Work for Halverson Group, a grind, despicable company in general to employees. Look elsewhere!
Pros
Small company means less bureaucracy. A place to begin your career in this down economy. Once the founder checked out and young Bill took over, things began changing for the worse and quite quickly. Upper management became a revolving door and all the people that had spent years there being groomed for their bosses jobs quickly were passed over for new unqualified people that had little to no knowledge of managing people or business. The older employees became responsible for training their new bosses and once they did, were usually shown the door or demoted to another department. I was an executive there and left on my own accord. Ultimately, young Bill's heart was never in the business and it wasn't uncommon for him to disappear for weeks on end. In the end, young Bill didn't know whom to trust. Probably around that same time, he already knew he had lost a grip on the company.. Insular company, which only values their client monies and maintaining their higher-up old-boys club. When I interviewed, they had some lower-level analysts on the lower level, they are very class-like, in other words: class structured, like serfs and landowners! That is not to be confused with being classy, they [Halverson Group] are the farthest from it. While I have an MS in journalism degree from the Ivy league of the midwest and 2 decade's worth of corporate experience, this season vet saw it as a slow grind and cliquish. If I wanted a McKinsey experience, I would have (and have) applied to McKinsey. Halverson are an also ran, who are only effective for their client's goals in Halverson's own mind. There are much better companies to work for, so I choose to work for a pre-eminent Media company in analytics.
Cons
Caste system. Company is insular; a good old-boys-club that only tends to its own and sticks its nose up at others. There is 1 word to describe the culture there: Nepotism. Nepotism in the strict sense (family hiring) and in an extended sense. First, a Project Manager is the wife of the founder. Such a cozy setup. That is simple nepotism. Second, extended nepotism; many (nearly 50%) of the employees all went through an I/O Psychology program together at DePaul University (and more, 70%) are later cohorts from the same college department. The problem with this company is not only that their upper-management is so self-involved, narcissistic and selfish, but that it is pernicious. It's a man's club. LIke good ol' boys with cigars. They want you to sell your soul for the company. Lots of perks for those willing to work til all hours (as in midnight), weekends, etc. This encourages you to place work as a priority over family, which is just wrong. I know there are better companies that do that same work in Chicago: Cramer Kasselt, Euromonitor, and Hal Riney & Partners. Look elsewhere for work!
