Pros
Slalom prides itself in its office culture and family like atmosphere - which really shows when you walk in the office. You feel very welcomed. The office is very vibrant with free snacks, shuffleboard table, keg, and etc. They understand that majority of the former consultants lacked in work/life/balance therefore are very cognizant of their time. If you are looking to get paid descent, don't care about career progression, and would like to work 40 hour week, this is the greatest firm for you. In addition, their marketing department does a tremendous job overall. The marketing campaigns are on point and promotes awareness across all the different office. Doesn't directly translate to the projects that you will be working on but I'll give them credit - the marketing is on point. They leverage modern technology to make themselves seem like the best firm to work for - and its working, you'll see slalom on many awards and social media.
Cons
Here comes the issue for most people at the firm. I was promised that I will be engaged in Management/Technology Consulting projects..... However, 85-90% of the jobs were staff augmentation where the consultants are glorified PM and BA's that triaged failed internal IT projects locally. For those that have worked on high-value added projects in their previous life will walk away disappointed and most people wouldn't find out about this until they on-boarded a project. My first project was fielding support tickets for the IT department. Majority of the consultants that I talked to had the same complaints and not a single person seemed to be satisfied. Every discussion I had were discouraging. The so-called CSL's (who nobody at the firm really knows how they add value) will lie and sell you on projects to ensure that their accounts will remain happy. Their model is to become a "value-add staff aug" and eventually get to other internal projects for clients by delivering existing projects. So that leaves majority of the consultants to do the grunt work and have them talk their way up the chain by themselves - not a great strategy and I rather just work for the client in that case (which is happening more often than not). In addition most companies will go with a higher tier consulting firms that can provide them with a whole solution, not to fill gaps like Slalom does with Staff aug. The company does have expertise in certain areas, but that's if you join the national team which has a very similar model as the Big 4 where you will be traveling to certain clients. If you're local, you have no choice but to be stuck on Staff Aug projects. Lastly, they pride themselves as a "flat" structure and everyone is at the same level. Horrible idea. No structure for people means no career progression and any ambitious consultant will not like that. They did start creating structure as I was leaving but most promotions were based on who you knew in the office and not based on skill level. I think this is done on purpose, but as you get larger as an organization its an necessary evil. Probably something to work on. All in all - Slalom is a great Staff Aug firm, but I wish they didn't lie to themselves and gave employees empty promises of exciting projects in the pipeline. Be real about it, you measure yourself on run rate, not the quality of the projects which is the business model and I am 100% okay with that if the transparency is there. I hated being lied to and it happened right in front of my face by many of the CSL's. Overall, it was a tough decision to leave because the office culture was great, some of the leadership were respectable, but at the end of the day, I couldn't deal with the lack of career progression, constant complaints, and uninteresting staff aug projects. I don't think it would have been as big of an issue for me if this was transparent to begin with, but no one's going to join the firm if they knew what they were getting themselves into. So I'm not entirely surprised. Oh yea, and the benefits are horrific.
