Charles River Associates Reviews

Pros

Exposure to different industries, very talented employees, interesting work.

Cons

Very little training and VPs do not have time to coach employees.

Advice to Senior Management

VPs should develop Sr. Managers in the business development aspect.

Pros

Smart people
Opportunity to have an impact

Cons

Very political
Siloed
Hard to navigate
Complex/disfunctional decision making processes

Pros

Good benefits, somewhat flexible work hours, easy to get to, good location, good for entry level position or someone not looking to advance

Cons

Inadequate compensation package for support staff, senior management caters to upper level staff, definite divide between the haves and have-nots, people not necessarily friendly, little opportunity for advancement in certain departments, company focus on consultants with no mentoring/training for other staff, short staffed in several key areas, no sense of team

Pros

Friendly work environment; free food; various company event; encourage employee to volunteer their time to the community; open envirnomnent

Cons

long hours with no extra compensation; very rigide corporate structure; laid off many people while in the downturn with good compensation package

Advice to Senior Management

This is my advice to the management: you have very good management team ; very strong management team with good leadeship and area focus.

Pros

-Good work/life balance
-Great office dynamics between employees and upper staff
-Colleagues and bosses care about you succeeding in your work

Cons

As a 3-month intern, I can't give much insight on the downsides of the company itself, however it seems that because CRA is a reatively smaller player in consulting there is less project diversity.

Pros

Very smart Co-Workers that help you to learn a lot about programming, quantitative and qualitative research. good place to go to grad school after.

Cons

less than industry average pay, no distinction between hard working and less hard working employees with respect to promotions and pay raises

Advice to Senior Management

- more training on a regular basis for Juniors
- mentoring, mentoring, mentoring
- show clear career trajectory when hiring junior staff

Pros

HIgh quality work - they only employ very smart people meaning that while the organisation sucked for employees, it did great work for clients so I was proud of that.
Some great people - as above.
Interesting projects - as above.

Cons

Admin was terrible. Head office (Boston) never told anyone what was going on. We were all "let go" two weeks after being told we were meeting all our targets and that we were "not at all at risk". They just straight out lie about some stuff. Pay and benefits were ok, but not given the stress involved in the job. The goalposts were moved all the time. The severance offered was zero - local legal minimums only which is peanuts here. Promotions were promised by local staff but then Boston vetoed them - making morale a real problem. That goodness that part of my life is over!

Advice to Senior Management

Find a strategy and stick to it for more than 12 months. Stop chopping and changing and making it up as you go along. Listen to your staff - you employ a lot of REALLY SMART people, who sell advice to clients for millions of dollars, yet senior management treat like schoolkids! Try treating staff you are letting go like people rather than accounting statistics.

Pros

Intelligent people; interesting projects; great hands-on training for those early in their careers - the experience translates broadly and positions people to succeed in academia, other consulting practices, and/or industry.

Cons

Chicago office culture is detrimental to work enjoyment and personal development; junior employee tasks often are rote; too many "middle managers" involved in projects - limits developmental possibilities for junior employees

Advice to Senior Management

Charles River Associates is strongly positioned as an academically-leaning consultancy - translating that positioning not only into marketing strategies but also into junior employee experiences seems critical for long-term success.

Pros

Great people, little or no travel, academic environment, flexible work hours, no face time, great office location, friendly and fun junior staff

Cons

Training programs are new and developing, bonus/compensation could be more competitive, little transparency about target bonus and differentiation among junior staff

Advice to Senior Management

more clarity around where practices are headed, continue to invest in training programs, make compensation and review process clearer, improve project managers

Pros

Extremely smart people.
Balanced work/personal life.
The company has a strong reputation and serves as a good signal for graduate schools and future employment.

Cons

There are micro-cultures within the company. Your experience at CRA will be determined mostly by your OIC's. Some are approachable and easy to work with, others terrible at project management and end up slamming you with work as you are walking out the door.

Bonuses are determined largely by factors outside of your control (like bill rates which depend on VP's acquiring work).

Advice to Senior Management

Management could easily foster good morale and have more productivity by making employees aware of the formula for calculating bonuses.

If your salaries continue to grow slower than your competitors, you risk loosing the ability to acquire the best talent.

Work on developing a more uniform culture across the company. Especially in offices that have come about through acquisitions.

Cut the fat at the top. If VP's don't bring in work or contribute in ways that add to the bottom line, what are you paying them for?

Focus on Acquiring VP's with both extensive publications in academia and work within their industry. These VP's have the notoriety to bring in business.