I’ve been in the company 18 months and seen three massive restructurings and then we are told by management something passive like “we know you’re tired of change … blah blah” just before another massive restructuring. Seriously? How do you expect employees to keep morale and work hard if you can’t even give them a straight answer on what their job title will look like in 12 months time? The role has been streamlined which make sense in practicality, but with this has been stripped away any idea of progression, any learning opportunities, or any real incentive to keep working. There is no promotions or career progression anymore, you might become a “specialist” in five years time, that’s if you can keep your morale up that long. The bonus has been stripped down to little money with a lot more loopholes, and we have higher targets always , so there is no real idea if you will even hit the threshold for the actual bonus anymore. The role itself feels like a glorified recruitment/ sales job. After my first 6 months, I have not learned any core skills that will drive me forward in the future. I just sit on LinkedIn all day (when I’m not in LinkedIn jail) trying to recruit people for a 60 minute chat. It’s a luck based numbers game and it can often feel like you’re working in a “corporate sweatshop” as someone else humorously put it. The relationship with clients, albeit very great exposure to very big senior clients, is very transactional and clients often look down upon the industry. I did have a lot of exposure and relationships with very very big clients so I guess that’s a perk. There is also an increasingly “American” culture being pushed on the EMEA team with things such as scoreboards and a tacky ‘win a trip to Barbados with the CEO’ competition. Yes, seriously. You can imagine how cringe worthy these quarterly town halls are. The company is stripping away career progression, learning opportunities, all the while bragging about how AI will take over our jobs shortly and beginning to fire and hire people en Masse, but at the same time they parade around a pyramid scheme like incentive of a trip with the CEO…? Seriously. I felt insulted that it was taking seriously. It’s like dangling a carrot in front of a donkey, except the carrot is mouldy and no one wants it anyway. Maybe this is a cultural thing but I can feel all of us in the London office cringing every time it’s discussed. It’s tacky and insulting to employees who work hard everyday in and out, all the while loosing any sense of rewards at all. My advice would be, if you’re a fresh grad like me who was desperate for some commercial experience, take the role and make the most of it (connections to clients, commercial exposure) and then get out as soon as possible. 12 months max and absolutely no more than 18 months. That’s even if our job still exists in 18 months. It’s low skilled and there is little investment in employees. It’s not very well respected in the consulting industry either, so your exit opportunities are limited unless you play your cards right.
