Smart people but poor management, dry culture, awful work life balance - Consultant Simon-Kucher Employee Review

1.0
Sep 8, 2020
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- You will get exposure to C-suite as a 22 year old - Will develop strong analytical skills very quickly - Given a large amount of responsibility and autonomy very quickly - Get very specialized in pricing, which is a pro if you're really interested in it - Get the chance to party in Germany for a week in December - Free breakfast once a week

Cons

- 80% employees are white males who went to prestigious universities and majored in business / STEM; in that respect the culture is extremely homogenous; expect to have a lot of conversations about last night's basketball game - management has taken few concrete steps to increase diversity; instead they make empty promises / vague statements that are not actually implemented - literally no support system for women, POC, or LGBTQ. There's not even an effort to pretend to care. - promotion driven strictly by favoritism; you will only get promoted if you network aggressively with partners; this is especially difficult if you're not a white male as the vast majority of partners are white males - lack of transparency from management around decision-making - terrible work life balance; you will sometimes get asked to work until 2am doing work to meet the next day's deadline only to find out later the work is not necessary - relationships feel transactional. Partners just want analysts to get the work done as quickly as possible; they demonstrate very little interest in your life / development - you will be accountable for every single second working; I had to ask my manager to even go on 30 minute walks. Sometimes the answer was, "please limit to 20 minutes." - most people have not heard of Simon Kucher due to poor branding, so it's not that impressive on a resume. - underpaid relative to competitors - overall, I truly don't know anybody at Simon Kucher who is genuinely happy working there. Morale is extremely low; most people want to quit but are sticking it out for 2 - 3 yrs

Explore other reviews about Simon-Kucher

5.0
Jul 14, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

High growth opportunity from excellent standards for work, including strong commercial excellence recommendations with justifiable processes. Have had many great moments with teams who care about delivering good work.

Cons

Fluctuating and often unpredictable work hours, but personal impact can be mitigated with some planning.

4.0
Jul 12, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Firm is growing and solid client exposure

Cons

Faster they grow, the more you start working. Starting to erode Work Life Balance

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