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Booz Allen Hamilton

Engaged Employer

Booz Allen Hamilton reviews

3.9

74% would recommend to a friend

(10,439 total reviews)
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Horacio D. Rozanski

79% approve of CEO

54% positive business outlook

Booz Allen Hamilton has an employee rating of 3.9 out of 5 stars, based on 10,439 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Booz Allen Hamilton employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Tecnologia da informação industry (3.9 stars).

Reviews by job title

10K reviews
4.0
Jan 8, 2009
Recommend
Business Outlook

Pros

#1: Flexibility and work/life balance - as long as you are not tied to a project requiring 100% on-client-site work, you daily schedule and work location are very flexible. It is normal for many folks to work several hours a day from home in the mornings/evenings to either avoid traffic or take their kids to/from school. While the minimum work week is technically 40 hours, the firm business model requests employees average 42 hours/week -- far less than the average consulting firm. #2: High quality co-workers - BAH has a fine tradition of recruiting top-notch individuals. There is a great sense of corporate pride. #3: Training and professional growth benefits - employees get 40 hours per year for training.

Cons

The continuous increase in hiring of former military members seems to be turning BAH into a quasi-government organization, where rank is still worn and recognized. So many military retirees in senior leadership positions is turning BAH from a meritocracy into a time-in-grade / time-in-service seniority-based system. This not only impedes professional growth opportunities for high-speed young professionals, but will serve to dilute the firm's corporate intellectual capital as young, energetic problem-solvers leave the firm to find more fair advancement opportunities at competitor firms who value ingenuity and performance over how long they've been around the firm. Quality folks will not stay long when told that they "exceed competencies for their level but are too young to be promoted."

2.0
Jan 8, 2009
Recommend
Business Outlook

Pros

The Booz Allen name is well respected, and for good reason. A lot of very stron employees, with excellent expertise in their subject areas contribute to what makes Booz Allen a better consulting company. With a great deal of government-related work, one can and does feel like they are making a difference at times. The benefits are great, but the

Cons

The parts of Booz Allen more associated with the defense world tend to have more of the "good ole boy" mentality. Retired military are hired without and sort of extra orientation around how a corporate culture might differ from the military. On some teams, female workers should be ready and able to brush off and throw back comments from older male employees, because the senior men are always "just kidding." The women who succeed most on those teams are handy at flirting and/or joking in return, rather than addressing the sometimes inappropriate nature of the workplace. While there are some teams that understand the idea of a work/life balance, it is for the most part not respected by management. Emails are written and expected to be returned after hours. Weeknight dinner plans must be forced, if you expect to be there on time. As with any job, you might work on weekends occasionally, but only at Booz Allen would it be a regular and/or expected occurence. Without accounting for the time. As a government contractor, Booz Allen is held to certain standards, particularly around time reporting. However, it is well understood that even if you are only allocated 8 hours a day on a project, you may well be working upwards of 12 hours without accounting for it. The lack of accounting means that when the time period is up, you will have just met your time requirements so that, if your team even "allows" it, you would not be eligible for any sort of comp time. Booz Allen has a turnover of young singles for a reason: When you are older, or have married, or have a child, you realize that your job should not own your life. There *are* some managers who understand a work/life balance, but they are few and far between. Changing teams to work under those managers could incur the political wrath of the good ole boys. Though many promotions are well-deserved, there are also those that are made purely for political reasons (e.g. having more Associates under a person would help upper management build a better promotion case for that person).

3.0
Jan 7, 2009
Recommend
Business Outlook

Pros

You really are expected to drive your career. Take initiative, make mentors, and push past the bureaucracy. If you survive, you can definitely come out ahead. Your experience is really driven by the team for which you work. My team actually has a lot of respect for the work-life balance that is almost unheard of. Work hours rarely average more than a 45-50 hour week ever. Telecommuting is still not very optional, however, and not always supported.

Cons

There is so much red tape, and so many levels of leadership. In order to get promoted, you must manage personnel so there are a lot of imaginary layers of leadership created for this purpose.

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