Poor culture, protectionist attitude towards associates
Pros
Variety of work, opportunities can be good if the right work is there at the time.
Cons
Poor culture in many ways due to a protectionist and boys club attitudes around the associates who will do anything to satisfy their utilisation targets and receive their bonuses. Lack of willingness to invest in expertise to grow the business in future, rather they take any work they can get to meet their short term targets even if there is no long term strategy aligned to it. This was frustrating in my case as a graduate working on projects (seconded in a client office) for long periods of time that weren't beneficial to my career progression Seemed to be a high associate to junior staff ratio. Don't know how it makes sense to have many associates on more than double the rate of junior staff especially while work is slim. But they are a protected species because they part own the business. As a result junior staff are expected to hit unrealistic utilisation targets to subsidise this salary of middle managers.
