The public sector practice is becoming more separate from the larger firm, so if you join the PS practice and expect to take on a global mobility assignment, you will be disappointed. Work-life balance is difficult, but can vary depending on what team you support. Overall, PS leadership imposes an "hours over standard" requirement (445 hours as a senior associate), which is essentially what they expect in "overtime", although it isn't really tied to an outcome. Each team lives this in a different way - some try to minimize imposing on your nights/weekends, but others consider weekend work to be the rule rather than the exception and have little incentive to work smart on things like proposals and other practice development efforts. It can also be difficult to maintain the "consultant" culture, where you have the chance to work on a variety of projects and seek out the kind of work that will help you develop the skills you are most interested in. Some teams are trying to support employees in pursuing other opportunities, even if it means moving to another team, but generally people will get "but the client loves you so we need to keep you here"..so some people get stuck in one place for years and end feeling like they have to quit if they want to do something different (and many do).
