Pros
Great people, especially at the lower levels of the consulting staff. Junior staff has opportunity to make significant contributions to the output and have a voice. Excellent benefits; company works hard to take care of its people. Challenging and fast paced. Constant development opportunities -- feedback sessions with managers, ongoing training. Ability to gain exposure to a wide range of industries and develop skills fast.
Cons
Lack of control over type of work and experience. Lack of transparency behind processes, such as staffing and career development. People tend to get less interesting as they become more senior; Partners can be very challenging to work with. More hierarchical than advertised; Highly political. Consultants/Associates do the grunt work, which is typically being an Excel/Powerpoint monkey -- can get tedious and not be very fulfilling. Most cases are not very interesting -- currently most are cost-cutting/delayering type cases that focus on benchmarking. A lot of typical overachieving, aggressively Type A types -- less creative/quirky than the company sells itself to be. Ability to work on social impact cases is very limited, though it is heavily mentioned during recruiting. Most of the consulting staff seem unhappy/dissatisfied with their work experiences. BCG's emphasis on feedback (mostly negative) creates a toxic atmosphere of insecurity. Not always a great working environment for women -- some of the practice areas tend to be dominated by a very Finance-driven/fraternity like atmosphere that can be hostile towards women.
