Anyone have opinions on ZS Associates? Just got an offer from them and not sure whether I should take it?

ZS teaches you core consulting skills from the basics. If you intend to stay in consulting or join B school, ZS has a great record of sending people to top 10 B schools including HBS. I would definitely not make a long term career out of ZS due to pay/progress being slower. Most people get stuck at manager and very few make it to partner if they ever do. I know of managers who have been managers for 8+ years. That being said, ZS is generally a safe bet if you want stability and start at associate/analyst. You will have to perform terribly to get counseled out. Though I have seen more people getting fired as ACs or Cs who join at that level since the expectation is much higher and training is bad for people joining at higher levels.

I believe in full honesty on the firm, which I feel we do a horrible job with during recruiting. Our technology practice is pretty much an after thought and has a ton of repetitive projects. As far as progression and pay, almost 100% based on your aligned space and PAMs you work with. You'll learn a lot as far as basic consulting and quality, but after a year the time and effort put into your development is minimal and the constant churn and burn begins. While there's a pretty safe floor, very hard to get fired, there's an extremely capped upside. You will also 100% work in pharma, and probably on 1 of 5 clients we do tech with.

Don't

Got several offers from other firms and couldn't be happier with my decision. Truly love what I do...but you do you boo.

I just feel like there's maybe a six month difference in promotion between rock stars and low performers, at least at a sub-manager level. And also not a clear correlation between performance and pay. The leadership states they don't want to pay the most which is fine, but I've chatted with several of my colleagues who find this demotivating. I think the firm is performing just fine, even a little beyond what they anticipated in some metrics.

Well i saw a quote about ZS in some forum cant remember "you can not find this many smart people and too few douche bags anywhere else"

I'll have to disagree with ZS1, but I'm not in tech. I find ZS to be a great company to work for. The perks are the culture of humble smart collaborative people. The downsides in my view are potentially repetitive work and progress/ pay that's throttled a bit more than other firms.

I loved it as a place to start my career. The frustrations for me only kicked in around Manager level. It's very values-driven, which produces a strong culture. And you'll learn consulting fundamentals and QC far better than at many other places. You WILL work in pharma.

If you don't like pharma, don't join ZS. Even if you're focused on non-pharma, you will eventually work with pharma. Personally, I love pharma and it is why I joined ZS. I have had a ton of exposure to clients and have (quite literally) flown around the world with clients. I don't think I ever would have had those experiences outside of ZS

While I believe ZS2 does not have quite the right stats (no one person can extrapolate their observation to the firm as a whole), it is true that people can be at a level for a longer time than other firms. That is because most other firms will let you got if you do not promote quickly. Not sure which approach is worse but many say they do not like such a cut throat up or out. I also would disagree that progression is slower at ZS (based on benchmarking and stats - not my own observations). ZS has fewer levels than many other firms and this can mean more time at each level. And most people do not get stuck at manager - the % making AP by 4-5 years is very high. My advice OP is to spend time talking with associates and ACs in person. Be sure to spend time in the office you would be joining. Ask tough questions. Be careful relying too much on anonymous board posts (including my own). When I was considering ZS and many other offers, that is how I did my research and I had very few surprises after I joined.

@zs4, levels here are A,AC,C,M,AP,P for a total of 6. Compare this to McK- analyst, A,Manager, AP,P for a total of 5. Progression at ZS will be slow because progression from Manager is highly revenue driven. Not so much at top 3. It really depends - ZS has better work life balance and less stressful but other bigger consulting firms have better progression. Note - my comparison is based on top 3. Compared to other firms such as Accenture/Deloitte/ etc. ZS is much better and better recognized but pharma only!

Adding on to P1, Chicago is ~50% industries other than healthcare, not sure about Boston. As an associate I've enjoyed the social and horizontal culture and mentorship

Curious here- what would you say the avg /hours you guys work? Also how much are you onsite vs in the office?

55-60 on avg. Rarely on site

What is the offer? Usually great if you start at associate level.

@ZS1 please expand. @ZS2 it's at analyst level. @ZS3 when u say progress / pay is throttled is that due to firms performance or what could you attribute.

ZS2 brings up very valid points.

What's that

Yeah, be prepared to work in Pharma. I'm an outsider but familiar with ZS. Very strong brand name in pharma sales and marketing consulting, but little outside of that. The folks I've come across are generally pretty strong analytically and are pretty cool people. I know a couple of guys at principal level who are pretty big douches. Also ZS has a rep for burning teams hot, but that might be client specific.

What is ZS?