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Rising Star
Covering for my boss today. I will be a just ruler.
Pro
Is January the longest month ever or what…?
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The benefit that no one is talking about is that there is a chance of not having to stay for longer than 6 months
Ded 💀
Do not do it. Not only is it an explicit hire and fire, but L.E.K. will make you do the lowest level grunt work for those 6 months and then fire you. As in, you will be LinkedIn messaging hundreds of random people to set up expert interviews because we’re too cheap to rely on expert networks. As in, you will be sent many slides with nothing but the most basic cosmetic edits for you to do (eg, finding logos for table sides) while the content has already been filled in by more senior people. As in, you will not touch a single model in those six months. You will not get (m)any marketable skills, and very few people outside of the consulting world have even heard of L.E.K., so the exits will not be good.
I personally think this program is a new low for L.E.K., and I advise everyone who is offered a position in it to run, not walk away.
Rising Star
Why don’t you offshore the expert interviewer sourcing roles? Why pay an undergrad $100K to do this transactional work?
Chief
Chances that OP still takes the job despite much more than fair warning not to do so?
Honestly, I feel bad for you OP. If you’re this desperate, I’m not sure anybody can talk you out of it. But please, please, please do your diligence beyond fishbowl before you join.
Rising Star
Fair. I think speaking to both sets probably gives the most holistic answer - either way though, N needs to be high enough to get rid of extreme POVs
My 2 cents as an experienced Associate at L.E.K. -- developing talent requires a lot of resources so if they are going to put in the investment to train / onboard you for 6 months they would definitely want to keep you if you're performing on par. We are so busy right now and attrition is so high that I doubt they are doing this program just as a guise for getting temps for 6 months -- if you're doing well on the job they want to retain you long term. Your value to the organization grows exponentially with experience so why would they let you go right as you're starting to add more value?
I also want to push back against assertions here that people who didn't get the final offer are inherently disadvantaged / lower quality talent. The interview process is subjective and I'm sure at any consulting firm you could fill the class several times over with people that could do the job well but for whatever reason didn't get selected in the interview process. Maybe they had an off day or didn't click with that particular interviewer. Plus I'm sure the people that they selected for this program were likely on the fence and under a different set of circumstances maybe would have got an offer.
Also, bringing on people who can't do the job is a liability -- you would not lightly hire people who have no hope of doing the job well even for 6 months because it drags down teams and if you make a mistake is an actual risk to the company in front of clients. If they give you this offer, they probably see actual potential for you to do well. We do have actual temps/contractors who are billed as such on teams and this is clearly different because people are staffed on teams as a regular Associate doing the exact same work as others (as others have commented above it seems that your teams will not know about the fact that you're on the 6 month program).
The people getting offers are the ones who have split yes and nos in final round. They are emailing the final rounders and asking do you think this person might be a good fit on a team even though we rejected them. It’s definitely not going to everyone only the ones who have strong backgrounds on paper and who were split decisions. We’ve never done this before so from HR perspective I’m guessing they see this as a risk and this protects LEK on downside of person is terrible. Intention is to hire all full time after 6 months I’d guess if they doing well.
Terrible communication. LEK should have laid out if you do X you will get full time job (such as overall score at least 3 in all reviews, no more than 3 category 2s across projects over 6 months, etc). They haven’t done that and that’s now biting LEK in ass. Also they not communicating things like your Lek case team will not know. Just terribly rolled out plan. Good idea in theory but maybe we should have hired someone to do strategy activation clearly we not good at that part.
I would not do that
This happened to me too... I had zero consulting experience, and somehow made it to the final round where I absolutely BOMBED the quant case. Like absolutely bombed it. I quickly got rejected, but then got an email maybe a week later saying the CIO wants to chat with me. I was super excited at this second chance life gave me - put on my best business casual top, even had pre-interview jitters. I got the whole "exciting new initiative" spiel - then he told me it was a 6 month long position, and I could literally feel my heart drop. I can't quite put my finger on it, but the way he was explaining it, he kept saying "I want to reiterate, you'll come in EXACTLY the same as a normal associate, the ONLY difference is after 6 months, if we feel that you're not 'thriving' here at LEK, we'll, you know, go our own separate ways". I understand that nobody knows what their intentions are, but it just felt so slimy and exploitative, like they were specifically trying to go after ppl who they knew were desperate so they could use em and then kick em to the curb. Idk, the convo just left such a sour taste in my mouth, and I'm really happy to see here that my gut instinct was right. The whole thing was super emotionally draining, and in my opinion, it isn't fair to put young people in that position where they have to choose between leaving a job where they're respected and secure for the chance to break into a new industry or transfer to a better firm but at a very steep and toxic cost.
