Pros
- Immediate opportunity to work with big-name clients:
Within a few weeks of starting at the company, I was on calls with HR leadership at Fortune 500 companies and creating work for them. That is a fantastic and rare opportunity for a young consultant.
- Family-like culture and fantastic co-workers:
Most of my co-workers were sweet, likable, hard-working and easy to work with. The family that owns the company invites employees into their lives and after building relationships with them treats them with love and like family.
- Loving owners and leadership:
Kind of already mentioned it, but the family that runs the company genuinely loves and cares for their employees, and considers them family. For employees who are willing to invest in relationships with them, the reward is a pure, positive, and rewarding relationship with leadership.
- Amazing unlimited PTO policy:
Speaks for itself!
- Small enough for you to be able to stand out and not get lost in a corporate sea of employees:
Like I mentioned above, within a few weeks of starting I got to be creating work and relating to clients directly. Everyone in the office, including leadership, knew me and was ready to invest in me as an employee.
- Abundant opportunity to learn and try new things:
The environment is extremely rewarding for those that step up and are enthusiastic about taking risks to try new things. When I did this, I was met with grace, and ample opportunity for advancement and new responsibilities. I learned SO MUCH during my time there and felt that leadership was sincerely personally invested in my growth, which I am so grateful for.
-Competitive pay for consultants just starting out
The pay was generous for a young, in-experienced consultant, and they were EXTREMELY generous when it came to bonuses.
Cons
- Leadership can struggle with work/life boundaries with employees:
The family that runs the company demonstrates extreme commitment to client satisfaction, which has contributed greatly to the company's success and is very admirable. However, at times, they offer things to clients without consulting the employees who will be the ones responsible for providing the work, making employees work extra hours/make sacrifices without warning.
Leadership will also frequently ask employees to take the time to help them with personal tasks, not included in their job description:
Obviously, it is their company and they technically have every right to do this. However, employees are evaluated heavily based on billable hours and time spent completing personal tasks for leadership is not billable, so it can be frustrating for employees.
Note about this con: When I worked there, I was often asked to complete these "personal tasks," and while it was discouraging at times, leadership made their appreciation very apparent and I knew that they would not count those non-billable hours against me. How much this con bothers an employee really is up to them, and I wouldn't say it is disqualifying at all of the company. Additionally, employees do get to reap the rewards of leadership's practice of going above and beyond for clients, and leadership is good about acknowledging them when they do.
- Leadership can work inefficiently at times:
Often, despite a client being satisfied with the work we had done for them, leadership would say they weren't satisfied and make us redo the deliverable. This would result in even more phenomenal work, which is awesome to be a part of, but because these updates would not be requested by the client, they were considered non-billable. This loses the company A LOT of money and also decreases employees billable hours significantly. Leadership heavily evaluates employees billable hours as well as company profit when offering bonuses or letting people go, so this does inefficiency does come back to bite employees.
- Strict in-office policy for Dallas employees (no WFH flexibility):
The only exception to this is when an employee is sick, which leadership is very understanding about. But, if an employee is sick, they either have to work from home, or use PTO hours.
- Nepotism is apparent at times:
Most of the C-Suite positions at the company are filled by leadership's children, which is fine and they have every right to have it this way. Plus, their kids are also some of the most hardworking people I have ever met, and make abundant sacrifices for the success of the company. However, at times, their parents gave them WFH or schedule flexibility they did not offer other employees. Also, there are differences in the way leadership responds to pushback or disagreement when it comes from one of their kids, compared to non-related employees.
