Just about everything changed with the Carlyle private equity firm investment and subsequent public offering. Booz's reputation in the marketplace is pretty at odds with the internal reality. Booz Allen Hamilton is no longer a consulting company, but a large Federal contractor. In the past 2-3 years the company culture has slowly gone adrift as we focused on short-term financial results, cost-cutting, and rewarding senior management and Carlyle for their "performance" (e.g. see $1B "special" dividend paid for with junk debt and cash we should be conserving in this uncertain gov't market). At the same time, training, benefits, awards, salary increases, team all-hands, and holiday parties are all being cut or trimmed. But, don't worry, you'll be expected to be available for early AM, evening, and weekend work anyway.
By the end it was a very disillusioning environment with little upward mobility thanks to extreme politics and a misguided desire to hire "talent" externally, as is reflected in the 30-40% turnover in some teams (those are actual metrics, no exaggeration). The best and brightest who have other opportunities are sadly fleeing for the exits while a lot who are left describe their career as "at least it's a paycheck".
SO....if you're looking for a stable job as a Federal contractor, Booz isn't a bad place to land. If you're looking for what Booz is trying to sell a lot of people on...an opportunity for challenging and strategic consulting work where you'll be rewarded, I'd recommend Accenture, Deloitte, or a lot of other mid-size actual consulting firms.
