Vantaggi
1. There are many bright employees at roughly the same stage in their careers, roughly 5-10 years experience. This creates a collegial, respectful environment. 2. The work-life balance was great. Maybe not at first, but once you got into the groove and were hitting high chargeability/utilization, the company, and my sector particular was very accomodating with scheduling work weeks and vacation.
Svantaggi
1. There is little to no development, mentorship, or training of talent. The highly touted Yale series was simply another venue for subpar training. Many consulting companies fail to develop talent under the guise that they are "hiring experts and experienced personnel." This faulty logic means many firms are missing out on opportunity to truly create knowledgeable, confident staff. 2. Related to training, the bilnd tend to lead the blind. You are considered an expert if you've done something once. 3. Perofmance reviews occur under a banner of transparency, but they are anything close to that. Manager board meetings are held behind closed doors and you are given little insight into the outcome. Bonuses are given in large pools related to ranking rather than your individual, specific accomplishments. Therefore, you could perform awesomely for 12 months straight, win new work, create intellictual capital, etc; and, because you have the same rating as some lackey who files papers who has a good relatinoship with their manager you both will be paid equally.