PA Consulting Reviews

Pros

Good in places - nice people, fairly relaxed environment.
Work life balance was OK for me.
No real pressure if met your targets and tried and were seen to be trying.

Cons

Poor weak leadership who have allowed the organisation to stagnate and atrophy.
Too many inward looking individuals who have no concept of how to market or sell.
Over reliant on large Government / Public Sector contracts.
Rewards biased towards those who do the safe thing not necessarily the right thing.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to your people and be more open and honest with them.
Realise that the reward model only works if you are a long term "partner".

Pros

- good people
 - interesting work if you're lucky
 - nice offices
 - can get okay bonuses in a good year

Cons

- non-existent strategy and leadership
 - poor communications
 - bullying culture (think of the head of the defence practice)
 - white and middle class, not one black partner - lack of diversity a major issue
 - huge cost base due to massive admin overheard - mainly because senior management don't trust the consultants and spend much of their time monitoring them
 - poor benefits package - 23 days leave, etc.
 - over reliance on public sector work, non-existent in financial services

Advice to Senior Management

- sell or resign
 - bring in some external people who have experience of growing a firm
 - sack 50% of the partner group
 - change the remuration model
 - treat your people better

Pros

Great people and good experience

Cons

Reward not in line with current market

Advice to Senior Management

Keep talent within the firm

Pros

challenging, bright people doing great work

Cons

Poor decision making and communication from management

Advice to Senior Management

Take clear action and communicate it well.

Pros

Great colleagues and intelligent debate is the norm - rare these days

Lack of 'rank' pulling is refreshing

Alan Middleton is an inspirational leader - shame this is not the case for circa 50% of the Partner Group..

Good work life balance - but it is what you make it and I accept not that easy at junior levels

Luckily there are not many 'freshers' and you are not forced to sell 10 juniors for every 1 senior just to make the 'pyramid' work

Cons

I look at the Partner group and especially at recent promotions and for every 1 truely deserving case you see 2 or 3 others promoted because they just consistently sat on large Govt. projects managing risk - this is not in my book a good reason to get promoted

Little top down Business Development when you are an MC. In most Prof Service firms the partners drive this aspect - in my experience, not at PA

PA's Consulting base (but not its admin base) seems to be shrinking fast. Every day another round of leaving cards appears...and I think I will be next as I'm not planning on sticking around untill we hit a 50:50 ratio of admin:consulting staff

Advice to Senior Management

Morale is poor and people are leaving as they can't see where the firm is heading. Recent disaterous reorganisations haven't helped - you need to do something!

Pros

Massive variety of work, if you are fortunate enough to get it
Cutting edge work

Cons

It is very easy to end up working on projects not suited to your skills or doing work you do not enjoy.
Importance of utilisation is too high - and hits you hard in the pocket if you do not exceed your targets.
As a lower-ranked member of staff, there is often very little you can do to ensure you get put on projects, yet it is you whose performance, and therefore bonus, suffers.
If you are on a project outside of London you are quickly forgotten about

Advice to Senior Management

Visit client sites outside of london and spend time with the project team to hear their concerns and views.

Pros

- Nice people at junior levels
- No real pressure to stretch yourself
- Bonus can be decent in a good year

Cons

- Greedy partners focused on own bonus rather than developing business
- Not enough leaders to learn from, unless your focus is IT project management

Advice to Senior Management

Invest more in your people

Pros

- great people
- opportuntity to"invest" and build own business

Cons

- little support if your "investment" in the market doesn't pay off
- not enough long term vision
- personal network is key to success

Advice to Senior Management

- be less risk averse and invest in the future
- consider whether the way targets are set and managed are getting the best out of people in the current climate

Pros

Really interesting projects - particularly those in the private sector
Great colleagues - some of the best minds I've worked with in my 20+ years of consulting
Flexibility to manage your work (but I suspect this is at the more senior levels only)

Cons

Poor rewards policy (23 days holiday is a real bugbear and salary levels are not the most competetive)
Forced distribution of performance assessments leads to dissatisfaction with high performers

Advice to Senior Management

Look again at the rewards policy and make it more equitable for non-partners
Look to promote a more diverse workforce
Look to acquisitions, particularly outside of the UK to increase market presence

Pros

Good quality people
Freedom to choose your own working stylee
freedom to try different types of work (when they are available)

Cons

Utilisation is King, forcing you to take any sort of job so you cannot become a specialist
Lack of unified strategy (within IT practices)
Lower than average pay

Advice to Senior Management

more communication of strategy to low level staff
accept lower utilisation in exchange for staff becoming passionate specialists
Long term thinking