consultant

senior consultant

associate consultant

principal consultant

principal

Slalom Consulting

If I could give negative stars I would...

-Avoid this group AT ALL COSTS. There have been an ENORMOUS amount of departures (including in leadership) (~40% across the board). The current management has become toxic, looking for ways to point the blame at the lowest levels (consultants) for failures in bringing in work, retaining employees, and overall morale. 
-The culture has become TOXIC. Even though they tell you it's a flat culture, there is almost a 2:1 ratio of consultants and those in leadership roles (Solution Principal, Principal Consultant and up...). There is a lot of backstabbing and politics that goes on behind the scenes in terms of the review process: almost always if there is negative feedback it is never constructive and usually related to personal issues rather than professional ones. The feedback is communicated at the 11th hour because leaders are not effective in communicating unless it is behind close doors or in a passive aggressive manner. 
-There is no 360 review process and leaders are only concerned with managing up they are awful at managing down -- many times pushing for unrealistic deadlines, putting consultants in roles they are not prepared for and then finding ways to blame consultants for failing to meet them. If you request support, they just micromanage you and you end up worse than where you started. This proves that the people they promote are not prepared to manage engagements or people effectively.
-Very poor raises and bonuses, I'm talking bottom of the barrel. Expect a 2% raise and that's if you do a good job...
-The work itself is tedious and uninspiring staff augmentation. You are basically either writing SQL queries or making dashboards as an augmented staff. The people in more advanced roles usually get there through political channels and then end up leaving the firm shortly thereafter.
-You are only considered for promotions if you are a zealot, play the political game, promote the brand incessantly, and never raise concerns to management to try and change things for the better. You can have great reviews and be capable but if you don't make sure to attend the happy hours and schmooze with leaders then don't expect to go anywhere. There is no career trajectory for those not willing to play political games.
-Weak and ineffective PMs that rarely have your back. Instead of helping guide your career they are more concerned with keeping you billable rather than getting you on engagements/roles you are actually interested in
-They see it as your responsibility to get extensions, even if it is out of your control and leaders make decisions out of anxiety/emotional rather than rational business decision-making: if you get done with an engagement on-time/under budget but the client doesn't have funds for an extension (even though you get no credit for getting extended), it must be your fault; if there is no work and you're on the bench then again it must be your fault
-Be prepared to sit on the bench for a long time and help make Powerpoints
-Very disappointed in internal initiatives. Usually there are 5+ people assigned to help in a business development proposal or initiative, 1 (usually, the consultant) ends up doing all the work while the others make sure to attend every call / pretend to contribute when management is on the line but when the rubber hits the road, they avoid doing any real work yet get their name added to get their credit.
-Unlimited training budget...BUT it is never approved
-Case of a firm that grew too fast. This past ~2 years they have opened up so many new offices but failed miserably in hitting their number and the consultants raises/bonuses were adversely affected. I billed more hours this year than I have in years prior yet my raise/bonus was significantly less due to the inept expansion approach.

As with anything in consulting, your experience is highly, highly dependent on your personal situation. That means which local market you align to and which client you are staffed on. Additionally, Slalom prides itself on allowing employees to direct their own career - this means that if you want to push up the corporate ladder quickly, you may do so. If you want to stay at level and deepen your skills, you can do so. At the end of the day it's a consulting firm and you shouldn't be surprised when it feels like...a consulting firm. Days can be stressful, frustrating, not fair at times. But the people generally are great to work with and it's so. much. easier. to find balance here vs. traditional M-Th client travel requirements of big 4 consulting and we really try to do a good job of putting people first, even before clients. Again, it's all about your personal situation and how much you guide your career and environment vs. letting the machine dictate your experience. I have and would continue to recommend Slalom to anyone who wants to experience a Consulting lifestyle.

This company is not bad. However, there is a caveat - that being that it's fantastic if you are a consultant, but for any back office/support staff conditions aren't quite so rosey. They tout that we should "love our future", specifically at Slalom, but I have yet to see that manifest for a majority of folks on the Corporate side. Movements are typically lateral and they are slow to promote, if they promote at all. Most people transition out of their roles by being promoted only after leaving the company. There are plenty of great perks - free coffee and snacks, on-site gym (free), paid parking and transportation, and annual bonuses, however, the metrics used are quite opaque and there is virtually no sense of standardization, making it difficult to measure one's own progress, and additionally makes it near impossible to figure out how to position yourself for the next major upward move. It's not a bad place to be for two to three years to get the experience and put them on your resume, but the lack of organization, the multi-tiered beauracracy, lack of promotion from within, and the use of antiquated tools to manage our jobs (which are about 80% manual) makes it more frustrating than fun to work at. I recommend coming onboard if you are a consultant, but for all others beware, unelss of course you're coming in as an outside management hire in which case you'll also be in a good position.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Some good talent around cloud and Salesforce.  

