Among the bigger consulting firms, which ones are notorious for terribly toxic culture? I found Accenture pretty rough in terms of culture and potential growth, but I don't have a comparison against Deloitte, OW, EY, etc so I'm unsure if it's just consulting culture in general

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My experience within Deloitte has been mixed, since it’s so big, there are pockets of good and bad people everywhere

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Given I don’t have much comparison between the firms and my experience seems generic. Would love to hear your experience as an MD!

McKinsey, S&, LeK have the worst culture.

OW and BCG are the best in terms of pay : growth / culture. Bain too if you’re white

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A good culture if you are white is not a good culture

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You have to realize these are massive companies and your experience isn’t necessarily the same as others.

I work at Accenture. Was lucky to get staffed on a long-term project while I was in Analyst training. My manager there became my CC and brought me along to his next project where I met a ton of people at my level that have become great friends and a partner who has consistently championed me (and became my new CC recently). Got promoted quickly and spent most of my time working with my friends (although that is likely over now as we are all SMs which is a bit depressing).

Meanwhile my counselee has struggled to find any long-term role despite doing everything right and has yet to find a good network because of it. And he has the frustrations you do.

So I don’t think it is a firm thing. Who you work with and who you have in your corner matters, and there is some luck in that working out for you. Only thing I can say is find people you like working with and try to work with them.

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Oh I do realize that, but I think what I'm looking for is the difference in the norms/majority from people who have done the right thing in multiple companies 😊 for example, I was told Amazon is known to have poor culture among FAANG, but I'm also sure there are people there who are happy, and you also hear about certain banks notorious for being sweatshops and some for treating employees well, even with long hours! So just looking for the consulting equivalent!

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I have definitely heard the white Bain comment from other people.

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I think PwC is cool.

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I actually agree. I hate kool aid but the group I’m in actually feels like they care for my success because it brings them up too. The one team atmosphere is actually very nice despite the long hours

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For consulting I think PwC has a decent culture. I have only encountered one complete a-hole so far. I’m sure there are some bad groups though and I still hate consulting workload.

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Same experience I had when I was at PwC (five years).

I’ve generally been very happy with OW’s culture.

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In agreement with the above, WLB is a real issue at OW

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Is this because they’re understaffed? Partners are too demanding? Client expectations not reasonable? Interested in your perspective as to where the root of the problem lies and whether it could be improved with a few tweaks, or if it’s systemic and too far gone.

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How does EY get into that list lol

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I wasn't trying to name EY specifically 😂 just listing examples

It’s not the company but the people. Some are grumpy all the time and some are reasonable and understanding. Most of the times the SMs are not easy to work with.

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Determines how you define toxic - In general, I love my coworkers and know we mutually want each other to succeed. However, we have pretty bad WLB

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Certain practices at PwC

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Anyone who answers this thread with a definitive answer is wrong.

That sounds like a pretty definitive judgement

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