A very similar thing happened to me as Data Analyst 1 and what is being described here. In my case, it was a 3-month internship that was supposed to convert to a full time offer if the company (HQ of one of the largest financial services firms in the world) liked my work. After 3 months, they extended the "internship" an additional 3 months with a pay raise (we had hit this massive crisis I was pulled into to help lead the effort on) - then at the end of the 6 months (when they would start having to pay benefits and the crisis had quieted down), they abruptly announced the end of the "internship." I was obviously doing great work (given the pay raise and nearly all my deliverables were bespoke pieces thay went directly to the CEO who made around $15 million/year), but in hindsight and with further research I realized they had ZERO intention of ever making a full time offer. This screwed up my career big time and set me back years - every interview after that the panel repeatedly asked me why I had stayed for only 6 months at that employer and they all obviously thought I couldn't hack it and had been fired. It still feels scummy to this day.
Please name and shame
To be fair, I interviewed with the COO to get the position. He seems serious about it and ofc there was the sales talk that he wants the whole class to stay. They seem to be overselling work so I think it’s reasonable to want to keep talent that performs
So basically, they’re forecasting a dip in work after 6mos and need temporary hands on deck to do grunt work in support of the “real consultants,” and will fire you when work slows down without severance given how the offer was structured.
I got a request for an interview from LEK via LinkedIn. It was the sketchiest thing I’ve seen and brought LEK’s reputation into question for me.
Rising Star
I believe the technical term you’re looking for is BSD
Fzck no
Yeah that is a hard no...
Pro
Don’t do it . There are other places you can go to and would be appreciated.
If you already have a full-time role at Deloitte (which it seems you do), there’s no way you should take a contract-to-hire role at L.E.K. Simple as that. Also, I’d argue Deloitte’s brand is actually better than L.E.K.’s in any case.
OP has actually stated he is at a Boutique
And I would argue that L.E.K. has better branding in the consulting / finance sectors, and Deloitte better branding outside of consulting.
If management continue as they are, I am concerned about what this may look like in future though
Rising Star
So depending on your qualifications/background this could be a pretty good play. Basically a lateral into a promo year at a strat shop with more clout. Could be an excellent foot in the door to opportunities not previously available to you. For example I would imagine LEK looks better on an MBB app than the D. 🤷🏼♂️
Rising Star
Oof. Probably bad looks unless you’re stuck in implementation/PMO work 🤷🏼♂️ that strat door can be a real b***h to open
Hard pass
OP the reality is you know as much about this program as everyone else. In fact you probably know more because you’ve had conversations with leadership about it.
We’ve never done this before, so no one knows if how difficult it will be to stay. The biggest takeaway for me would be that people at LEK don’t trust senior leadership, but no one knows how it will play out
At the end of the day OP, they’re cutting their risk and raising yours. Are you okay with that?
Take the job...keep your current job. Use the next 6 months to stockpile savings. You can do 2 jobs at the same time.
Prioritize your current job and use LEK. Also, don’t tell anyone.
Wouldn’t you get screwed in a background check lol
Don’t think this would blow over very well
Pro
Now I know which firms to avoid .
I can’t believe you are leaning toward accepting
What tenure are you at Deloitte? Both Bain and BCG (not sure about McK but probably also they too) are hiring laterals right now for immediate hire. Worth getting in touch with your old campus recruiter or applying online.
The 6 month thing is an issue for all the reasons people said above. It’s tough to perform if you’re not set up to succeed. Lots of folks here know that and that’s not firm specific, but the fact that people internally are telling you to avoid says something. If you have a choice, find a different spot.
About 1.5. I I have an MBB interview coming up but my Bain application has been in process for over a month.
I’d take it if you want to work for LEK. If you perform well and we stay busy, there’s a very high chance you get to stay. If you underperform, then you’re probably gone. So, if you’re confident in yourself, take it. Happy to chat further if you want. DM me