Pros
Booz Allen still attracts some of the smartest and hard-working people around. To a great extent, it is possible to shape your career if you are a tireless networker who keeps an ear open at all times for new opportunities. There's also a good amount of growth at the Consultant to Associate level, with the opportunity to gain managerial experience relatively quickly. After five years at the firm, I was managing a team. This is experience that would be very difficult to come by in government and other firms. The retirement match is one of the best in the contracting world with a 100% match up to 6% of salary. The BIG catch is that the company match is done only once per year, and if you are not an employee on December 31st, you don't receive any of the match. Tuition reimbursement is generous at $5000 per year.
Cons
The firm is so focused on its bottom line and return to shareholders that it is nickel and diming its employees to death. Attrition is VERY HIGH, something approaching 50%. We went from having excellent health insurance to a high-deductible plan that doubled my monthly health insurance costs. Management moved to a hoteling system whereby employees reserve space on a daily basis. This would be ok, except that management took way 30% of the available space to give to senior leadership as permanent offices. Where are we supposed to work? Annual salary increases are meager. A rating of exceeds gets a paltry 3%. A promotion gets 7% without an adjustment to the new responsibilities of the new title. Being promoted to Lead Associate is akin to a death sentence because there won't be any contracts that can afford you. Then there's the constant fear of being laid off. Two week of no billable hours and you're fired. That's precisely why employees look for jobs elsewhere as well as inside the firm when their contracts are up. There's nothing to foster any kind of company loyalty.
