Great Stepping Stone - Research Associate Boston Consulting Group Employee Review

3.0
Dec 11, 2020
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great benefits outside of salary - health insurance in particular. Getting BCG on the resume opened a lot of doors. BCG Navigator offered a breadth of information at fingertips. Work-life balance as the job is not overly complicated and the work hours are meant to be 8am to 5pm exactly.

Cons

- Business model for DRS is at odds with business model for the org as a whole, meaning there is a conflict of interest between succeeding in the role and progressing your personal development and career. - Work is transactional by nature, meaning that unless you are resourceful and step outside of what management wants you to do, you will not get any exposure to meaningful BCG casework. - The job becomes managing cheaper outsourced research firms to increase the profitability of the DRS department. Basically, you get good at creating and managing 6 research requests that you don't do yourself, but merely send off to case teams after you "QA" them. - Moving over to the consulting side is not possible from DRS, or from the Knowledge Team for that matter. - DRS was managed and run like a call center. Butt in seat at 8am, punch out at 5pm. Not recommended for those who value autonomy and don't like to be managed via hours.

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5.0
Jul 9, 2026
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CEO approval
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Pros

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Cons

Lots of hours with less control over your time

3.0
Jul 3, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
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Pros

Education on AI Fluency and access to the latest LLM models. My immediate team who energizes me.

Cons

BCG isn't what it used to be. Former CEO Rich Lesser cared about Innovation about deep IP and expertise, truly about unlocking the human potential that powers us. Current CEO and leadership trickles down commercialization message, everything is about metrics, what's the business impact, how many cases did this work touch, what is the trend. Often times appearing shortsighted. Lots of politics, lots of words, limited action from PA leadership, largely because they are unable to make a decision, going back and forth on priorities; Every MDP wanting to own something, with too many chefs in the kitchen, and not enough true clarity. Incentive metrics are broken, and asked to do more, An innovation unit is not recognized.

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