Heidrick & Struggles Reviews

Current Employee – been working at Heidrick & Struggles full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Strong mentoring if you seek it out, collaborative environment, practices pull together and won't let a client/search team down by putting more resources where needed.

Cons – Be prepared to work at all hours. 110% is expected.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Heidrick & Struggles full-time for more than a year

Pros – Great company with good history

Cons – Should continue to improve to meet up with the challenge of the economy.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Heidrick & Struggles full-time

Pros – 1) The rank and file employees are great. Very smart people, hard working, friendly and collaborative. H&S has brought in some amazing and talented people.

2) Candidates recognize the H&S brand and it still has a great reputation.

Cons – There are major problems here:

1) Terrible leadership team. The CEO has no clue what he's doing and the company continues to tank quarter after quarter and no one seems willing to do anything about it. The company promotes search consultants into leadership roles which never works.

2) This is a partner driven culture. Partners make amazing money while everyone else gets the leftovers. Clearly partners bring in the business and should be compensated well, but there needs to be more equitable compensation for those who actually deliver and do the work. Target bonuses are a joke - they are never paid.

3) Zero work/life balance. The company is in a dire financial position and so everyone is expected to work 24/7 and the level of stress and pressure is very high.

4) Attrition - most of the great and even reasonably good talent has already left or is actively looking to leave. Because of the poor compensation and insane number of hours people are expected to work, most people have left. To add to it, the promotion process and cycle is way too long. The criteria to get promoted is unclear, changes every year and typically has more to do with politics than performance.

5) Heidrick has lost what made it a great brand - world class service. It has turned into a sales culture and execution, quality and commitment to delivering phenomenal service is long gone. Most partners sign a deal and then very junior people do the real work. Most clients have figured this out as well.

6) Heidrick touts itself as doing top-level leadership work at the C-Level but the vast majority of people stay afloat taking on VP-level and even Director level searches to pay the bills. Only a small handful of people at the top do any meaningful C-Level work.

7) Database is a complete joke. It was a joke before, then they invested millions in making it cutting edge and world class and they actually made it worse than the old system from the early 90's! It's basically a non functional database. The company expects recruiters to deliver without even the most basic tools.

It's a shame that a firm with such a tremendous candidate brand is such a gigantic mess on the inside. Plain and simple, this is not a place to build a career. If you come here early on, learn the trade, build a network and get the brand on your resume and get out.

Someone else in a previous review summed it up as a place with "greedy" people. I would absolutely agree.

Advice to Senior Management – 1) CEO and BOD to go. Everything else stems from there.
2) Remember that it's a two way street with your employees. They need to get as much as they give to the business. Terrible compensation, negative culture, slow path to partnership and a shockingly outdated technology platform and database are just not going to cut it. Your competitors are flying past you and you need to fundamentally change the way the firm is run if you want to retain your top talent. The old days of people grinding out searches for partners in hopes that they will one day become a partner and make $$$ are over.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Heidrick & Struggles full-time for more than a year

Pros – - Nice people and collaborative work environment.

Cons – - Admin work, by nature of this business, is repetitive, bordering on boring.
- Frequent non-work time interruptions dealing with clients and candidates who expect immediate action.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Heidrick & Struggles full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – people are nice and benefits are good.

Cons – Certainly having the word "Struggles" in the name should have been a sign as it is the most appropriate adjective to describe my time at Heidrick. For those considering to join, make sure you negotiate a salary and can live off that for at least 3 years. There is a bonus, but no bonus pool for EAs. They can only seem to pay the partners via layoffs, management changes, restructurings, etc. Then there is the spending - partner meetings in Barcelona, practice meetings, all internal meetings at a high cost to the firm. Would be nice to have that money in the bonus pool rather in their family vacations.

The CEO has removed every single C-level executive at least one time (if not more) in the past three years and that hasn't solved anything...it doesn't take a PhD to figure this out.

So much there needs to change - and the board is completely unwilling to do it. And why should they? They write books or whatever and the CEO hosts parties for them at Heidrick's expense.

Mostly now I am curious as to what will be the event that actually triggers change...

Advice to Senior Management – change the CEO and board immediately
figure out how to properly compensate EVERY one not just the partners
figure out how to not spend more than you bring in
when you get the core competencies correct - the culture and mentality of employees will change.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Heidrick & Struggles full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Great SF office, fun collaborative environment

Cons – Company is being destroyed by poor management, the CEO is running the company into the ground while he advances his own political agenda. Sad really.

Advice to Senior Management – The BOD should get a new CEO, breathe new life into the company.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Heidrick & Struggles

Pros – Meet interesting people; flexibility; allow telecommuting

Cons – One track for growth opportunities; more difficult on West Coast

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Heidrick & Struggles

Pros – The office space is very nice and for the most part, your colleagues are pleasant, smart and helpful to you.

Cons – The workload is completely unmanageable and even though you have vacation time, you're told you're unable to take it. Unfair.

Advice to Senior Management – Don't lie to employees - tell the truth during the interview process and during employment - everything was a lie.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Heidrick & Struggles

Pros – Heidrick is undoubtably the best company to work for within the search field. Their brand recognition and excellent execution of searches is unparalleled, and the firm makes applaudable efforts to promote from within. The pay is great. It's a global firm, so one can work from a variety of offices across the globe. The senior leadership includes the best in the industry, and the searches completed are top of their field.

Cons – It is unfortunate that Heidrick, as a services company, is publicly held. It should be private.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Heidrick & Struggles

Pros – The location in Manhattan is convenient. The office decor is nice. The other Executive Assistants are helpful.

Cons – The management is horrendous. Most of the consultants are impossible to work for in terms of unrealistic expectations and demands. The hours are too long. H&S just cut overtime for Executive Assistants but still expect you to finish you work within a regular work day/week. That is nearly impossible in search.. The culture is great if you are in your 20s or 30s and enjoy partying a couple of nights a week with your co-workers. However, for myself and other more mature individuals it is a definite con and hurt s us politically. You can't have a balance of work/home life and expect to be "in" with the H&S climate. There are too many cooks at this firm and no concrete leadership.

Advice to Senior Management – The appreciation for the Executive Assistants at Heidrick & Struggles is insulting. Executive Assistants work very hard and many long hours. They need to pay attention to detail and it is an extrmely challenging role to be in. SIT AT THEIR DESK FOR A WEEK AND DO WHAT THEY DO!!! You will come away with a much better understanding and deeper appreciate for what they contribute.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend