Pros
=> Benefits (3 stars out of 5). It’s 2016. Companies have benefits. I think FMP’s benefits are a hair below average, but they get the job done. => Day-to-day responsibilities (3 stars out of 5). Pretty typical for a management consulting company. You’ll mostly spend time facilitating meetings with co-workers and clients as well as preparing typical MS Office deliverables. A lot of this work is boring, but you can work from home as much as you want, which helps. All in all, about average. => Parties and snacks (5 stars out of 5). I’m not going to lie: they just plain kill it in this category. You can gorge on tons of different snack foods at work (highlighted by delicious, homemade baked goods and expensive KIND bars), and you’ll feel pretty awesome at the extravagant work parties.
Cons
=> Pay (1 star out of 5). Their offer was the lowest I have received from a prospective employer in my career; however, tons of companies lowball candidates routinely, so that’s not why FMP gets a low rating here. They get a low rating because their offer wasn’t actually a lowball. In fact, I came to learn that they offered me a high salary relative to other employees with my skills and experience. In other words, I was definitely underpaid, and I suspect that their employees, as a whole, are underpaid relative to what they could get on the market. That’s my opinion, of course. => Performance management (0 stars out of 5). They use (1) annual goals with a numerical rating system; and (2) "client kudos". (1) Annual goals. I was given training on setting my goals. The training encouraged me to use "SMART" goal criteria (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, time bound), an accepted and reasonable industry standard for goal setting. After writing SMART goals, however, I was advised to re-write my goals using vague, boilerplate language that made it impossible to prove whether I actually hit my goals. That made my numerical ratings seem entirely arbitrary. I actually received good numerical ratings, but that doesn’t make them legitimate. (2) Client kudos. I was encouraged to save snippets of email conversations from clients and submit them for my performance review. Things like, “<my name> did an incredible job on our project and I don’t know where we’d be without her!” These quotes were factored into my performance review. If there was a hidden value sheet where "incredible" is worth 10 points, "wonderful" is worth 8 points, and so on, I wasn't privy to it. I believe that performance management is challenging, and I empathize with those tasked to create performance management systems. That said, this was by far the worst attempt I’ve encountered in my career. => Culture and Leadership (1 star out of 5). Step aside from my review for a minute, and consider the other FMP reviews on Glassdoor right now: - Of the five negative reviews (less than 3 stars), all were either negative or neutral on culture and company leadership. - Of the six positive reviews (3 stars or greater), half were either negative or neutral on culture and company leadership. It’s not particularly interesting to see negative reviews that are neutral/negative on culture and leadership. You expect that to happen. In contrast, though, it’s very interesting to see positive reviews that are neutral/negative on culture and leadership. Taking a common negative from positive reviews is a great way to identify a core weakness, and here we have one. Personally, I experienced a passive-aggressive culture that valued conflict avoidance with both clients and employees. The company leaders were nice people, but they perpetuated this culture. It wasn't a fit for me. Maybe it'll be a fit for you. But probably not.
