent benefits package including top notch health insurance and free money into your retirement account. Additionally, compensation at BCG (and the rest of the consulting industry) isn't too shabby. . .although it is no ibanking, the money isn't bad. Additionally, the exit opportunities at BCG are pretty vast, especially out of undergrad. An associate (the entry-level position) can stay at the firm and be promoted, go to business school and have it paid for by the firm, transfer to an international office or explore opportunities in an entirely different industry with the BCG brand available to be leveraged into, at the very least, an interview.

Cons

The biggest problem with BCG is the misalignment between the recuriting message and the reality of the job. During recruiting, BCG is sold as a strategy shop in which associates will be dictating to CEOs of Fortune 500 companies and making decisions that affect the face of global commerce. In reality, there are a lot of problems at BCG that I think stem from the fact that it is a client services job. There is overscoping which leads to unneccesary work (and late nights). There is iteration after useless iteration on output and wordsmithing. There is the desire to constantly over-deliver to the client while properly messaging and avoiding telling the client what it doesn't want to hear. Overall, BCG is moving further and further away from strategy and closer and closer towards a process-based firm because, frankly, there is a lot more money in process work. That means more post-merger integrations, delayerings, cost reductions and implementation projects (which are boring, tedious and contentious) and less strategy projects in which we help define the path and future of organizations.

Advice to Senior Management

Bigger isn't always better. I think the firm needs to decide how much it wants to grow at the expense of sacraficing what makes BCG special. The more the company turns towards process work, the more the brand will erode and the more top talent the firm will lose. Don't get too enamored with the almighty dollar.

Pros

Sense of working with "the best" - clear meritocracy on the hiring end, and clear emphasis on transparent and detailed feedback and development path. Clients hire you to work on the hardest, most intellectually challenging issues. It can be fun, and often is. It can also be harrowing, and often is. If you're not resilient and an inbuilt "silver lining" kind of person, don't apply. Don't work "on" clients, work "with" them. You will be rewarded for being yourself and innovative - don't expect to be force-fed the "BCG way".

Cons

The hours are long, the workstyles intense. Don't expect to coast. Come here to develop, and expect to sweat doing it. People who stay love it, but it's a form of addiction (and crowds out other things in many peoples lives). It's not the money - it's the charge / thrill that gets people out of bed (or keeps them from ever going to bed).

Advice to Senior Management

Keep your eye on how heirarchical the place is becoming - don't think it used to be like this.

Pros

Good compensation, fantastic health insurance, good career progression

Cons

Stressful lifestyle, constant travel, demanding clients

Advice to Senior Management

More care and feeding would be helpful

Pros

Best place to work for - amazing people, good work life balance, and great opportunities to learn and grow ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

Cons

Nothing in particular - may be travel sometimes can get to some people ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

Advice to Senior Management

Keep up the good work