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Scott McDonald
128 Ratings
Pros
Gute Work/Life Balance im Vergleich zu anderen Beratungen (in 30 reviews)
Incredibly stimulating environment - truly smart people (in 46 reviews)
Cons
work-life balance can be tricky sometimes (in 89 reviews)
Long hours, maybe a bit more than what is norm for MBB (regularly working 9AM-11PM) (in 52 reviews)
- Featured Review
Helpful (6)
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"My Career Success is based on output vs face time"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
RecommendsPositive OutlookI have been working at Oliver Wyman full-time (More than 5 years)
Pros
Very down to earth company full of extra smart people. Not obnoxiously competitive. Non-hierarchical. I do interesting work & feel my efforts are rewarded.
Cons
Travel can be a taxing but the company supports ideas for making it things work if you have an alternative idea. The bottom line is we need to be at the client, but as much as they can, managers are open to flexibility. I'm especially grateful I'm not required to go into the office when not at the client; working from home is a real thing since I'm judged on my output.
Advice to Management
Keep up the open dialogue about flexible working arrangements; I'm so impressed by senior management's attention to work/life balance.
Oliver Wyman 2017-02-13 12:54 PST Helpful (2)
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"Top dog in some industries, intelligent people all around"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
RecommendsPositive OutlookNo opinion of CEOI have been working at Oliver Wyman full-time (More than a year)
Pros
-For financial services / aviation / analytics work, no better place. Easily compete with MBB firms in these industries, and the blend of strategic and analytical work is promising
-Incredibly intelligent yet down to earth colleagues
-Flat meritocratic culture
-Clear career path with no pressure / requirement to get an MBA, though sponsorship is available if desired
-Diversity initiatives, ERGs, opportunity for non profit fellowship help create a more sustainable environment
Overall, wouldn't be surprised to see OW get the recognition it deserves from the general industry.Cons
-Long hours, maybe a bit more than what is norm for MBB (regularly working 9AM-11PM)
-For non-FS / aviation / analytics work, definitely disadvantaged relative to MBB
-Brand at the top (C-suite) is very strong, but brand at the bottom (entry level) is weaker relative to MBB. Expect people to not recognize the name.Advice to Management
Build out brand from the bottom as well as the top, otherwise candidates will consistently choose MBB over OW on average
Oliver Wyman 2017-08-25 12:10 PDT![Oliver Wyman Logo]()
"ITS support professional"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
RecommendsPositive OutlookApproves of CEOI have been working at Oliver Wyman full-time
Pros
Great Culture
Good life balance
Good work environment
Great cultureCons
not too much professional grow opportunities
Oliver Wyman 2017-10-09 09:27 PDT![Oliver Wyman Logo]()
"Great learning experience, culture is lacking"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
RecommendsPositive OutlookNo opinion of CEOI have been working at Oliver Wyman (More than a year)
Pros
- Company is invests in consultants early
- Significant training and professional development
- Stretch opportunities available for those who earn themCons
- Lack of culture
- Lack of transparency in staffing
- No diversity, especially in senior leadershipAdvice to Management
- Bring more diversity to upper levels
- Bring back our international programs (i.e. golden passport)
- Bring more transparency to staffingOliver Wyman 2017-10-04 14:05 PDT![Oliver Wyman Logo]()
"Decent workplace, be prepared to work your butt off"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
RecommendsNeutral OutlookApproves of CEOI worked at Oliver Wyman full-time
Pros
Smart people, good resources, decent projects
Cons
Long, long hours. Smart people, but also full of themselves and not the type of people you want to form a community around
Oliver Wyman 2017-09-25 19:18 PDTHelpful (1)
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"SP barriers"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
RecommendsPositive OutlookApproves of CEOI have been working at Oliver Wyman full-time (More than 3 years)
Pros
Good Work life balance, even footing across roles
Cons
there are barriers to moving outside of the SP side of the company, which results in limited growth opportunities
Oliver Wyman 2017-09-14 11:14 PDT![Oliver Wyman Logo]()
"Awesome Place to Learn - Lots of Work"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
RecommendsPositive OutlookApproves of CEOI have been working at Oliver Wyman full-time (Less than a year)
Pros
Oliver Wyman has a very open and entrepreneurial culture where anyone on a team is welcome to present their own views. Obviously, it's ultimately the managers' call, but you get the amazing opportunity to learn new things and contribute your perspectives from Day 1.
Cons
The hours are long, and the work can be high pressure, but that's just par for the industry. It's no worse than what I've heard from friends at other consulting firms.
Advice to Management
Keep doing what you're doing.
