Good for those starting out but not long term
Pros
The starting salary is attractive (£30k), especially considering many people starting here are university graduates with little to no experience in the field. You undergo training for 4 months (paid) and then undertake 2 years of consulting at various companies. This is great for getting a feel for lots of industries. The company does invest in you and encourages learning which is perfect for someone starting a career in data and wants to learn as much as possible as quickly as possible. There is a lot of talented people at the company. A note on a different review - we did not get a raise during Covid-19, we got a bonus (which was much appreciated). It was a one-off payment, not a permanent/on-going raise.
Cons
A big issue is that the management, in many ways, still act as though the company is the small <50 man business that it was a 5 years ago. The company has grown a lot since then and management needs to understand the needs for a larger company are different. For example, there needs to be a stronger HR presence that is permanent and full-time. HR needs to be present in recruitment as well. After a year, you get a pay rise to £35k and none thereafter unless you join the core team after the 2 years of consulting and even then, the salary is less than at other consultancies. Granted the work life balance seems to be better here. There is little progression in the company in general. Due to the flat structure, it's quite unclear how one would progress. It has been more common in the last year or so for increased bench time. So you may not spend the whole 2 years of consulting actually with a client. With such bright and talented minds at the company, an unhealthy competitive atmosphere is created a lot of the times. There are metrics that are tracked and open for everyone to see. While this does not contribute to any performance evaluation, it does foster a competitive culture. There are office cliques and elements that favour those who are popular- though this is present to some degree in every workplace. There is an issue of diversity at the company. While not purposeful or malicious, it has clearly not been an issue of importance and little to no concerted effort has been put into creating a diverse company. It is evident looking at the mix of employees- getting worse the higher in seniority you look. Management is now focusing more on the issue so hopefully it will improve. Sometimes feedback/criticism falls on deaf ears. It makes it harder to give feedback/report cases when it is known that previous reports were not taken seriously. Management clearly care about the company but are sometimes out of touch and ignorant to the needs and feelings of the employees.
