Pros
- Generally, EY-Parthenon people are great (especially those recruited through Parthenon, pre-merger). Nice, fun to work with. I genuinely like my colleagues, particularly at the Senior Consultant, Consultant and Associate level. - The salary is very good - We do have interesting PE projects - if you weren't working at breakneck pace on two at a time, they could even be enjoyable
Cons
- We are almost entirely a private equity consulting firm. While there are a select handful of people who get to work on longer-term strategy projects (typically in the education practice), nearly all of our project work is PE diligence. ~95% of my projects have been 1-4 weeks long buy-side or sell-side diligence. - These diligence projects involve almost no client interaction, particularly in the Associate or Consultant role. Most of the client interaction is listening in on conference calls at the beginning and end of a case. - You have very little choice of what sector to specialize in. There isn't enough work in enough sectors to choose what you would like to focus on. We're too small to develop expertise early, unlike other firms. - Double staffing (two projects at one time) is terrible. There are some "pros," but the cons far, far outweigh them. RUN, don't walk, away from double staffing. - Many of the case team leaders are weak managers, meaning staffing is like Russian roulette. (Pray for the good managers, but usually wind up with mediocre - or in some cases terrible - managers.)