Oliver Wyman 2017-08-14 16:47 PDT![Oliver Wyman Logo]()
"Office Culture"
StarStarStarStarStarI have been working at Oliver Wyman full-time
Pros
Great people and great events
Cons
Need to mingle consulting staff and support staff more
Oliver Wyman 2017-08-22 05:09 PDTHelpful (1)
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"A great place for a recent college graduate to start their career"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
RecommendsNeutral OutlookNo opinion of CEOI worked at Oliver Wyman full-time
Pros
Oliver Wyman is a great place for a recent graduate to start their career at a top consulting company. Unlike McKinsey and others, they believe in building partners out of 22 year olds. This means that by 26 you may be just as marketable as a 30 year old Engagement Manager without the 300K in MBA expenses. Four years younger and no lost opportunity or out of pocket costs seems like a win win.
Cons
They are owned by an insurance brokerage who is publicly traded. So they have two marks against them: A publicly traded consulting company has keep their shareholders happy and MMC is not a "natural" owner of a consulting company. As a result you can be growing at 20% a year and there will still be no investment capital available. These issues typically impact the career progression of staff rather than consultants.
Advice to Management
Focus on the few consulting businesses where you have competitive advantage rather than trying to be a sub scale Bain BCG or McKinsey.
Oliver Wyman 2017-07-24 11:23 PDT- RecommendsNeutral OutlookNo opinion of CEO
I worked at Oliver Wyman full-time
Pros
Overall, OW is an extremely solid company to work for right out of college. Very grateful to have been there. If you are trying to break into management consulting, don't be disillusioned by the term "MBB" -- OW is a real deal, and you will be surprised how amazing it is.
- Extremely caring, genuine people with a not-fratty, yet still super collegial culture
- Again, people, people, people!! After all, you will learn that your general sense of happiness at work really comes down to whether you enjoy working with your team or not. Obsessing with landing a sexy case or gunning for a big name client will come at a significant WFB cost.
- Lots of interesting cases with direct exposure to senior clients
- Did I mention people??
- Partners are very easy to approach -- they are always happy to grab coffee with you. Pretty flat culture too. SF office head is a rockstar
- Competitive compensation and the management does an excellent job maintaining its competitiveness
- Very generous benefits -- I would say OW's benefits (e.g. FlexOW, LFO, business class policy, and free Amex Platinum to name a few) are FARRRRRR more generous than those at Bain & Company (e.g. no business class even when flying internationally)
- Very advanced back-end IT infrastructure and the IT dept is always trying out new things to constantly improve things. Very entrepreneurial team and they do an excellent job to make your life better (McKinsey and Lotus... you listening?) . Laptops could use an upgrade though
- Very design driven thanks to Lippincott -- aesthetically speaking, even MBB can't beat OW
- Non-judgemental, LGBT-friendly placeCons
I'm going to preface this by saying OW's pros far outweigh cons. But anyways, here's a few:
- CCAR; enough said
- Extremely uncompetitive healthcare package compared to MBB , because you get what all other MMC employees get. The most risk-averse package was a $300 deductible plan with $2.5K out-of-pocket. But it's mainly structured on copay from an actuarial perspective, so you still have to pay -- for example -- $50 in copay for a specialist visit even if you have already hit the out-of-pocket (v. coinsurance which would require no additional costs). MORE IMPORTANTLY, insurance premiums are not pa by OW in full, and consultants are expected to take a considerable hit on their disposable income. E.g. For the $300 deductible plan, they deducted approx. $500 for my share of the plan's monthly premium in pre-tax money. Yikes. On the other hand, McKinsey offers a $100 deductible plan with $1K out-of-pocket -- which is 1) paid in full by the firm (McKinsey might offer a slightly lower base depending on the region, but what McKinsey wires over to your bank account is actually richer because there's no pre-tax deduction required) In addition, BCG offers a similar insurance package with a mere $5 copay for almost everything. OW really needs to take an action on this.
- Lack of industry diversification and misleading sell-day information about industries represented
- Expense system is an utter nightmare. Please upgrade
- Also maybe up the $25 receipt threshold? It's whopping $40 at BCG, and McKinsey doesn't even require receipts to begin with,regardless of the amount, as long as you use your corporate card
- A bit too technical and quantitative -- feels like many cases are operational rather than super high-level
- Limited office social budget
- Lack of clear expense guidelines and -- as a result -- a few stingy partners when it comes to expenses. They will yell at you if you spend more than $25 on dinner.... First of all, at BCG, no one cares and partners tend to be very generous. Second, at McKinsey, $25 is what you get for lunch and I think -- don't quote me on this -- they allow up to whopping $55 for dinner
- Not very values-driven
- Overly aggressive training program that's just way too ambitiousAdvice to Management
Keep up with the good work
Oliver Wyman 2017-07-19 13:36 PDT
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