Nera Economic Consulting Reviews

Pros

High level of responsibility
Interesting and challenging work, especially if you like microeconomics
Very smart people in both senior positions and junior ones

Cons

The work can be unpredictable

Pros

very smart people, good work if you are interested in economics/quant.

Cons

monotonous work, very desk-based and limited abilities to work on very different types of projects. Management often does not have respect for work-life balance and bonuses do not sufficiently reflect extra hours put in.

Pros

privately owned firm (part of the Marsh Mac / Oliver Wyman family) = relatively stable firm during turbulent economic times

Cons

99% of employees are in jobs that are going nowhere; minimal to none brand recognition outside the field of economic consulting

Advice to Senior Management

1. don't treat junior staff as slaves
2. don't treat the clients as the enemy
3. don't treat mid-level consulting staff as disposable

Pros

Junior staff is fun to work with

Cons

This place will surely go down the route that LECG went. Senior management have no breadth of work experience. Most have worked at NERA for their entire careers and don't know anything else. THey have no industry experience and are poor project managers. Pay is awful - banking hours without the commensurate pay. Stay away - this is a career pitfall for young ambitious professionals.

Advice to Senior Management

Senior management should get some industry experience or hire from competitor firms rather than from within.

Pros

Employees at all levels at NERA are very hard-working and extremely intelligent. The academic atmosphere in the office is appealing for fresh graduates and there is plenty of room to apply what one has learned at school and learn more.

Cons

The firm's incentive and performance evaluation policies are opaque. The lack of transparency and red tape is frustrating for hard-working employees who are not rewarded with appropriate financial, promotions and other incentives. The lack of a rotational system where entry-level research associates and interns would be paired with projects in different practice areas for the first 12-24 months creates a very one-dimensional learning space - this type of specialization at such an early career stage hurts research staff as they go on to look for other employment opportunities and graduate school a few years down the line as the set of transferable and marketable skills acquired is extremely minimal. Research staff are paired with one partner who has complete control over their work, performance evaluation, compensation, recommendations and any work-related matters - this is unusual and extremely unfair for those who are "stuck" with exploitative partners and are not given the opportunity to work on projects outside that partner's practice.

Advice to Senior Management

(1) Implement a rotational program for 12-24 months for all entry-level research staff (analysts)
(2) Implement a transparent performance evaluation system where reviewees are assigned mentors who work with each other to create goals for the evaluation period. Mentors should serve as liaisons between reviewee, reviewers and human resources. There should be 3-month evaluation periods (at least 6-months if not 3) and there should be a clear schedule which determines what scores translate into what kinds of raises, bonuses and promotions.
(3) There should be advertised opportunities for global deployment.
(4) There should community service incentives where a certain number of hours of community service per year is eligible for a matching philanthropic contribution by NERA to an organization of the employee's choice and/or compensatory time off etc.
(5) Employees should be given the option of cashing in on unused paid time-off should it not be permitted to roll over.

Pros

- young culture among researchers
- base pay is decent (although bonuses are a crapshoot)
- exposure to front page WSJ business disputes

Cons

- morale is in the gutter among researchers (senior management is clueless)
- for a firm of economists directors/senior management DO NOT understand incentives
- revenues are down and senior management is blaming researchers for not working hard enough. Wake up people... the problems are at the top.
- extremely hierarchical culture that treats researchers poorly.
- lots of grunt work that is not rewarding and does not contribute to employee professional development.
- directors have complete control over their researchers and there is no oversight in how they treat them... this creates a wide disparity between the experiences of similar researchers in different groups (e.g. hours, comp, culture, etc.)

Advice to Senior Management

- Directors are Ph.D. economists with no industry experience.
- Hire consultants/directors who have some actual experience
- Too much ego from the directors here. Get rid of the rigid hierarchy and start treating researchers like actual employees instead of expendable labor.
- There will be a mass exodus of talent from the firm when the economy picks up.

Pros

Pay is fairly competitive at the starting level

Cons

Unclear the prospects and general career path and opportunities. No clear structure or criteria for promotion

Advice to Senior Management

More feedback needed on performance, and a clearer defined career path

Pros

Work with smart people and a broad range of clients

Cons

Experience is too dependent on your senior

Advice to Senior Management

Allow more flexibility for junior people to work across the firm

Pros

It will be a perfect job if you have decided to do ECONOMIC type of work, litigation related or some of consulting. No travel. People are nice. Work/Life balance

Cons

It is hard to make transitions to other industry, say banking

Advice to Senior Management

good

Pros

Very smart people and nice working environment, great contact with people in other MMC divisions

Cons

The work is sometimes very mundane to do, especially tax stuff with Japanese enterprises.

Advice to Senior Management

Being nice is the key to improve the relationship between management and staff.