Inside-the-Box Consulting Sweatshop - Consultant Kantar Employee Review

2.0
8 Sept 2016
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

1. Salary (for entry-level position) 2. 5 Weeks PTO 3. Happy Hour Wednesdays & Bagel Mondays 4. Frequent promotions for those who succeed under good management* I was hired as a Consultant, but the role/responsibilities are almost identical (just greater in volume) to the Research Analyst role, what most people are hired as after they graduate from college. The job/role offers a lot of good skills, as you get a good amount of exposure to Microsoft Excel, Powerpoint, Tableau, and also get to learn a good amount about querying data, quantitative analysis, and different research methodologies. Also, if you are good at taking direction and sucking up to those higher on the corporate ladder, you will definitely enjoy the job.

Cons

1. Poor management - project managers are promoted without any leadership qualifications 2. Hierarchical structure - decisions are often justified with "the Partner/Director said so" 3. Tedious tasks - I was asked by a partner to drive 20+ miles to find a Wal-Mart receipt 4. Stubbornly process-oriented - inside-the-box thinking 5. Work-life balance - pick any review here and you will find some mention of this If I could describe this company in 1 word, it would be: anti-startup. The only similarity is the number of hours worked…there are lots of politics involved, decisions made and orders given without explanation, and if you challenge the status quo, even with logic, people will pull rank to oppose you. Make no mistake, it's a consulting firm, and as many others have pointed out, be prepared to stay past 7,8,9,10... several nights of the week or several weeks/months at a time. The culture is all about working at any/all points of the day & weekends - which is why they give you nice iPhone 6's to check email with. Oftentimes the work is extremely tedious (checking numbers, copying/pasting data, formatting slides) and can be automated if the company just realizes that maybe the stubborn processes in place should be updated once in a while. However, the bigger underlying issue is the management structure in place. My biggest complaint is that most project managers (PM) are horrible at managing client expectations. The majority of most clients' relationships with MaPS can be illustrated like this: 1) Client orders MaPS to do "A" (which can be illogical at times) 2)MaPS does "A" with very little pushback and no questions asked 3) Client changes their mind and wants "B" (and gives no additional time) 4) MaPS scrambles frantically to do "B" in effort to appease client. This continues, except the next time through the client wants more, and so the junior staff ends up working more, and so on… Worst of all, if/when the client doesn't renew with MaPS the team is blamed for not performing well, and this is unfairly reflected on the career/project review.

Explore other reviews about Kantar

2.0
30 May 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Hard working associates, mostly bright (and admirable) heads of department. Good benefits. Previous CEO seemed like a genuinely nice guy and would listen to you if you approached him about something.

Cons

There’s a lot of reasons why top notch talent has long jumped ship. Great at sounding smart…terrible at actually getting the revenue to avoid the wholesale data asset sell offs going on. Terribly overcomplicated product portfolios with inflexible solutions at higher costs than smaller leading agencies that have outpaced them. Department heads gaslighting everyone under VPs about performance when they aren’t winning the internal Hunger Games and are told to reduce headcount.

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