Booz Allen Hamilton Employee Reviews about "billable"

Pros

I sought a position with Booz|Allen|Hamilton after retiring from 40 years of federal service, principally in strategic communications. I had been a senior manager with such responsibilities as ghost writing for senior Defense Department officials and writing speeches. I possessed a Top Secret/SCI clearance and, at age 60 when I retired from the government, was not ready to stop working. I sought a position with BAH because it enjoyed an exceptional reputation and because I had been favorably impressed with the BAH contractors I crossed paths with during my federal service. There were a number of positions I interviewed for and I was ultimately hired to serve as a strategic communications associate on a BAH contract supporting the Defense Health Agency with its TRICARE medical health program for servicemembers and retirees and their dependents. I looked forward to sharing my experience with the members of the BAH team and assisting in the production of exceptional communications products for the client. As a new employee, everyone on the team was very welcoming and helped me through the onboarding process. The members of my team were some of the most intelligent, passionate, diverse and professional colleagues you could ever hope to work with.

Cons

Upper management is laser focused on everyone being 100 percent billable to ensure the kinds of profits they forecasted and promised to shareholders. If you are not bringing in 'billable hours' you will receive a Lack of Work (LOW) letter and will be given 30 days to find a new contract or be let go. That made me feel that I was simply a revenue generator and NOT particularly valued. For all my experience, I found I was given rather mundane tasks to perform and that the work was not particularly challenging. Creativity in accomplishing tasks was not wanted or encouraged. Further, we were encouraged to NEVER give ideas to clients on how to better accomplish tasks or improve products and told simply to “do precisely what the client wants when he/she wants it.” The firm also expected that employees attend varied events during our off-work hours in addition to on-site client support. We were also frequently given additional work relating to growing new business for BAH that we were required to do in our leisure time away from supporting our clients. These tasks were frequently provided on short notice with extremely short deadlines for submission and most were definitely the equivalent of another full-time job. Rarely was I compensated for any time I spent working such business development support work. Often, too, the individual placed in charge of pulling the proposal or presentation together to pitch the new business was a young associate seeking a ticket to a promotion. If this individual thought you were being uncooperative or that your level of enthusiasm for the completion of the work was not what it should be, they didn’t hesitate to throw you under the bus with senior managers. These individuals, as well as your team client-support team colleagues, had input to your job performance evaluations. So one was obliged to always “put on a happy face” and do whatever one was asked to avoid negative assessments from coworkers and colleagues. Further, I found there was very little direction from management in how many tasks were to be performed. It's a lot of demanding to get things done without much direction, which is fine as far as avoiding micro-management. Perhaps because of my years of experience my colleagues and managers felt they didn’t have to give me much direction, but most of the time I felt like I was out on an island figuring most things out by myself. Colleagues were so busy getting their assigned work done, and ensuring that they got their 42 billable work hours each week, that I didn’t want to bother them for help or direction on how to complete some tasks. This, as you might imagine, led to dissatisfaction with work and afraid to ask for help. Management is required to constantly be bringing in new business and they couldn’t be working business development if they were always answering “stupid questions” from subordinates or explaining to superiors why a particular employee wasn’t functioning at 100 percent. On my team, the team manager was located in another state. We held daily staff meetings by conference call and she would actually be on-site in the client support role only a couple of days each month. That wasn’t really a sufficient amount of time to get to know me very well or to know what my strengths were so that I could be given tasks appropriate to my experience. I was an 80 percent disabled veteran when I left military service. This required that I have numerous appointments for health care for various medical issues, most frequently during work hours. I tried to schedule as many of the appointments during pre-work or after work hours, but that was not always possible. Paid time off with BAH is rare and there are NO DESIGNATED SICK DAYS. So, I found myself always in a running battle with both my client site manager and my career manager over my needs to take time off. I was lectured more than once about how my absences from the workplace demonstrated a “lack of concern” for the client and for BAH and that I should stop such absences IMMEDIATELY. So, needless to say, my career manager was on my case about this CONSTANTLY. While hiring me may have helped BAH reach some goals for hiring disabled workers or disabled veterans, they were not happy or supportive of the time I had to take off for medical appointments. The career manager is the person who has nearly complete control over your career path and can force you down a road you don’t like if they don’t like you. I’m afraid that was one lesson I learned the hard way at BAH. To stay 100 percent billable, I was never to be sitting at my desk waiting for someone to assign me work. If I was efficient with my time and completed tasks faster than was anticipated, I was expected to be eagerly seeking other work and the “right work.” There is a lack of passion, culture, and real leadership. There is a ton of management. The ' Leadership' team dusts off core values and ethics a couple times a year but doesn't live these or demonstrate them on a daily basis. The 'culture' of the firms seems to be manufactured - a lot of people pretending there is a meaningful culture. It's not that there is a negative culture, it's just that it's very bland, neutral and not at all aligned to what the firm says it is. Finally, I lost that TS/SCI clearance while working for BAH because I wasn’t engaged in work requiring such a clearance. BAH uses clearances to substitute for a National Agency Check and doesn’t assume custody of an employee’s clearance. Rather they allow unused clearances to “archive,” meaning an individual can lose their clearance because it is not being actively used.

