Pros
- free snacks, drinks, sodas, coffee, occasionally catered lunch/breakfast - happy hour in-office 4 pm Thursdays - some really smart, nice people - decent place to work for a year to gain valuable skills and client experience (under a year, you lose your sign-on bonus) - collaboration over competition - $10k more/year is basically a guarantee for the Associates/Analysts - the team I was on prized work-life balance so I did not work late (some on other teams did though) - unlimited PTO, although taking it depends on your team/manager - good office location - decent benefits
Kontras
- if you get put onto a bad team, you're screwed. there are some great managers here, and some really bad ones that make the environment toxic and your life miserable - fratty, cliquey work culture - very low retention rate, I estimate, based on the sheer amount of departures I saw in my tenure - many teams lack diversity. DC office feels pretty white - private equity owned, leading to a perception of profits>people - poor pay (first-year Associates/Analysts make $57k) - no performance bonuses or equity, seemingly, except for senior leadership