Pros
- You will get to work with Fortune 500 and other enterprise accounts. Some of those projects will be very interesting, and you will get to solve fun challenging problems. - If you are accustomed to consulting, projects frequently change, giving you variety, but sometimes can become more involved depending on the size. - You likely will learn and grow from your experience here in addition to propelling your career further then it is now. - They have competitive compensation, reasonable benefits, and flexible hours depending on the project. - Despite my criticisms below, Ahead is one of the best technical consulting firms out there and would consider working here again in the future if culture improves from management.
Cons
- In a delivery role you will be measured by a handful of things, most notably Ahead executive visibility and how much time you can bill to customers, above all else. Pay close attention to how much of your compensation is bonus based as your billability will have a direct impact on your bonus payout. You don't have control over when projects are sold and if that work comes across your desk for you to bill. In addition bonus is also based on practice margin and MBOs. - When upper management gets asked hard-hitting questions, be prepared for a good answer and no action after that. - Whey they claim "Unlimited PTO," they forgot the asterisk saying only 14 days, and then it counts against your billable utilization. The "Incentives for certifications" only covers a small subset of certifications. Lastly, "Investment in training & development" is encouraged, they will financially cover stuff, quoting upper management "You are expected to do it at night and weekends." - When assigned full time to projects, you will be expected to bill full time to that project and will not given bench time to achieve your MBOs, which likely will include certifications or learning new skills, cross training the team and additional items. This also doesn't include the other internal and external programs Ahead teams and employees try to get involvement in. They said "Work-Life Balance" on the careers page, but I'm still trying to find where it fits in the overall picture.