Pros
Through the Associate program I was able to receive Epic certification (which can be difficult to get without sponsorship). My in-house training was extremely helpful. There are lots of resources within the company and the majority of consultants really want to help you succeed and learn the business. Colleagues were fabulous. There were some negative people (mostly a few associates who were quickly replaced). But for the most part full consultants and senior consultants were extremely willing to help, offer advice, mentor, and train. Benefits were great. Compensation (for me at least) was satisfactory. Beacon makes a point to take care of its consultants as far as travel arrangements - we always stayed at nice, safe hotels (usually nicer than those that other companies put their consultants in on shared projects) and received more than adequate per diems. Usually you can earn the reward points for hotels and miles for airlines without having to credit them back to the company. The company meeting was awesome - a great beach location and the company really took care of us. However, it does make you wonder how they shelled out all that money and then laid off almost 15 people over the next six months. (Many consultants wondered this actually.)
Cons
Communication can definitely be improved. I do think some of my colleagues were frustrated by "last minute" decisions that were more a part of the business and had to do with the client's timeline than by actual management. However, when you drop 10 people in one day and don't plan to at least have the head of the department send a formal communication to the team, it doesn't look good. It breeds distrust and paranoia. High turnover. Not just due to the layoffs of the associates. We went through three managers in the last year. Senior level consultants and principles have also jumped ship. Beacon does pay on the lower end for the industry.