Pros

Colleagues are top notch. My manager was absolutely amazing and great team leader. Salary was competitive, and benefits were good. The people were my favorite part.

Cons

Consulting industry in general can be tough. Salaries can be affected by contract results. Expect to work extra hours on proposals and Booz Allen internal work in addition to client facing billable hours.

Pros

The people at BAH are great! Everyone is extremely outgoing, intelligent, and very collaborative. In addition they are very generous with training and do make it possible for you to bill on multiple projects (if you are so inclined).

Cons

Too much of how much you will enjoy BAH is dependant on whether or not you join the right team. Different teams within the firm operate differently. Also doing work that you are interested in can be very difficult. Once you start going down one path it can be hard to change directions. Choosing the right team and project to start your time off at BAH is essential.

Pros

Amazing flexibility (though sometimes depends on the client)

Cons

Some PMs are better than others. Work culture is good but you may find pockets of mediocre leadership who only care about maximum client billing

Pros

If you can find the right team with the right people, then you'll have a great experience. I would only watch that you don't get too comfortable in those seats. They way federal contracts are positioned, it's easy for senior management to get complacent and then lose the contract.

Cons

Senior managers will tell you, at any level, thank you need to sell work and that they have a rewards process in place to compensate you. This is no process that's been defined to compensate you other than you annual review/raise. Ask a senior manage and they won't be able ot provide any details on this place but they'll encourage you to sell for them. There is no office culture or harmony among staff. Management is just looking to put a butt in a seat in order to bill the govt. If you tell your manager that you're not interested in a position that they offer you, then prepare to be ignored. Even if you've stated your goals and are on a billiable project; you will be ignored. I feel that I've attempted to gain traction across several different projects within my six+ years and there is either turn over from management (so you start over with a new person), or the contract is lost because the leadership screwed up the negotiations. The real heros at this company are the Associates and below. They actually DO all the work and get none of the benefits. Oh and pretty much any fringe benefits are gone or now costs a lot more. They're trying to 'remain competitive' which translates to 'it's your problem now.'

Pros

Good place to learn through number of training/education opportunities Frequent opportunities to sharpen existing skills and develop new skills through team and company events Occasionally there will be opportunities to land a project that fits what you are looking to do

Cons

The push to remain billable frequently causes employees to miss opportunities to join projects that are a better fit Leadership struggles to branch out from the staff augmentation/contract work at the expense of growing more strategic consulting and management consulting

Pros

Excellent internal opportunities if you stay under the radar.

Cons

The diversity marketing materials are just that. Project leadership in the tech field expects everyone to do as told and take the heat (I.e., superhuman deliveries) for underbid projects. The internal and billable folks are treated very differently. Be sure to get the position expectations in writing in advance. They hire Java programmers and expect them to be Python developers and hire Python developers for Ruby on Rails positions. You have a background in DevOps? Expect to write PowerPoint presentations and excel spreadsheets. You know Kubernetes on AWS? Have fun working on Azure. In other words you have to know everything about everything.

Pros

Large corporation with good benefits. A lot of long term stable projects. Smart colleagues.

Cons

Government contracts can sometimes be boring. Salary is directly tied to the billable rate they charge you for to the client.

Pros

People you work with, not upper management because they don't actually work, are great.

Cons

Upper management are laser focused on everyone being 100% billable to bring in numbers for the shareholders. Clients and employees used to be important, not any more. Management is looking at billability in two day increments...so how are they supposed to bring in business if they are always answering stupid questions from higher as to why folks are not at 100%. They give you a couple weeks and then you get a lack of work letter and out you go. Have a look at upper management's stock options that they exercise and make millions in a day while folks are being fired.

Pros

Excellent company, excellent benefits. They hire the best. Leadership works very hard to keep you billable and to grow your career but networking is vital to your success with Booz.

Cons

The recruiting process tends to take a long time.