Vantaggi
1) Supportive culture below manager. Most of the SC's, C's and Analysts have been if your shoes before and they're not only very sympathetic to stressful times but are open to teaching. I became best friends with my EA/office secretary over the summer- contributes to good culture. 2) Centrally located office (LA is Century City) 3) LA arguably has some of the chillest Directors/Partners that genuinely care 4) Unlimited Happy Hours, though they're getting more strict on spending categories; we've literally gone to Universal Studios and Dodgers Games for happy hours 5) MBA reimbursement, but you have to come back to the firm for 2 more years. Lots and lots of placement into Top 10 MBA schools. In general they have a huge representation in IVY's and MIT.
Svantaggi
I'm a unique case because I was an intern over the summer, so I think they didn't know what to do with me. My first case only had me, an analyst, a manager and a partner and both the analyst and the partner took PTO, so I worked directly with the manager, which typically doesn't happen, and definitely led to a tougher internship than normal. Most of the current managers who were not promoted from SC are hired from other T2 (eg. Accenture) or a TMT industry (eg. Sony, Warner Bros, Fox). 1) Work life balance isn't great. Even interns regularly worked till 8-9 pm from 8 am, which I guess is standard in consulting. 2) Lots of admin changes over the summer. They're cutting down on expenses. 3) Slow on updating comp. We were told we'd get a raise around the time we got our offers, but it's now been extended to the end of the year. 4) Among recession fears, tech DD's and media have slowed to almost a halt; it's almost completely telecom for the next few months. But this is true of every firm with slowing deals (even MBB). 5) Exits to other consulting firms are practically nonexistent. Quite a few exit into tech (either bigger firms or startups) and some into corporate (i.e Disney). Quite a few into telecom too. 6) Performance feedback can be brutal sometimes, but since projects are short, you have many opportunities to make it up before the real "bonus determining" review comes.