L.E.K. Consulting Reviews

Cons

Long hours (but it's expected of consulting)
Not as much travel as MBB

Cons

Hierarchy, long hours, ... ...

Cons

repetitive
they wont hire you
little respect
cases don't do much
terrible work life balance

Cons

You don't get much client interaction early on as work is done primarily in the office

Cons

A1 year is rough - little control over your life, and lots of grunt work - but it gets better!
Long hours
Some projects just suck
Promote through timeline is way too long

Cons

Tough lifestyle leads to high turnover and perpetually understaffed and overtaxed teams. It's a vicious cycle.

Cons

Long hours, limited project diversity

Cons

- Primarily Research, not Strategy Consulting: While the company brands itself as Strategy Consulting, most of the work the firm does is on producing large research reports for corporate or PE firms. Consultants and Associates spend most of their time doing research or creating slides, with little to no interaction with the clients. Typically, you’re not solving any “problem” for the client, simply producing a research report on the industry. After the first 2 reports, you’re basically doing the same thing over and over and not learning anything new. This results in limited learning and limited exit opportunities when you haven’t worked in a real corporate environment. While the company says it competes with the big strategy firms (MBB, even Deloitte, PwC, etc.), it’s relatively unknown in the market, making it hard to find a job outside as you always have to explain what L.E.K. does.

- Poor Staffing Model: Typical teams only have 50% of a Manager dedicated to them, so the Consultant is running the day-to-day. While the company plays this off as a great leadership opportunity, it’s primarily done to make projects more profitable and puts tremendous burden on Consultants. It's also challenging for the Associates as they're being managed by someone who's not only learning how to manage but also learning consulting. You’re expected to work late nights regularly to keep up, while Managers only check in when needed.

- Work Life Balance: While consulting in general is a demanding career, L.E.K. is known for its “sweatshop” culture, especially at the Associate and Consultant ranks. While most Managers and Partners leave the office by 6pm, Consultants and Associates typically work late into the night (past midnight is not uncommon). The company has tried to put some initiatives in place to give the teams one day a week to leave the office at 6pm, the remaining days you’re expected to work late. While you can order dinner for free, it gets old to eat take out every day for dinner.

- Diversity: Not very diverse as a firm, especially at the senior ranks. Take a look at the US leadership on their website. 0 African American, 4 Women (7%) out of 57 Partners – 3 of whom have been at the company since the 90s. The lack of diversity permeates throughout the culture of the firm. The company has had diversity initiatives each year, but they’re mostly superficial and no concrete steps have been taken to change anything.

Cons

Difficult lifestyle that inevitably leads to burnout

Cons

- COMPENSATION, without a doubt. We are not competitive with other consulting firms and management tries to lie to themselves that we are but open your eyes because we have problems with recruiting top talent because our compensation is not competitive. Promotion raises are minimal as well as, and a major factor for our retention problem

-HR is terrible, they don't care about the needs of the employees

- Allocations

- Upper management does not seem to care about any of their Associates, who are the driving force behind this organization

- No work life balance