Booz Allen Hamilton - what's the deal?

I work across the street from their McLean HQ (I'm at an unrelated REIT).

They have a great reputation around here, but that might have something to do with the fact that compared to CEB, they may as well be McKinsey.

where's the mc in that title?

From the ghetto....

They do a LOT of govt/defense contracting. Rumor is not as much variety in projects as other top firms. More of a body shop like Accenture or Deloitte as opposed to an elite strategy firm like a McKinsey.

Selloutcat is right. However, BAH does have some cachet with senior management for a lot of firms. Not sure if it is just because they remember the old days or what...

booz has a great culture and great reputation u will find that their OC (organizational change) does some pretty good strategy work... but it u are looking for corporate clients they have very few these days especially at the headquarters

The quality of life is very good at Booz Allen as long as you can somehow beat the traffic in McLean/DC. The work might not be terribly exciting on the gov't side and you pretty much need a top tier MBA (or a specialty/plenty of experience) to work on the private sector side. The people are great & work/life balance is excellent. If you want to continue working in the gov't sector, Booz Allen is a great name to have on your resume. They are big and continue to grow with 18,000+ employees worldwide.

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A lot of people from M/B/B apply to b-school. But working at one of those firms is not a golden ticket. There are way too many other factors that play an important part. It's not like admissions is going to seperate the applications into consultants that work for M/B/B and those that don't. Basically all the consultants are in one pool and just simply working for one of those firms is not going to make you any better than someone that worked at Deloitte, Accenture or wherever. It's more about what you do while you are there and your experiences and how well you can articulate that.

I'm also not sure that clients see a huge gap in the prestige. They tend to be a bit more leery when it's a smaller firm no one has heard of, but not one big firm vs another. They just want the best quality for the cheapest price they can get. Also, remember it's not mutually exclusive. A lot of times there are multiple firms doing work at the same client or teaming together. That's just consulting.

Solid pre-MBA experience at Booz can get you into any of the top business schools, assuming that the rest of your application is in order (ie. u-grad school/GPA, GMAT, applications, and recs). The government practices is more aking to Accenture/Deloitte where as what is now Booz & Co. claims to compete with the MBBs - the work frankly is quite the same though in practice Booz picks up those candidates which simply do not get into one of the MBBs - hence it will remain a notch lower that the other three firms until it can begin winning the war for talent.

I worked there for one very long year. Its extremely toxic as a culture, especially for women. As the only woman, on one project, my married colleague a Princeton grad, asked me about my sexual fantasies. When I told him how inappropriate he was being, he told the project manager I had accused him of sexual harrassment which I hadn't and all the guys became not very nice after that. On another project, after two great months on a team where again I was the only woman, a new member joined who had recently been on a project in Thailand or Phillipines. He regaled the guys about his triple x-rated adventures on his last project. The project manager never stopped him. When I complained, I was yanked off the project. On another project, the guys would fart out loud in the conference room regardless of who was present. Then there are the partners. Some of whom are true sociopaths. Do yourself a favor, go to McKinsey, BCG, Monitor, or some of the other Tier 1 firms that offer a more genteel culture. As an Ivy League grad, working with other Ivy League grads, I expected that at Booz. I was sorely mistaken.

Did I mention they would have work related meetings at local strip clubs? I worked in manufacturing with primarily men for 5 years before business school. I never saw this kind of behavior, even by uneducated factory workers. I've worked in male dominated industries my whole career and I fit in better than most women which is why I continue to do it. But hearing disgusting tales of x-rated escapades is considered sexual harrassment. And no, I never filed anything. I just left. It was their loss. I went to another management consulting firm and shined.

happypants - dude, I usually agree with your posts, but MAN that is some non-professional serious sexual harassment type behavior beauty is describing.

Farting out loud, fine, roll with it but shows lack of class... but talking about thai hookers to your case team? Or asking a colleague about anything sex-related, let alone sexual fantasies? that's fucked up. As a guy, I don't know if I'd feel "harassed" but I'd certainly support a woman who felt like the environment was threatening...