Booz Allen Hamilton reviews

3.9

74% would recommend to a friend

(10,421 total reviews)
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Horacio D. Rozanski

79% approve of CEO

55% positive business outlook

Booz Allen Hamilton has an employee rating of 3.9 out of 5 stars, based on 10,421 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Booz Allen Hamilton employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Information Technology industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

10K reviews
3.0
May 15, 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Generally good work-life balance for non-managerial staff. Decent salary. Company tries to do good for employees.

Cons

Company often over-engineers change. Constant stream of change supposedly to improve, but often crafted in white granite halls devoid of working level impact or input. Federal government is company’s bread and butter. There is no profit motive, and it shows. Taxpayer dollars flow in. Work is largely in support of giving the bureaucracy meaning. You get insight to inner workings of tax dollars. Very sad and depressing how wasteful the government is, lots of uncaring workforce collecting a check and great benefits, waiting to retire at taxpayer expense. Majority of work ends up sitting on shelf collecting dust, just check in box busy work. Lots of change since going public. Droves of knowledgeable people quit or laid off. Continuing decline of benefits to feed shareholders. Loss of 401k automatic contribution was watershed moment. Minuscule pay raises limited by government trip wire (salary limits) and contract limits. Company no longer a firm. Butts in seats is the model. Stay billable. Branding has suffered immensely and less time to invest in building new markets. Company once considered itself the “Mercedes-Benz” of government consulting, but is now a run of the mill sedan. Senior Associates (start of management level) and above panic when March comes around (end of fiscal year). That’s when annual layoffs happen. Annual headache created by going public. Senior leadership constantly repackages services to make it seem new and improved. There’s only so much “improvement” you can do in a government services environment. But they are slick at creating smoke and mirrors flashy marketing material and presentations. Sad thing is the government clients are years behind (software, management concepts, value stream, streamlining), so they don’t know better. What also fuels this is many retired military and DoD clients work at companies like Booz Allen. They have contacts. The old boy network thrives. It's not Deloitte & Touche, McKesson, or Price Waterhouse. It's DoD consulting, which may be an oxymoron.

2.0
Oct 4, 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Flexible work arrangements, name still considered 'prestigious' in the market.

Cons

Benefits cut (medical slashed in 2015, ECAP gone), training hours have to be made up/paid back, promotion opportunities cut.

2.0
May 27, 2012
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

There are some quality people who care about their clients and their co-workers. The PTO is good and the salaries are ok. The ECAP (401K) plan is OUTSTANDING...far better than any other company I've seen. Depending on the team you're on, flex time is good and some of the management team understands team dynamics and strives to get the best from everyone. Work/life balance is good until you step into the upper ranks - life as a Sr Associate and Principal becomes a work-work balance.

Cons

Specific issues are the new minimum 42 hours of billable work for your client THEN do your proposal, marketing and admin work on top. I've watched many of my peers and team members look upon Sunday as another workday to get everything accomplished. Also, the late winter of 2012 purge was handled poorly. Since the senior leadership/partners enacted the PR campaign of touting "Ralph's Bold Plan" was going to be good for the company - the company has seen their stock tumble almost 18%, and many of the Principals and Sr Associates who survived the purge are simply buying time to collect their annual bonus - then they will leave. Supposedly the firm "predicted" this and as such are poised to pay out larger than normal bonus to the managers in an attempt to retain...however, they will find they are pouring money into people who are leaving. The recent federal ruling and loss of the large IDIQ contracts (SURVIAC/IATAC) means BAH (and other large, previously entrenched in the DoD firms) will need to compete all their contracts against lean, agile small firms who don't have sky high multiples - a serious issue which must be quickly addressed. The senior leadership needs to revamp how it approaches the market, how it makes itself financially competitive, and return to the days of taking care of its people.

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