Experienced hires are hired way below the level they are coming from but with a comparable salary, which is the upper ceiling for that level. Since salaries for a certain level are capped, there is very little (or no) year to year salary increase, unless with a promotion (that virtually can't happen in the first 2-5 years after joining). For example, directors at other companies are hired at a manager/senior manager level, and manager/principals are hired at the experienced/senior consultant level, with a salary in the higher range of the band.
The company heavily supports campus hires, and the promotion cycle is way harder for experienced hires than for campus hires. I have worked with experienced consultants coming from the industry that have a great expertise and several years of experience that are struggling to be promoted to the senior consultant level. In the meantime, campus hires are promoted consultant/manager positions just 2-3 years after college with very little experience and competence, except being able to talk fluff. The major driver for performance measure is the fluffiness used to produce slides decks, which lack substance. The promotion decision seems to be heavily influenced by how much you brag and show off to Directors and Principals, instead of actual performance and the quality of work. Most employees are young recent college graduates at the consultant level who have no industry experience.
Most projects are strategy focused in which newly graduated consultants are in charge of creating the strategy for large clients without much guidance from internal experts. The main goal for deliverables is often to create visually appealing slides without much substance (however this might be part of the nature of consulting and not specific to WM). The company's mottos of "be digital" and "technology at heart" are a scam in my practice. Consultants barely know how to use excel and have no idea what it means to make a digital product. Hard working consultants who have a proven record of developing digital products and are offered very little opportunity to advance in their career.
Experienced hires hired in 2021 were promised a large percentage of company stock as part of the compensation. However, in September 2021 50% of the company was acquired by a private firm and the equity distribution to employees was taken away. The stock distribution was not replaced by a salary increase or any other type of compensation. New employees lost ~20% of their compensation overnight just a few weeks after joining and were given no explanation or support from management. Meanwhile, employees who had been at the company for a few years had a large equity grab right before the purchase and became millionaires overnight.
The company laid off several employees in December before the end of the year and didn't receive a 401k distribution for the year. The company is still hiring, so probably the layoffs were just a move to get rid of lower performing employees. Unlimited PTO is not really unlimited since once you start approaching the 3 weeks of time-off a year, management will start complaining that you're taking too many days.
The expectation for consultants is to spend 40 hours a week doing client work and, on top of that, additional hours for practice/office meetings, office development, and running fun activities around the office. If you don't spend enough time doing leisure activities you don't get a good annual review, even if you were among the top performing employees among the firm for client work.
If you start asking uncomfortable questions at public forums, you are given no real answer except fluffy nonsense to your complaints and you are politely (and privately) told to not ask such questions.
There is a cliquey frat house culture in which everyone is young, good looking, and recently graduated, and only people who like to hang out at the office after hours partying and drinking get visibility to Directors and Partners.
