Q&A With PA Consulting Employees

Background check yes, drug test no.

Great co-workers, interesting work, lots of new stuff to learn.

It depends on the client's preference. If the client is ok with the consultant working remotely, then PA doesn't mind whether you're in the office, the hotel lobby, the Starbucks around the corner or your couch at home. This holds true as long as the work gets done and the client is happy with the outcome.

Smart, motivated, can-do, enthusiastic, good sense of humor. My coworkers are great team members and fun to go on travel with.

People generally like him. He's a good strategic thinker and accessible.

Make it a little less UK-centric. Most consultants are in the UK. The US is small by comparison, but growing more quickly. Sometimes it seems like they have trouble understanding how our market is different and needs a different approach to what is successful in the UK/Europe.

In the US, Aerospace and Defense is growing quickly. There really aren't any practices that are having problems that I know of.

A mixture of one-on-one interviews, usually including a case interview. Often you need to participate in an assessment day where you are observed while working on a group exercise.

Supportive/collegial -- not back-stabbing like some other firms.

Busy and quiet

My colleagues -- it's a smart, motivated, really nice group of people. We have fun and we do great work for our clients.

health care, 401K contribution, life insurance, 3 weeks vacation when you start - increases to 4 when you hit 10 years of service, ability to purchase another week of vacation each year, sabbatical, lots of others that I can't remember right now!

Sometimes challenging, like nearly all professional services firms. There is focus on this aspect of life and the firm is always looking to improve on it in a way that supports the business as well as the staff.

PA is a genuine meritocracy in my opinion. You must basically be operating at the level of the next rank before you are considered for promotion into it. You can move up as quickly as your abilities grow.

Generally busy

Very structured 360 degree feedback process. Overall scoring based on near term performance (e.g. utilization, personal sales, etc.), additional contribution to practice (e.g. thought leadership paper, presentation at conference, leading staff development activities), and longer-term capability/potential.

Usually two or three rounds that take place over a few weeks. Each visit may take half a day.

Be yourself. Know about what PA does -- spend some time looking at the website and types of projects profiled there in the practice with whom you are interviewing. Have some good questions about PA to ask. Be upbeat, high energy, and genuine.

Very positive.

My case interview

A nice business suit. While the staff are business casual in the office, it reflects well on you to show up looking like a consultant.

A range of junior and senior staff. Decisions are typically made pretty quickly in my experience -- a few weeks at most.

Not sure - haven't interviewed anywhere else in many years!

In my experience, this depends on particular project schedules and the degree of "busy-ness" that the team is experiencing. There is definitely more flexibility when the project is enjoying a small breather. When things are crazy, it can be difficult to take a few hours off to e.g. watch your daughter's softball game.

3 weeks standard until you hit 10 years of service, then it increases to 4 weeks standard. Everyone can opt to buy 5 additional vacation days each year.