Pros
After finishing my MBA, I was interested in both strategy consulting and general management roles. Bayer Business Consulting ended up being a great fit for someone like me, interested in both of those career paths. The work/life-style is similar to that of an external consultant, but because we are internal to Bayer we are afforded a great deal of trust as "members of the team", and are seen as a key pool of talent for high-level management roles throughout the organization. Consultants who stay do move up within the Business Consulting organization, but those that move on (usually after 2-3 years) tend to get placement in high-level roles in the Pharma, Medical Care, Consumer Care and CropScience industries. My colleagues are terrific, smart people, with a diverse set of backgrounds and truly international mindsets. We are also able to leverage the talents of consultants in our other offices outside the US (Berlin, Leverkusen, Shanghai, Beijing, and Sao Paolo), and each year we get together twice as a larger team for retreats in Germany. Work-Life balance is - on average - a little bit better than at a McKinsey, Bain or BCG (though it is not significantly so, and you will have some very busy projects from time to time) Really nice, supportive culture. For all the negative press life sciences companies tend to get, inside Bayer you have a strong sense that you are working with moral people who care about all stakeholders, not just shareholders. The business consulting group in particular attracts that sort of people and sponsors consultants to go and work for international NGOs (in lieu of client project work) - several colleagues have taken advantage of this, working on education initiatives in Kenya and community healthcare in Colombia.
Cons
Like an consulting role, the travel can be fun some of the time, and then there will be times when you are stuck in an airport in Calgary in the winter wondering why you don't really remember what your wife looks like... Projects tend to go beyond pure strategy to include some element of implementation. This can be good as well as bad, because you really get to know businesses at a much closer level. It also puts pressure on you to get your strategic analysis correct, because you can't just jet off to the next project and leave behind a heap of powerpoints and rubble like you can at external firms. You get a tremendous set of insights on Bayer and its different Business Units (which is invaluable experience in a corporation as large and complex as Bayer), but it is harder to get broader industry perspectives. Compensation is consistent with many external firms, but tends toward the lower end of that spectrum. If you work in the NJ office, the commute from New York can be a little bit taxing. That said, many people do it for their entire careers. Home office is not frowned upon when you don't have client meetings, and when your are on travel projects it doesn't matter anyway. There is no "Up or Out" - I had thought that was a positive when I joined, but in truth it is a double edged sword. There is a tendency for consultants who are not good fits for the team to hang around for longer than they would at other firms, in ways that are not particularly positive for the team or the individual. that said, there is something to be said for a company/organization that errs on the side of looking after its people and protecting them when it can. Particularly when I joined, there was a tendency to reward "the appearance of work" rather than work output. This creates a culture where people are trained to appear stressed and busy at all times without actually getting anything done. Over the past year, this has markedly improved, but needs to be a continued point of emphasis