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Inept Sr Leadership with a 1990s style staffing mentality.  Lots of ageism against most over 45 years old.  Each Market office runs it's own P&L with almost zero delivery methodology other than roles that are not even followed.  No real standard consulting offerings.  National organization has almost no influence over most of the market offices methods of delivery of any consistent national service offering framework. Build organization is strict but mostly focused on software product development for clients.  This creates unicorn software solutions for many clients.  

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Every consultant essentially sells themselves into a tech staffing gig.  Culture is quite toxic for those over 45 who are not MDs or above.  Client work inconsistent and wildly risky.  Lots of custom work.  

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Lots of meetings trying to get everyone staffed.  Very staff Aug approach. Not really a solutions oriented consulting house as they advertise themselves.

Slalom is a great company to work for but with some quirks.
Management has some issues. Slalom has pretty good work life balance. The culture can be a lot of fun. It is very casual. Managers often care about their employees, tend to be authentic and good at listening to their employees, but Slalom has a management problem. How can a company have Managers who care and have a Management problem? I don't know, that sounds like a paradox. 

From what I have noticed it seems like the leadership is going in a direction that is not productive to the company's future success which makes me sad.
If you are under 40, like to have fun and are already married, Slalom is a great company!
If you are over 40 and want to be a manager who leads as well as organizes fun parties for the employees and cares about their development, Slalom is a fantastic company!

Keep in mind, the company is a Management Consulting Company. The engineering department is secondary, and Management is the primary gig. Managers are 1st Class Citizens and Engineers are 2nd Class Citizens.

Side Projects are encouraged, but in the employment contract, anything you build while employed by Slalom becomes Slalom's property, this in my opinion discourages innovation.

Great place to start your career if you're wanting to do some software development. If you're not with build team it will likely be Salesforce, the Salesforce practice is huge, they have cohorts and encourage getting certs. Idk much about the data science area. 

Name of the game is being billable. Its consulting, so sometimes your skills are either in demand or you're encouraged to get certs that align with what's hot. Depending on the state of the economy, sometimes you'll spend a while on the bench. It can be to your benefit, it also be to your career detriment. Stay long on the bench and you'll hear about it. So here's some closing thoughts about Slalom.

Overall, work life balance is great. One thing you need to prioritize is getting feedback. If you don't solicit feedback from peers or clients, it can have a negative impact on your repertoire for getting on projects, and can leave room for less than desirable feedback on how you did on projects. 

Its what you make of it. There is some cronyism with regards to getting promoted, but it boils down to the work you deliver. Some projects are good, and some are not fulfilling and neither do you learn much. Sometimes the work you do might not align with your career aspirations as a software engineer.  

People are warm and genuine for the most part. Leadership means well and strive to do right by their employees and their clients even if they always don't get it right. A market system means your experience may vary. Older, more established markets typically display the older Slalom vibe while newer markets are still getting their feet under them.  Again leadership is trying, but rapid growth and the infusion of a lot of new people is causing some growing pains. Projects are mainly staff augmentation, although again, it depends on the market. Projects can be uninspiring at times. 

As a high growth consulting firm, the focus is rightly on the consultation side of the business. Unfortunately this is often at the expense of the corporate services that support them. 

This results in a high allure but ultimately stagnant environment for any employee not directly generating billable projects. Many of the management are from large local tech firms and only hire or promote people they have previously worked with, unwittingly working to create a semi-hostile workplace for newcomers. If you can make it past this period of antagonism, the company itself is amazing to work for and the people are top notch. 

They are growing fast and still trying to figure out the work division and individual roles needed to maintain service levels. Thus, hiring is slow and workload is high for most internal departments.

I started at Slalom pre-Covid and the company has grown and completely changed since then. It used to have a fun culture, you were close with the higher-ups, and it felt like those above you supported you. In the last few years, the culture has become very toxic. Everyone is always stressed, expected to go far above and beyond with no benefit to doing so except for holding on to the job. It still could be a good learning experience for new workers if you’re ok with working hard for not much recognition and taking advantage of every opportunity to grow yourself, but its not a good experience for most people anymore. Even if you are very involved internally and do everything the recommend, it is very difficult to get promoted even if they make it seem like you are very close. 

What is the best part of working at the company?
The people make this company great!!  From the upper echelon of management all the way down the corporate hierarchy, these folks are genuinely caring and practicing what they preach in terms of ALWAYS DO THE RIGHT THING!

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Being a “contractor” (meaning not a permanent employee at the company you were working with) was stressful.  Regardless of the term of your contract, the client quite often pulled out of the project which leaves the contractor hanging and the pipeline of another role was not always in the wings.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Open and communicative with advancement opportunities if you were willing to apply yourself.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Dependent upon the demands of the client but mostly worked from home and engaged in projects via Teams calls

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Consultant 53 salaries reported	$124,071 per year
Senior consultant 51 salaries reported	$145,700 per year
Associate consultant 3 salaries reported	$75,000 per year
Principal consultant 7 salaries reported	$173,284 per year
Principal 11 salaries reported	$185,682 per year

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