Just got an offer from Alvarez & Marsal in their PE Performance Improvement group. Thoughts on the company in general, and the group if you know about it would be much appreciated!

So I concur with the culture comments and focus on billed hours above all else. I worked with their North American Corporate Restructuring and Business Consulting (now known as PI) practices. Your signing bonus is also an advance on your year end bonus and your benefits suck. But it is good for intense personalities that don't like "a lot of fluff." So figure out if you're a personality fit. But the BIGGEST turnoff is the nepotism. Not only are Tony & Brian's kids stuck running everything, but all the MDs bring their kids to work there, and they expect you to believe that they get no special treatment...

@ATK - AP has a better focus on employees than Alvarez, but the expectation is travel as required to get the job done. For shorter term, high burn engagements, M-F is very common/required. A new restructuring engagement or near bankruptcy engagement is more likely to be M-F than an established client or implementation stage client. As A1 said, they previously had/currently have a strong ATK group since the operations work Is similar. The restructuring and PI areas are much more integrated in terms of go-to-market. This may be dated information, but they used to split the bonus into two components: 1) sweat equity - did you exceed target utilization. If so, payout at end of each quarter. 2) firm discretion - firm performance, other "stuff".

I got the Alix interview through a referral.

What grade and comp?

You'll work like a dog in that group. Don't expect a culture of training and focus on balance. It is a culture that is defined by an end of year bonus, so you pound the hours and get rewarded at the end. There's not much in terms of coaching/learning like you see in the B4 - they pull from the B4, so you should know it already - so they will make assessments of you quickly. A bad first assessment from some key ppl will hamstring you forever because they don't forget and they definitely hold grudges.

Don't compare to friends in Consulting. They're underpaid, usually. But you should be in the 110-115 range.

PwC 1 I am a senior 1 at EY

$115 base and then bonus was more like 18-20% even though they dangle that 40% number out there. The top end bonus is only for spectacular years

Manager, manufacturing/operations, and can grind but don't want to. It'd have to be like $180k base with mega bonus. I really think you guys would like the menu from my food truck.

Senior Associate. Still negotiating comp but looking to be around $100k

Side note: I'm on the lower end of the experience required so I've heard that is ballpark a good number from friends in the firm.

Are you a senior at ey now? How many years of exp?

^Damn! Sounds like a strong contender for the "best place to work in" award.

Not sure on A&M, but the AlixPartners offer I got was very very good. Didn't take it for other reasons.

It's a good shop but agreed with the above, you will work hard for the money.

You will either love or hate the environment. There's no middle. The thing most ppl hate is the lack of balance. Money only gets you through two bonus cycles before you realize the 50 straight weeks you've worked without a break. AlixPartners definitely had a stronger culture based on how it grew. Alvarez, similar to PWC, is a bunch of acquisitions and creations that don't interact well together. Additionally, you have members of the Alvarez family and Marsal friends all over the firm. Nick is definitely the more go-getter of the Alvarez kids.

Additional note - your bonus is only on cash collected. If you bill 1mm and they only collect 200k, your bonus is on 200k. 401k match comes from your bonus. So take 35k, reduce by the firm stated amount (varies by level and year), then have an additional contribution added if you didn't max out your contribution, then added taxes. So you'll probably bring home ~12-15k in cash.

M2 this is good insight. Sounds like there some serious pros and cons there. A1 how did you go about getting an interview at AlixPartners?

3 years of experience

15k bonus on 100 base? Nah. It'll be like 40-50k bonus.

PwC 2, how do you know that?