Avoid at all costs. Horrible experience.
Pros
Absolutely no pros that I can think of.
Cons
Throughout my 3 year tenure I left the company extremely disappointed with my experience. I had high hopes when joining the firm originally. I worked for a notoriously difficult Navy client in San Diego, CA in PMW (program office) 120 but left with a bad taste in my mouth from my treatment by my own internal team as well. You do not get a choice in determining which program office or team you are placed in. If you are not assigned to a team outright you will be placed on the “bench” for a maximum of one month while they look for opportunities for you and will be forced to resign if there are no open billets. This also applies when your contract ends with your client. If you have the unfortunate luck to have a client-facing role you will be in tricky territory from the beginning - most of the government clients are absolutely miserable people to work with. They are extremely demanding, condescending, stuck in their bureaucratic old ways, do not know how to communicate effectively and will demean you behind your back any chance they get. You should expect ZERO support from your Booz Allen management and leadership when you face these challenges with your client. The company only cares about keeping the client happy often at your expense. This is something a colleague had brought up during a team meeting to management in my first week on the job and I wish I had listened at the time. Of course leadership pays lip service during all internal meetings and pretends to care about their employees and advocating for the company values but it’s all crap. My team was a revolving door and I was the last person standing that was relatively new to the firm. Myself as well as some others in my team (whom are all gone) asked management for guidance and support and a path to promotion but were met with outright hostility during our annual reviews. Other program offices were the same according to stories I heard from the many people who have resigned. You will be assigned a so-called “career manager” which is nothing more than a glorified supervisor whom will do little to nothing to provide you training or real support with clients. Peer reviews are discouraged and there is very much a “sink or swim” mentality. Expect to be cutthroat in your dealings with others and play office politics to the extreme OR stay with the company for 5+ years to get promoted to the level that you want. Working for Booz allows no creativity in your approach to your daily work and you will be expected to fully conform to client and firm demands day in and day out. If you are client facing you will be expected to report to the government on site location whenever your client demands you to, with no exception. If you are located in San Diego you will be expected to report to NAVWAR in downtown San Diego which is a run down and rat-infested WW1 facility with claustrophobic cubicles for contractors. Contractors are not even allowed to park on site. Lastly, the pay at Booz Allen is shockingly low compared to the other big 3 and even top 10 firms in the country. Additionally, I did not see any others receive bonuses and the annual merit increase was below the national average for many. For a firm this large and profitable the health benefits were disappointing and I found myself spending a lot out of pocket for my health care. Most other employees I had confidential conversations with throughout my tenure were also unhappy with their experience at the firm and were actively looking for other jobs with better pay and a better working environment. Save yourself the trouble and work at the many other consulting firms out there where you will be paid what you deserve and will be supported.
