Good Place to Start, Then Go Elsewhere
Pros
- Resources of a large parent company with the intimacy of a growing organization - Fair work/life balance - Competitive benefits and 401k, but not compensation
Cons
- Advancement is tied directly to who you know and who is aware of your success; if you have a non-vocal People Manager you're neglected at round tables; if you have a thoughtless on-site manager you're neglected at round tables. If your site manager and People Manager don't fight tooth and nail for you at round tables, you're pushed to a "3" with the forced ranking. Management said as recently as yesterday (4/29/15) that they are changing the APR structure, but that is the same song and dance we've always heard. -Pay is way below average; I have seen WAY TOO MANY bright stars leave for greener pastures because they weren't compensated appropriately. I keep having to hire green recruits because my top guns leave for better pay and promotions elsewhere. - If I see another person that works only in HQ get promoted over another Senior Consultant to Manager, I will blow a gasket. The Consultants, Senior Consultants and client-facing Managers ARE YOUR SUCCESS. Reward them and quit playing patty-cake with your office darlings that do nothing but look pretty, parrot buzz words and do not contribute to client growth or opportunities identified. - Compensation tied directly to advancement; only highest of the high performers warrant advancement to Senior Manager and Principal which is the way it should be. That said this neglects lots of excellent performers who should be retained and rewarded with pay and promotion, but leave to take their expertise and inside knowledge of CGGS elsewhere. If anything is killing CGGS it is this. I'm sick of seeing excellent albeit not top performers get tossed in the same compensation and recognition bucket as those that just do their job and thats that. I've had to tell two of my employees for three years running they won't be promoted or see a raise because they either didn't bring in new business or sell an ASE (which should be done by manager level and above, not consultants). Keep in mind both of these employees have performed at a rock solid "2" level, have continuously contributed to business development activities, and are the reason we rate OTACE scores of 5 every year and add additional positions! - They change CEO and management like underwear. New management team in late 2014 decapitated upper management and is starting from scratch. - During recent CEO and management change far too many top performers left; word is new management brought in own team and canned the rest just because they weren't "their guys/gals". One person they let go was someone I considered a future principal and was an extremely top performer; I was very disheartened. I am already planning a move but had I not, I would start after the terrible job new management did during the takeover.