Mid-Low Tier Staff Augmentation Company - Senior Associate Guidehouse Employee Review

2.0
Jan 3, 2020
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Leadership at the Director and Partner level is generally legacy PwC and consists of high quality, competent professionals - Good place for less accomplished or credentialed professionals to get a huge pay raise and title increase by coming to Guidehouse

Cons

Leadership - Scott McIntyre and the C suite seems completely out of touch with the company. Occasionally, Scott will hold all hands but the meetings seem like nothing more than Scott listening to himself speak in non-tangible terms and says nothing of substance in an hour. The IT infrastructure has long been an issue long before Guidehouse but has been exponentially worse under Chas' leadership. Ownership - The ownership of Veritas Capital has been increasingly visible with slashes to the retirement match (removal of wealth builder), moving to unlimited PTO for Managers and above, lower pay raises and bonuses, and further reductions in benefits. This will likely continue in perpetuity. Career Advancement - In stark contrast to PwC, Guidehouse is run like a staff augmentation company. Generally speaking, if you are staffed to an engagement, that is where you will stay as long as the contract is active. If you have other career ambition, moving to a different project may be possible but will come with resentment from the Director whose project you are leaving. As of 1/1/2020, there is an additional career level which has been input making advancement from Manager (now Managing Consultant) to Director more difficult as you need to be promoted to "Associate Director" first. Back Office Investment - Since the carve out of PwC's public sector there has been little investment in back office operations such as recruiting, finance, etc. which has made simple tasks like invoicing or filling open positions difficult. Many of the legacy start performers were burned out and departed the company, leaving a smaller less experienced staff to complete these functions.

Explore other reviews about Guidehouse

5.0
Jun 10, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

fantastic company to work for

Cons

educational opportunities were hard to find and fund

3.0
Jun 28, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Smart, capable coworkers who genuinely care about delivering quality work. - Interesting public sector projects with meaningful client impact. - Opportunities to take on significant responsibility early in your career.

Cons

The Senior Consultant role feels significantly undercompensated for the level of responsibility expected. SCs are expected to own delivery, lead workstreams, write business development proposals, mentor junior staff, manage clients, and often keep engagements running - if not multiple if you are trying to promote which isn't guaranteed at all. However, the recognition and compensation don't reflect that level of ownership. Bonuses were eliminated, yet the workload remained the same (or increased). Leadership communicated that this would be offset by above industry standard raises and an additional salary increase, but the process lacked transparency. Even my people manager couldn't clearly explain what my raise would be or how it was determined. The utilization target of 91% for Senior Consultants is also extremely difficult to sustain while simultaneously contributing to internal initiatives, business development, and other non-billable expectations. Those competing priorities often result in long hours. With MC's, AD's, and D's asking saying this should only take you an hour or two - which isn't truthful at all. One of the most frustrating experiences was helping win contracts. While I'm proud of the team's accomplishments to get there, there was no financial recognition for the individuals who invested significant time into winning the work. It creates the feeling that Senior Consultants do much of the heavy lifting while higher levels receive most of the recognition and incentive compensation. They talk about a spot bonus of up to 10k, but no one believes it's real. Why would we trust at this point? The lack of transparency around compensation, career progression, and performance rewards is beginning to drive away talented people.

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