Oliver Wyman Reviews

Pros

They hire the best and the brightest so quality work and performance is paramount. The opportunities for growth are unlimited. Also, management encourages giving back to the community through volunteering and charity events.

Cons

The hours can be long and the work challenging. Most room for growth are located in just a few cities in the NE. It is a global company and late night or early morning calls are common.

Advice to Senior Management

I appreciate that management has made diversity and inclusion a priority over the past few years. I am proud to work at

Pros

nice colleagues for the most part
good brand name, ivy league of financial services consulting
big clients, important projects

Cons

no work life balance
lots of pressure
not enough vacation time for the hours expected (only 3 weeks)
skimping on research resources

Pros

Flexible work enviornment with laid back people
Easy to ask people questions when needed
Able to work on multiple projects within short timespan

Cons

Long hours including late nights and weekends
Traveling all the time including the need to take red-eyes on monday mornings

Advice to Senior Management

Give more transparency to how projects are assigned
Better knowledge database that should be updated regularly so people aren't overlapping each other's work

Pros

Great pay package and strong talent. Friendlier than most big consulting companies.

Cons

Oliver Wyman downsized significantly in an unfair and un-open manner in 2009. They then went on to hire more than usual the following year to compensate. As a leading financial services expert, they should have a better way of tackling the financial crisis.

Pros

money, travel and flexibility are ok.

Cons

Company run pretty incompetently. No solid processes or structure and a crap IT department.

Advice to Senior Management

Leaders who have integrity and courage to run the firm professionally.

Pros

depth of knowledge, humane environment, Fun, Quality of people,

Cons

not well organised, London centric, very opportunistic

Advice to Senior Management

Introduce a client facing career track instead of only content based career track

Pros

Fast career advancement, competitive salary, good health benefits, good paid time off, fair and transparent review process twice per year

Cons

Poor work life balance, pressure to work long hours, endless travel, pressure to travel internationally, particularly to the middle east

Pros

great benefits and felx work options, community building opportunities, social events and opportunity to grow if you perform, great client and high quality work

Cons

Not very good at managing change

Advice to Senior Management

If you want to be a top management consulting firm step up the level on Talent Management

Pros

Oliver Wyman provides a faster track to partnership than competitors. Partially this is achieved through faster specialization. No MBA is required for advancement (though they are sponsored if you want one). The extra time in the industry is viewed as more beneficial than the MBA. The culture is very meritocratic, entrepreneurial and team-oriented with almost no work-place politics to deal with.

Cons

If you're not in consulting for the long-haul, it offers a less-clear "value proposition." The brand name isn't as good as competing firms, which may be important for your next career (though I hope this will slowly change). The lack of emphasis on an MBA may hinder your future career choices outside Oliver Wyman unless you make obtaining one a personal priority.

Advice to Senior Management

Stay true to the founding principles of the firm (Oliver, Wyman and Company). Don't make OW into Bain, McKinsey, and BCG...force them to be more like us.

Pros

The bonuses were great. They made up for the low base salary, or maybe mine was just low. Firm days in New York were fun.

Cons

Bullying by some partners: somepartners were unprofessional in their treatment of staff and use staff's personal situations as weapons during job-end and year-end reviews.

Advice to Senior Management

There needs to be a cleaning of the house at the partner levels. A few of the partners give the rest a bad name.