Hitachi Consulting Reviews in Los Angeles, CA Area

Pros

Learned alot. Was a Great opportunity to pick up new technology.

Cons

Worked too many hours. Projects were aggressive

Pros

Location if interested in media and entertainment
Salary potential
Minimal travel

Cons

Breadth of clients (they dont have good projects or clients)
Work is not challenging
Managers are not strategic partners or thinkers
Peers are not top-notch

Advice to Senior Management

Train management how to be leaders, not just Project Managers.

Pros

Good teammates
Real solutions, projects
Most VP's care about people

Cons

Comp is light
Variable comp is very light
Positioning is way ahead of capabilities and overall losing differentiation as firm moves up-market

Advice to Senior Management

improve variable comp and meritocracy vs. time-at-level
figure out what "there" looks like as you rush toward it (what do you have to offer vs. Big 4 when you are global, full-travel, fat-bottomed pyramid...)

Pros

There was a time in which HC was entreprenual and innovative, it was fun and a place you wanted to go to everyday. The past 2 years, things changed, direction dwendled and the vision of Leadership was inexsistant. Nothing seperated HC from the other firms, and there was no reason to stay.

Cons

lack of visibility and company vision direction. Too much finger pointing. No guidance.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen. There was a great culture at HC and lately that has been comprimised and no compelling reason to stay when other firms pay more and have a better travel and benefit packages.

Pros

Number one reason that I am still here is primarily because of the people around you. The employees and co-workers on the project accounts are a very fun group and extremely talented and hard-working.

Cons

The salary is a joke. The recently new shift to a national model has major implications for the current employee base. Too aggressive of a model to become the next Deloitte or Accenture.

Advice to Senior Management

Compensation and bonuses should reflect industry standards, HC is way below the norm and their be;ow avg. salary bands are what is making talented individuals leave for better paying positions...

Pros

Pros
Met some great good people, some good couches and superb consultants but most of them are gone now in the last nine months.

Some good opportunities to gain responsabilities from, management is approachable, but not understanding.

Cons

Compensation is not competitive compared with other firms, large shift, not as flexible as you may expect when asking for vacations. May find from time to time some harassement in the work environment by an unethical project manager.

This is a good company, with good people, challenging clients, a lot of opportunity to make your own path.. but as the company is aggressively growing work demands and expectations have gone up, but compensation has not...

Advice to Senior Management

Great advice comes from many sources.

Pros

Most of my peers were competent and friendly people and they made every day work enjoyable.

Cons

The org change has dealt some body blows to morale and turnover has skyrocketed. Despite the incredible talent the firm employed its been bleeding a lot of these very people that made HC a fun place to work. Now to right side the pyramid they're stuffing the ranks with people who don't quite measure up to the old standards.

Having to bring my laptop when on vacation was a real downer. Seriously, what kind of place makes people work on their time off? Is this any way to respect and show appreciation to the people in the trenches and billing the clients? It was unbelievable how I had to burn the midnight oil after a great day on the slopes.

The pay is pretty offensive compared to the market. Former co-workers leaving for industry and consulting jobs elsewhere are seeing 20-40% increases in pay. That's how badly HC pays their people and no wonder they are leaving in packs. One leaves and s/he takes a few more a month or two later! The company is truly reaping what it sows now.

Advice to Senior Management

Pay your people a salary that beats the market. You need to improve the firm's unquestionable reputation on the street for poor compensation and benefits. Do whatever it takes to retain the talent you still have because the list of stellar talent that left for better opportunities is growing quickly.

Pros

Good if you want to try different industries and find out which area you would like to focus in and grow. The company will find projects for you will be expected to add value immediately. You work with quality employees who have diverse backgrounds in terms of IT and business.

Cons

If you do not strongly voice which area you would like to work in, you will be expected to work in any project. The company is smaller compared to some major competitors so if you do not mind working in diverse projects, then this is fine. However, expect to fill some gaps from people who have turned over or areas in which the company is growing.

Advice to Senior Management

Leadership will acknowledge your concerns. It is easier to approach leadership in this environment.

Pros

Open door policy from the top, easy access to senior management. Upper leadership is very open and communicative about company's goals/direction/future. Supportive environment. Strong community and culture. Great flexibility, given the limitations of the consulting industry.

Cons

What you want to do does not necessarily translate to what you will be doing. There is favoritism at play with regards to promotions.

Advice to Senior Management

We must remain competitive in rewarding longer-term employees with competitive compensation. I have heard a great deal of negative commentary from those senior to me stating the longer they stay with the firm, the further their compensation moves away from the industry standard. New and experienced hires do enter at competitive packages though, and this is applauded. Overall, the leadership is open to questions and feedback from our lowest rungs, and this is much appreciated and is one of the major factors Hitachi Consulting is a great place to work.

Pros

The one thing that HC has managed to do right (most of the time) is hire people who are fun to work with. I still enjoy spending time with my former co-workers very much. A few years ago HC was a great place to work and I gladly recommended it to my network. The camaraderie and breadth of projects made this firm look like it was going somewhere.

Cons

The pay is atrocious and downright offensive to any professional. The truth is so many people jump ship to make 30-40% more. The benefits, while not as ugly, are still sub par to other firms. Technical people often find themselves in the black hole of a maintenance project or staffed on a technical project that doesn't align with their skillset. Functional people settle for QA roles or get pidgeon holed into positions that don't differ too much from administrative assistant to clients. Seriously, this is suppose to be an top tier aspiring firm? The days of interesting projects, career growth, and skill development ended about 2 years ago.

Advice to Senior Management

You guys at the top should really think about your people. Morale is low and the firm is bleeding great talent. Have you stopped to think about why the pyramid is flipped? C'mon, keep it real and pay for the talent needed in a top tier firm. HC use to be a great place to work 4 years ago and you let that go. It's a damn shame.