Best Employer Experience, Except for Consultant Hustle Burn-out
Pros
KPMG is easily the best company I've ever worked for - in terms of culture, support, and training. They invested a great deal of time in and with me, especially during COVID-19, and their response to the George Floyd murder and resulting turmoil in the U.S. was incredible. These are the brightest, smartest, most interesting folks I've ever worked with. Except for the consultant grind (and assuming they offered me an internal, company-facing role), I'd go back in a heartbeat.
Cons
The consultant grind is REAL, and UTILIZATION (the amount of time spent on productive, billable work) IS THE NAME OF THE GAME. Your task is to meet or exceed the established utilization goals for your position over a given time period, which means you are CONSTANTLY hustling anyone you can for work, either externally (e.g., driving new business) or internally (begging your peers to share out their work for what little scraps of work they can throw your way - which, by the way, eats into THEIR utilization). This means near-constant BD, thought leadership initiatives, speaking opportunities, and so on, on top of the billable work you are doing. If you are an introvert, like me, this is a nightmare scenario. In the end, I was constantly stressed out about my utilization and by having to interact with people (again, I'm an introvert) - ESPECIALLY in the time of COVID. I was miserable. So, when my current opportunity presented itself, I jumped, and managed to leave on good terms.
