Diamond Management & Technology Consultants Reviews in Chicago, IL Area

Pros

Good compensation. Excellent benefits. You know what your peers make - compensation is dictated by level, not by shady negotiations. Plenty of opportunities for advancement.

Cons

Poor work life balance. Expectations that you will do firm work on top of a 40-hour client work week. Up or out policy.

Advice to Senior Management

Make sure the company remains as an independent business unit within PwC. Otherwise it will completely lose its identity and its people will leave.

Pros

Compensation, Some of the smartest people to work with, very often good projects. You learn a lot within a short period of time working here.

Cons

If you do good, news will travel fast. If you somehow are perceived to do badly,due to reasons within or outside of your control, news travels like wildfire. And bad news sticks on for a long time and you get very few second chances.

Advice to Senior Management

Treat employees with a little more respect and ensure that promotions are a little more transparent.

Pros

Good salary and good environment for proactive individuals seeking advancement

Cons

Poor work-life balance, almost no say in staffing, too much execution work, and not enough appreciation of employees

Advice to Senior Management

Pay more attention to work/life balance and career development

Pros

Diamond Management is a very small consulting firm with small team size. As a result, you have a lot of access to principals and partners which can be good.
Diamond also has a great benefits package.
As far as work/ balance the hours are long like at any consulting firm but it just implemented a Work Balance Day (1 x a week) which is nice.
There are opportunities to contribute on business development and white papers which can be very rewarding.

Cons

Diamond does not have any affinity groups, except for LGBT and Women's Group. It doesn't seem to value diversity too much.

Advice to Senior Management

Continue to work on building the firm's reputation and it would be good to focus on diversity a bit more. It is definitley lacking in that area.

Pros

The people are amazingly bright and dedicated to the sucess of the firm. Many consultants have been there for years and are quite passionate about the people and work.

Cons

The company could be run far more efficiently. There was a considerable amount of overhead considering the size of the firm.

Advice to Senior Management

Change can be a positive thing. While there are many people that have been in their roles for years and are doing well in those roles, others should be moved out to provide opportunity for growth and development around them.

Pros

- Very smart people
- Marquee clients (Fortune 500)
- Interesting work
- Entrepreneurial culture
- Benefits are outstanding
- Compensation is competitive

Cons

- Lot more IT and Program Management work
- Less choice of what you want to work on
- Pressure to contribute to firm growth beyond 60-90 hr work weeks
- Brand name is being recognized more, but still relatively unknown

Advice to Senior Management

Provide opportunities to consultants to work in more diverse areas and functions

Pros

--The compensation and benefits package (dental, medical, vision, paid vacation) are both very generous, much, much higher than most small consulting firms

--Your team members are incredibly smart and talented people, often willing to put in the extra hours it takes to make the final deliverable right

--Teams take pride in developing relationships with clients and go out of their way to foster those relationships; clients come first and foremost

--Senior management tries to PROMOTE as much work like balance as they can, but whether or not there is actual work like balance is a different matter

Cons

--Very poor staffing - due to the small number of people, consultants are often put into difficult positions where they are expected to deliver results, but with no training or support, in an unrealistic time frame (i.e. business analysts required to write program codes)

--The annual review process has changed to one where there is much less transparency and even less motivation for senior management to be prompt with after project reviews

--The focus of work has shifted to form an even greater emphasis on execution projects than ever before; for those looking for strategy consulting projects, this is not the right firm for you

Advice to Senior Management

Take the time to listen, and not just to your fellow Principals and Partners (fascinating though the discussion might be), but to Analysts, Associates, Senior Associates, and Managers. While your peers and you might arguably have years of experience under your belts, it doesn't always translate into knowing how to relate to (or even manage) those under you.

Pros

Great benefits - but now they are making you pay for it - so it was effectively a pay cut of $1500 or more if you have a family
Virtual Model - i.e., live anywhere policy for everyone except analysts and office support staff
4:1 travel policy

Cons

Project reviews do not correspond to overall rating during the annual review cycle
Firm is becoming very skewed to the technology side - business folks are finding it harder and harder to do well at diamond

Advice to Senior Management

Get some balance back between tech and business - stop sacrificing smaller pieces of strategy work for big tech / pmo types of projects

Pros

Great work culture.

Very smart and very very hardworking people.

Good salary.

Definite career progression (up or out).

Work hard play hard culture.

Good benefits.

Cons

With intelligence comes obnoxiousness, hence a lot of people at Diamond have hard personalities, even at the junior-most levels.

While there is a lot of competence at the junior levels, there are some senior folks who should not even be Analysts or Associates, leave alone Managers or Principals.

There is NO work life balance whatsoever. Insane hours, and the up-or-out work culture makes it very, very hard because in every project, there is always someone without a life willing to put in 120 hours each week. It makes the others look bad in comparison since all banding at Diamond is relative. This is particularly hard on folks with families and children, or those who are staffed to local projects.

There is a move away from strategy and into execution, which makes it hard for people looking to do real management consulting.

It is also very hard to switch competencies or verticals. Your interests and background are NOT taken into consideration. Staffing is a complete black box -- "You're staffed here, and you'd better take it or leave." Zero transparency and zero regard for people's wishes. This is made worse by the fact that people are staffed at projects for several years at a time.

Advice to Senior Management

Bring in more people to projects -- a lot more. This will greatly help address the work-life balance issue.

Weed out the incompetence at the top.

Please move away from execution and into core strategy.

Please provide more transparency into staffing. Nobody wants to work at a client with the same obnoxious people for over 3 years. It completely defeats the purpose of consulting. Ask people what they want, and provide them with a way to get there.

Please consider consultants with families. We understand that you're taking away benefits, but at least give us a little leeway to spend more time with our families.

Pros

Great benefits. Fun group of hard working people. allowed to live anywhere you want. fun events. learn a lot from others

Cons

unknown brand so you have to work even harder than consultants at other firms in an attempt to get work from clients

Advice to Senior Management

loosen up a bit