Booz & Company Consultant Reviews

Pros

Close knit community; good learning

Cons

Smaller than other GMCs in any sector.

Pros

great work and people, exciting client projects

Cons

long hours, travel and technology lacking

Pros

Booz & Company is a global consulting firm that advises businesses, government ministries (outside the U.S.), and institutions around the world on issues of strategy, organization, operations, transformation and information technology. It holds expertise in a vast range of industries, including aerospace, automotive, chemicals, consumer, energy and utilities, financial services, health, industrials, media and entertainment, oil and gas, retail, transportation and others. Ninety years of consulting results in impressive milestones. Currently the oldest management consulting firm still in business, we have had a hand in the creation of the contract system for Hollywood movies, overseen the merger of the NFL and AFL, and steered the Chrysler Corporation out of bankruptcy. We pioneered the concepts of human capital, product life cycle and supply chain management, all mainstays of business and consulting today. And at the most fundamental level, we originated the term “management consultant”. Our focus on strategy consulting has persisted since 1914, when founder Edwin Booz first began advising clients to help them maintain a competitive advantage.

Cons

Too low profile at times. Need to improve on bland recognition and improve exit opportunities for current consultants.

Pros

- Top tier talent; seriously, some of the smartest people you can ever hope to work with all in one place! - Very cool projects: Booz is less focused on mega-transformation projects than McKinsey. Smaller firm means smaller, sexier strategy projects are still able to make a dent in the P&L - Great brand: globally #4 and in fact #1 throughout the entire ME region.

Cons

- Probably fewer slide production/graphic design resources than some of our bigger competitors - Less scale means less expertise. While it is very cool in some ways to be on the first team to tackle a particular business problem at Booz, it can create a lot of work since our solution is entirely new. McKinsey and BCG for instance, being bigger, have more resources for more types of problems, so there is less reinventing the wheel and therefore better WLB in some cases.

Pros

People are smart, humble, generally kind, and very hardworking. There are lots of opportunities for you if you take the initiative and are very proactive in seeking out projects and connections at the firm. Younger members of the team are often allowed to take on exception amount of responsibility.

Cons

Sometimes the chain of command is too loosely structured and people at all levels are lost scratching their heads (esp. on a project with weak partners). "Up or on" system does not select for good leadership -- it selects for hard workers and crowd pleasers.

Pros

-Great brand name to have on resume -Good experience and exposure, if you can network to the right projects -Solid mentorship, if you can find the right people to look out for you

Cons

-Requires knowing the right people: promotions not based on merit and project staffing is not based on skill set -Staff consistently treated as a resource: little focus on developing talent, high burn out rate from being overwork, and often treated as less than humans, with a very passive aggressive and acidic culture -Extremely cyclical business cycles: the lows are extremely low with more than 50% of staff on the beach. this resulted in a significant chunk of my starting class fired at 6 months into the job.

Pros

Culture, quality of clients and peers, industry alignments allow you to be a better generalist in terms of your skill set, access to senior partners, focus on professional development, range or work

Cons

Lack of merit based promotions in the Consultant Program, lack of international mobility, lack of strong office culture, sub-par sponsorship program financing (tax implications)

Pros

Really smart people who are (mostly) highly detail-oriented, analytical and professional. A few exceptions but generally the case. Nice matching 401k plan is icing on the cake.

Cons

Bad work-life balance, and highly dependent on who you're working with and what type of project it is. No standard way to do ANYTHING.

Pros

[Note: Many of these do not apply anymore] - Amazing people to work with - very intelligent and collaborative - Close-knit office culture - Happy hours and practice-sponsored events - Competitive compensation / benefits

Cons

- Tough work-life balance - Hard functional/industry alignment at the junior level - Integration with PwC

Pros

Allows employees to focus early on in the career

Cons

Still trying to create a brand - althought it is top ranked